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Full-Text Articles in Law
Out Of Thin Air: Using First Amendment Public Forum Analysis To Redeem American Broadcasting Regulation, Anthony E. Varona
Out Of Thin Air: Using First Amendment Public Forum Analysis To Redeem American Broadcasting Regulation, Anthony E. Varona
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
American television and radio broadcasters are uniquely privileged among Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensees. Exalted as public trustees by the 1934 Communications Act, broadcasters pay virtually nothing for the use of their channels of public radiofrequency spectrum, unlike many other FCC licensees who have paid billions of dollars for similar digital spectrum. Congress envisioned a social contract of sorts between broadcast licensees and the communities they served. In exchange for their free licenses, broadcast stations were charged with providing a platform for a "free marketplace of ideas" that would cultivate a democratically engaged and enlightened citizenry through the broadcasting of …
Drug Songs And The Federal Communications Commission, Sammuel Bufford
Drug Songs And The Federal Communications Commission, Sammuel Bufford
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
A "public notice" concerning the broadcasting of drug-related popular songs by radio stations issued from the Federal Communications Commission on March 5, 1971. While this notice could be generally taken to prohibit the playing of such songs, its actual message, upon further analysis, is more complex and less direct. This article will examine the notice to ascertain its likely meaning, determine its legal status, and examine three constitutional issues it raises: whether the songs are protected as speech under the first amendment; whether the statement of the prohibition (if that be the import of the notice) is sufficiently precise to …