On May 9th, 1961, a still-celebrated speech rocked the world of broadcast television. In it, FCC Chairman Newton Minow zeroed in on television's vapid programming landscape, and the words "vast wasteland" became a contemporary catchphrase. More from WNYC's Sara Fishko in this edition of Fishko Files. 

Newton Minow told broadcasters that they might lose their licenses if they didn't improve the content of their television. Hollywood producer Sherwood Schwartz felt that Minow was interfering with broadcasters. To rib Minow, Schwartz named the ill-fated boat on his show, Gilligan's Island, the S.S. Minnow.

Minow and Public Television

Newton Minow played a major role in the creation of Public Television in the United States. Channel 13 in New York began in the 1940s as a Commercial Television station with a cultural bent. After going through several owners, Channel 13 was put on the market in 1961. Minow and a number of interested broadcasting colleagues got together to help Channel 13 make the transition from a Commercial Television station to a Public Television station. 

One day I read in the paper that Channel 13 was being sold. And there was a group of people in New York --  particularly led by some of the foundations --  that were trying to buy it and make it into an educational station. And I decided then and there that we were going to help them, and then we did. And Channel 13 became an educational station. And we did the same thing in Los Angeles, the same thing in Washington. And without those three we would never have had a national system. My main goal was to expand choice. To let the viewer have a wider range of programming. And that’s why we created, really, public television. By expanding choice it seemed to me that was the best role for the government.  

Channel 13’s first day as a Public Television station was September 16, 1962. Edward R. Murrow introduced the first broadcast.

Mike Dann – then a programming executive at CBS -- remembers Minow’s role in Public Television.

I think he was a great advocate of it. And made broadcasters and the public conscious of the difference between PBS and the broadcast networks. There was a sense of dignity. We didn’t have public broadcasting practically at all at the start. There was none. It wasn’t until a number of us banded together and helped start channel 13 in New York. I think he helped make public broadcasting more important. 

Jack Gould

Newton Minow cited Jack Gould as a major influence: "At the time [of the FCC appointment] I had been deeply influenced by a television critic named Jack Gould, who was the television critic for the New York Times. He was writing very often about the failure, as he perceived it, of the FCC to uphold the public interest in regulating broadcasting. And I went to the FCC with his message very much in my mind."

From 1948 to 1972, Jack Gould was the head television reporter and critic for the New York Times. Gould’s columns were devoured by television executives. And because he worked with the Times as television critic for so long – from TV’s beginnings to its installation as a cultural mainstay -- even these selected article titles show the progression of the medium, in just his first few years on the job (Excerpted from Watching Television Come of Age, by Jack Gould).

1. “Matter of Form: Television Must Develop Own Techniques If It Is To Have Artistic Vitality, October 31, 1948”
2. “Edward R. Murrow’s News Review ‘See It Now’ Demonstrates Journalistic Power of Video, November 19, 1951”
3. “Celebrity Time: Murrow Puts Camera into Their Homes in ‘Person to Person,’ October 7, 1953”
4. “Man on the Street: The Public Often Can Outshine TV Stars, August 14, 1955”

For more from the people heard in this episode of Fishko Files…

1. Newton Minow is a lawyer living in Chicago. He writes often – his most recent article, on the 50^th anniversary of his speech, appeared in The Atlantic.
2. Mike Dann’s book about his years in television, As I Saw It: The Inside Story of the Golden Years of Television, is available here.
3. Thomas Doherty is a professor of American studies at Brandeis University. One of his books is Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture.
4. Mary Ann Watson wrote The Expanding Vista: American Television in the Kennedy Years.

This is the final edition of Fishko Files at WNYC. The episodes will live online and in the WNYC archives. You can find more extended Fishko work on our website.

Fishko Files with Sara Fishko

Associate Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann

Tomorrow, May 1st, marks the 90th anniversary of the opening of the Empire State Building. As WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us, the building's rise to its 102-story height is only one of the ways it towered over all the rest. More, in this episode of Fishko Files.

John Tauranac's book The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark is available online.

John Alden Carpenter's Skyscrapers is available on Amazon.

