A Neglected Idea.

Since the establishment of nationwide commercial broadcasting in the 1920s, media critics had argued that the full potential of mass-communications technology such as radio was not being realized. They found the absence of educational broadcasting especially troubling. Commercial radio, driven by advertising dollars, focused on entertainment and rarely presented the public with in-depth news analysis, fine arts, or complex informational programming. Critics argued that radio could become a formidable tool for in-depth information and education and pressured the networks and the government to require such broadcasting. They were ineffective before World War II, but during the war the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which supervised American broadcasting, began a sweeping reconsideration of broadcasting's public responsibility. Because the new technologies of frequency modulation (FM) radio and television promised to open new broadcasting horizons, the FCC revised established restrictions. For the first time...