By the early 1950s, television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3) was becoming a major force in the way Americans spent their leisure time. But there were large areas of the country where TV and radio (see entry under 1920s—TV and Radio in volume 2) reception was poor or non-existent. Many people in these mostly rural areas wanted TV. The three big networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—wanted them to become viewers because the bigger the audience, the more money advertisers would pay for airtime. Cable TV was the answer, but in the 1950s and 1960s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) restricted the growth of cable networks. The FCC feared that if the big networks moved in, local TV and radio stations would be forced out of business. When in 1972 the FCC allowed satellite (see entry under 1950s—The Way We Lived in...