public service requirements. The Blue Book specified the requirements and tied failure to meet these obligations to hearings and to the potential revocation of a broadcast license. Such a standard was never before proposed in the annals of the FCC, and hasn't been proposed since.

The Blue Book--and the commissioners and staff at the FCC who wrote, published, and defended it--faced a considerable backlash from commercial broadcasters. The backlash was tied closely to anti-Communist fervor in the United