The Fairness Doctrine, introduced in 1949, was a policy that required that broadcasters present "honest, equitable and balanced" views of "controversial issues of public importance." Like most members of the GOP, Boehner believes that the Fairness Doctrine is right around the corner, despite Barack Obama's insistance that it's not. Is the FD hidden in Net Neutrality? The answer is no! Net Neutrality simply guarantees that the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) all have an equal shot with their content access...
As someone who programmed radio stations when the Fairness Doctrine was the law of the land, I too, am opposed to its return. It was a cumbersome balancing act to present equal views from everyone, including some person who would get about 8 votes in an upcoming election. But I don't agree with Boehner and others that Net Neutrality is the second coming of the Fairness Doctrine...
10 Timeline Memories:
1.1776] Musket rumble: Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston. Hand me my musket. From the movie "1776", Congress votes on Independence.…
2.1877] Heads it’s Hayes, tails it’s Tilden: Rutherford B. Hayes is declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by Congress despite Samuel Tilden winning the popular vote…
3.1903] Martha Washington slept here: The Martha Washington Hotel opens for business in New York City becoming the first hotel exclusively for women…
4.1917] Viva Puerto Rico: Citizens of Puerto Rico are granted U.S. citizenship with the enactment of the Jones Act…
5.1923] Time after time: TIME hits the newsstands for the first time…
6.1933] Fay Wray sighting: The original “King Kong” world premieres at the Roxy and Radio City Music Hall theaters in Manhattan…
7.1939] Take your time Bay State: The Massachusetts legislature votes to ratify the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. These 10 amendments had gone into effect 148 years earlier but why rush???
8.1951] B-ball All-Stars: The first NBA All-Star game is played at Boston Garden as Easy Ed McCauley of the Celtics leads the East to a 111-94 victory over the West. A crowd of 10,094 were on hand to witness the game created by league publicity man Haskell Cohen and Celtic founder Walter Brown…1962] Wilt Chamberlain drops 100 points on (who else?) the Knicks…
9.1969] Espo ‘69: Boston Bruins center Phil Esposito becomes the first NHL player to score 100 or more points in a season…
10.2005] The toll rises: The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq reach 1,500. Sad to say that today that toll is in the hundreds of thousands, counting all casualties, according to various sources...
Music Memories:
- 1964] Released on this date: "Twist & Shout" - Beatles...And on the same day, they start filming "A Hard Day's Night"...
"WRKO...The Launch" (Part 2): (March marks the 44th anniversary of WRKO Boston. All month long, I will be serializing the story behind the actual launch of what would become one of the country's legendary Top 40 radio stations and today continues to be a mainstay in New England)...
It was March 2nd and the launch of WRKO as a Top 40 station was just 11 days away. Bob Henabery & Perry Ury were in the process of putting an on-air staff together with some input from not only me, but even sales people. Bill Wayland even recommended J.J. Jeffrey who he knew from his previous work as Melvin X. Melvin at WMEX. J.J. was working in the Florida panhandle and would become our afternoon drive disc jockey - one of the best in the history of WRKO. Some of the rest of the on-air staff was either hired or about to be. There was *Al Gates in Cleveland, *Dick Burch, who would only make it for one overnight show before WRKO went on strike, *John Rode (who I worked with in Tampa), *Joel Cash was on the air in Connecticut, *Arnie Ginsburg, who would come over from WMEX and *Chuck "Chuckles" Knapp, who was working in Fargo, ND. That was the nucleus of our first on-air staff. The biggest job was still ahead - promoting what we were about to do on March 13. **Harvey Mednick (promotion director) had his work cut out for him. Tomorrow: Part 3 of "WRKO...The Launch" (Pre-Launch Press)...*Click "Talent Pages/Airchecks/**Click "Now Happenings"...
Robert Iler (26), Bryce Dallas Howard (30), Chris (Coldplay) Martin (34), Jon Bon Jovi (49), John Cowsill (55), Laraine Newman (59), Lou Reed (69), Mikhail ("Tear down this wall") Gorbachev (80), Tom Wolfe (80) & John Cullum (81)...
Timeline Countdown: 11 days until Daylight time, 18 days until the first day of spring, 29 days until MLB opening day, 48 days until Passover & 53 days until Easter...
