My Dad and Television’s “Vast Wasteland”

52 years ago today my dad, the new 35-year-old Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission appointed by President John F. Kennedy, made a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters that was on every list of the most influential speeches of the 2oth century.  We are very proud of him.

At that time, network news on television was pretty much limited to 15 minutes once a day.  Children’s programming was local and had very little educational component.

Here’s a look at some of what was on the air back then:

And here’s what dad had to say as an update.