Fishko Files with Sara Fishko

Associate Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann

In honor of this weekend's Oscars: WNYC's Sara Fishko with this Fishko Files from the archive, filled with the award-winning voices of some of the great women of Hollywood's Golden Age. (Produced in 2013)

Fishko Files with Sara Fishko

Assistant Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann

In honor of April, National Poetry Month, WNYC's Sara Fishko asks the question: what's the connection between poets' speaking voices, and the poems they create? (Produced in 2012)

Fishko Files with Sara Fishko

Assistant Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann

The celebrated children's tale with music, Peter and the Wolf - as WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us - was first heard in Moscow in the spring of 1936, an ominous time in the Soviet Union. Everywhere it went after that, it thrilled a listenership of kids. More, in this episode of Fishko Files.

Walt Disney and Sergei Prokofiev met in Hollywood in 1938. Later, Disney made this promotional film about their meeting. (The man at the piano is an actor, not Prokofiev)

Peter and the Wolf showcased some of the great voices and orchestras of the 20th century. See a list of some of the recordings used in Fishko Files, below. 

Peter and the Wolf(s)

1. Koussevitzky Conducts Prokofiev: Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky, conductor, Richard Hale, narrator.  Pearl 1991. (recorded 1939)
2. Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky, conductor, Eleanor Roosevelt, narrator. Listen to the recording here. (Recorded 1950)
3. Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Mario Rossi, conductor, Boris Karloff, narrator. Vanguard, 1992. (Recorded 1957)
4. Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Sir Eugene Goossens, conductor, Jose Ferrer, narrator. MCA, 1989. (Recorded 1959)
5. Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York, Leopold Stokowski, conductor, Bob Keeshan, narrator. Everest, 1997.
6. Academy of London, Richard Stamp, conductor, John Gielgud, narrator. Virgin, 1989. (Recorded 1989)
7. Orchestra of St. Luke’s, James Levine, conductor, Sharon Stone, narrator. DG, 2001. (Recorded 2001)
8. The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, conductor, David Bowie, narrator. RCA, 1978. (Recorded 1978)
9. New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, conductor and narrator. Sony, 1998. (Recorded 1960)
10. Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta, conductor, Itzhak Perlman, narrator. EMI, 1996. (Recorded 1986)

Other music by Prokofiev used in this episode

1. Romeo and Juliet, excerpt from Suite #2 Op. 64 C. Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Armin Jordan, conductor. Erato, 1992.
2. Sonata #6, excerpt from 1^st movement, Sviatoslav Richter. Philips Classics, 1998.
3. Winter Bonfire, Op. 122, excerpt from “Departure.” The New London Orchestra. Ronald Corp, conductor. Hyperion, 1991.

To see a selection of Peter and the Wolf album covers from the WNYC Archives, visit NYPR Archives & Preservation.

Fishko Files with Sara Fishko

Assistant Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann

When we produced a feature on the celebrated Leonard Bernstein concert-broadcasts known as the Young People's Concerts (1958-1972), we were thrilled to find Roger Englander, the celebrated producer and director of the broadcasts, still alive. The interview is contained in this Fishko Files, which we replay in honor of Englander - who died recently at the age of 94. 

Read more on Roger Englander’s life and work in his englander-dead.html" title="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/arts/music/roger-englander-dead.html">New York Times obituary.

Fishko Files with Sara Fishko

Assistant Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Bill MossEditor: Karen Frillmann

The tradition of siblings singing together is as old as song. WNYC’s Sara Fishko looks at brothers, sisters, and sibling harmony in this edition of Fishko Files. (Produced in 2001)

Fishko Files with Sara Fishko

Assistant Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann

A hundred years ago, as WNYC’s Sara Fishko tells us, a popular song appeared at a time similar to our own - when people desperately wanted to 'move on' from crisis. In this episode of Fishko Files, the unsentimental resolve of the song "There’ll Be Some Changes Made."

Fishko Files with Sara Fishko

Assistant Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann

Michael Rabin, who lived from 1936 to 1972, was a midcentury, classical music phenomenon - a genuine violin prodigy, concertizing as a teenager and, later, stumbling in his career and his life. In this archival Fishko Files, WNYC's Sara Fishko talks to Itzhak Perlman to sort out Rabin's tragic story and his phenomenal playing. (Produced in 1999)

James M. Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) was adapted for the movies seven times. The most celebrated version was released 75 years ago, when Cain was on a roll - with three film adaptations made from his books in quick succession in the mid 1940s. WNYC's Sara Fishko and guests investigate the appeal of Cain's film noir-friendly style. (Produced in 2011)

Fishko Files with Sara Fishko

Assistant Producer: Olivia BrileyMix Engineer: Wayne ShulmisterEditor: Karen Frillmann