Spots Before His Eyes

When new FCC Chairman E. Wil liam Henry stood before a thousand broadcasters in Manhattan last week, what could he do to be as wastelandish as his predecessor Newton Minow? Since Minow had attacked TV programming, commercials were obviously the largest remaining target. Henry went after them. Citing a recent case in which a disk jockey was told by his station to "play a record between each commercial," Henry told the broadcasters that there are just too many commercials being rammed at the public. He complained about the "bait, hook, switch, and stuff" tactics of late movies, which offer 20 minutes or so of uninterrupted movie to bait the audience then, having them hooked, switch to double and triple commercials at five-minute intervals.

"The viewer or listener may well have concluded that the only difference between radio and television," said Henry, "is that one gives him plugs in his ears and the other spots before his eyes." Henry doubts that broadcasters can be expected to keep commercials down to reasonable proportions on their own and would like to see them federally regulated. He hopes to start hearings within a month to see what might be done.

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