(c)1991 Future US-Next TV

This is a copy of the Broadcasting magazine for September 23, 1991. Broadcasting Magazine adopted the present Broadcasting & Cable name beginning in its March 1, 1993 issue.

Link to Broadcasting Magazine archives from 1931-2002 here: https://worldradiohistory.com/Broadcasting-Magazine.htm

FEATURED STORIES:
1. Report on local and network consolidation and cutbacks in the news department (along with one station, then-NBC O&O KCNC-TV 4 in Denver, bucking the trend by increasing their news output)
2. Retiring Post-Newsweek Stations vice-president Jim Snyder comments, urging stations not to cut back on news
3. The first three nights of the 1991-92 season see each of the Big 3 claim victories (CBS on Mondays primarily thanks to "Murphy Brown" {starting the season which gave it notoriety for the "Murphy becomes pregnant and decides to raise the child without a father" story arc - and subsequent criticism from Vice-President Dan Quayle} and "Designing Women"; ABC for Tuesdays led by "Full House" {newly transplanted from the network's TGIF lineup}; newcomer "Home Improvement" and "Roseanne" {which shared producers with "Home Improvement"}; NBC on Wednesdays with a lineup headlined by "Unsolved Mysteries" alongside an aging "Night Court" and emerging hit "Seinfeld")
4. FOX's "Married...with Children" gets off to strong start in syndication; as 21 of 27 markets reported double-digit increases in syndicated timeslots; marking the best start for a show entering syndication since "Happy Days" and "M.A.S.H." in 1979
5. Local DBS and Advanced Communications announce plans that would allow local broadcasters to deliver signals to home receive antennas in their respective markets
6. FCC chairman Alfred Sikes says an increased commitment to quality and wider FCC latitude could result in a new "golden age" for broadcast TV
7. Special Report: Journalism (coverage of the Radio and Television News Directors Association convention in Denver)
8. Deborah Norville, fresh from getting bounced off "Today" following ratings declines (due to the backlash after she displaced Jane Pauley as co-host at the end of 1989), rebounds with a 3-hour call-in show on ABC Talkradio (the show, which replaced a similar show hosted by Sally Jessy Raphael, would originate from the living room of Norville's apartment in Manhattan)
9. Birch summer survey shows that while contemporary hit radio and urban contemporary are the leading radio formats; the one making the biggest gains was the album-oriented rock, or AOR, format
10. Back and forth between the studios and networks over the rise of production costs
11. The question of cameras in the Supreme Court; as while it was expected that the high court would have a majority of justices who had no problem with cameras in the courtroom with the expected confirmation of Clarence Thomas; three justices - Henry Blackmon, Byron White and John Paul Stevens (with the possible exception of White; all on the more liberal side for what it's worth) - opposed and there was an unwritten assumption that the only way cameras would be allowed was with unanimous consent
12. Rep. Dennis Eckart (D-OH) expected to introduce retransmission consent bill to the House either as an amendment to a House cable retransmission bill or as a standalone piece of legislation
13. National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters president Jim Winston chides the FCC abandoning their distress-safe policy for playing a role in a decline in minority-owned broadcast properties
14. Cable moving away from showing first-run theatrical productions viewed as possibly providing an opening for network movie broadcasts
15. The Community Broadcasters Association considers the status quo okay in terms of low-power stations; requesting mainly that the feds use the community broadcasting term instead of low-power; allow those stations to go from 5-digit to 4-digit call letters and increase their power allowances

Other sections include: Advertisers; Business; By the Numbers; Changing Hands; Classifieds; Closed Circuit; Datebook; Editorials; Fates & Fortunes; Fifth Estater; For the Record; In Brief; Journalism; Law & Regulation; Masthead; The Media; Monday Memo; On Radio; Programming; Syndication Marketing and Where Things Stand

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