Newton Minow, Former FCC Chief Who Declared Network TV a ‘Vast Wasteland,’ Dies at 97

Newton N. Minow, the former Federal Communications Commission chief, died May 6 at his home in Chicago, after suffering from a heart attack. He was 97.

Minows death was confirmed by the Associated Press on Saturday afternoon.

Minow served for two years as the FCC chief during President John F. Kennedys administration and made waves in 1961 when he called network television a vast wasteland.

In his historic speech, Minow proclaimed that you will see a procession of game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, Western bad men, Western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. And endlessly, commercials many screaming, cajoling and offending. And most of all, boredom.

Throughout his time as FCC chief, Minow required TV sets in America to be equipped to receive ultra-high-frequency (UHF) signals and very-high-frequency (VHF) broadcasts. Additionally, Minow developed legislation that opened satellite communications. As a result, the legislation allowed the U.S. to dominate satellite communications after his tenure, throughout the 1960s and 1970s. This piece of legislation then helped lead the television industry to achieve program diversity. In an interview with the New York Times, Minow explained how he believed the legislation led to the global information revolution, by allowing for the growth of the internet and digital communications.

In 1963, Minow resigned from the F.C.C. and became an executive at Encyclopedia Britannica. Then in 1965, he joined a Chicago law firm and was a partner until he became senior counsel in 1991.

In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Minow the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor. However, the ceremony wasnt the first time that Minow and President Obama had interacted; in 1988, he recruited the former President to work as a summer associate at the Chicago firm, where President Obama then met his future wife.

Throughout his career, Minow wrote books and articles, lectured, campaigned for programming reforms and served as co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates board.

Born on Jan. 17, 1926, in Milwaukee, Wis. By World War II, Minow enlisted in the Army. By 1946 he became a sergeant. Three years later, Minow graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelors degree in speech and political science. Minow then received his law degree at Northwestern and graduated top of his class. Throughout his education, he served as the editor of the law review.

He is survived by his daughters, Nell, Martha and Mary, and his three grandchildren. His wife, Josephine Baskin, died in 2022.