[BC] Fairness doctrine by another name? aka censorship?

[Gary Peterson]

I DJed/engineered for a small market (60K people) top 40 back in the late
60s and early 70s.  At one time, the station was airing news items (mostly
from UPI) regarding a hotly-contested, proposed nuclear facility in the
area.  The station was clobbered with "equal time" requests.  This dragged
on for several months.  After the dust settled, the owner/manager issued an
edict that the station would no longer become embroiled in controversial
issues.  After that, newscasts dealt with traffic fatalities, homecoming
parades, ribbon cuttings, octogenarian birthdays and agricultural market
reports (hog scores).  The Sunday morning local public affairs program
became an aural analog of Pablum.  I don't know how common this problem was
elsewhere, but it sure had a chilling effect at this station. IIRC, license
renewal came every three years, with ascertainment, the submission of the
"composite week" of program logs, etc.  

Gary  

" But the fear it generated in especially small-market stations was that if
the station advocated for any controversial issue, anyone could come in and
demand "equal time", and if the station refused, it could be challenged at
the next license renewal time (and back then, license renewal was every 2
years IIRC).
Jerry Mathis "