Project description: A series of nine interviews conducted about the Federal Communications Commission during the 1950s and early 1960s, focusing on issues, policies, and personalities.

Regulatory significance: These interviews should be significant not only for their reflection on the FCC during the 1950s and 1960s but also because they were conducted during the deregulatory climate of the late 1970s. The interviewees include both FCC members as well as broadcast executives and lawyers, providing the perspective of both the regulator and the regulated. Much of the focus appears to be on the regulation of television rather than radio, with an interest in competition policy and technological shifts.

Repository: Columbia Center for Oral History

Interview dates: 1978-1979

Digital access: Only abstracts. No online transcripts or audio.

Physical access: For transcripts and audio, researchers may visit the Columbia Center for Oral History.

Link: http://oralhistoryportal.cul.columbia.edu/document.php?id=ldpd_4074617

Interviewees: Michael Dann; Frederick W. Ford; Henry Geller; E. William Henry; Robert E. Lee (Closed); Tedson J. Meyers; Newton Minow; Joel Rosenblum; Frank Shakespeare; Frank Stanton.