"Family Hour" was Re: [BC] HD Radio -- Folks we have to get it right!

[Alan Kline]

No, it's not the same difference at all!  The "Family Hour" was intended to
apply to the first hour of prime time each evening, which would mean the
networks.  They had that hour one way or the other.  The Family Hour had 
nothing to do with giving time back to the affiliates.

That was PTAR, which as you say, was the rule intended to stimulate local
programming, but ended up making Merv Griffin a zillionaire.

There's a lot of stuff in prime access these days that wouldn't exactly fit
the "Family Hour" definition.  Most of what's on "Inside Edition" comes to
mind.

Today, I wonder if there would be such a protest by syndicators--only because
there aren't as many as there used to be, and many of those that are left are tied
to the networks (King World/Viacom, NBC-Universal, Buena Vista/ABC/Disney, to
name a few)

ak


------ At 12:27 PM 10/18/2005 -0400, The Most Honourable Rich Wood wrote: -------
>------ At 11:28 PM 10/17/2005, Alan Kline wrote: -------
>
>>I think you're confusing the "Family Hour" (which no longer exists) with the
>>Prime Time Access Rule (which still does)...
>
>Same difference. The intent was to encourage less network control and 
>localism. Over the years it's crept into being syndication territory. 
>I remember a suggestion that the rule be dropped and hoards of 
>syndicators came out of the woodwork to protest.