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Perhaps it is just that the country's college administrators have never been captives of television's mystery shows or "Television Baby Sitter." While commercial interests are doing their best to monopolize TV frequencies, not one college has positively supported the efforts of Federal Communications Commissioner Frieda B. Hennock to reserve some frequencies for educators.
When the question of allocating radio frequencies to educators arose fifteen years ago, commercial interests persuaded the Federal Radio Education Committee to "study" the problem. The Committee studied and delayed such a long time that these interests were able to grab nearly all remaining frequencies.
Commercial broadcasting has now suggested a joint committee of advertisers and educators to "coordinate and improve current TV programs." Perhaps the big advertisers are employing the same expedient tactics by which they overcame educational demands in the mid-thirties. Or perhaps this time they are sincere.
In either case, proposals for educational television are weak without academic support. Education's experience with radio would suggest that colleges should act now to save some frequencies for education, and some audiences from insipience.
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