FCC’s Ready to Require Educational TV

NEW YORK —  Federal regulations that would push TV stations to air at least three hours a week of educational programming for children seemed virtually guaranteed Friday after Federal Communications Commissioner James Quello said he will vote in favor of them.

“It’s time for us to get out of this deadlock,” Quello said in an interview. “Three hours a week is a reasonable amount. I will go along with a [license] processing guideline.”

Quello, who previously had opposed establishing the three-hour quota, said that the FCC could vote on the measure “as early as next week.”

Informed of Quello’s remarks, FCC Chairman Reed Hundt responded, “I’m absolutely delighted. . . . This will guarantee a minimum of three hours of educational programming from every TV-station licensee.”

With Quello’s support, Hundt said, he has the votes to pass the measure: his own and that of Commissioner Susan Ness. Commissioner Rachelle Chong has opposed it and on Friday proposed an alternate plan that would allow stations to count community service as part of their obligations to serve children. (The fifth seat on the FCC is unoccupied.)

Hundt has been trying for two years to get the FCC to issue a mandate that broadcasters must provide three hours of educational programming per week to fulfill the Children’s Television Act of 1990. But until Quello’s change of heart, he didn’t have majority backing from his fellow regulators.

Broadcasters have opposed the government setting a specific number of hours for a particular type of programming, calling it an unconstitutional violation of their free speech rights guaranteed by the 1st Amendment. But the TV industry recently has been losing both the political and public-relations battle on the children’s-TV front, with both President Clinton and 220 members of the Republican-dominated House of Representatives calling on the FCC to adopt the three-hour-per-week standard.

Quello--who has led the broadcasters’ opposition at the agency--is throwing his support behind a compromise measure that stops short of requiring three hours a week but uses that figure in the guidelines by which a station gets its operating license renewed. Under the proposal, three hours per week of educational programming will be established as the industry standard, and stations that provide at least that much will have an easier time winning renewal. Those that fall short will have to explain how they otherwise meet the needs of children.

While the measure is voluntary, industry observers say it will have the effect of a mandate because stations will want their license renewals to go smoothly. Cable-TV programming is not affected.

Hundt said that the proposed guideline will say that the shows should air between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Educational programming, he said, would be defined as programming “specifically designed to serve the educational needs of children.”

Quello said that he intends to state his “1st Amendment concerns” about such a guideline, but was supporting the compromise to enable the FCC to move on to other issues. He said that broadcasters had been divided “50-50” between those who said the agency should hold off any such measure and those who said they wanted a resolution.