LAUSR

This article examines Senator Edwin Johnson’s involvement with the television freeze in the United States from 1948 to 1952. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) instituted the freeze after post-war applications for television licences far outstripped the capability of the VHF band to hold stations. During the freeze, Johnson, who was chair of the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, pressured the FCC to approve CBS’s non-compatible colour system and to move broadcasting to the UHF band as a way to counteract RCA’s patent dominance in monochrome VHF broadcasting. To this end, the senator corresponded with the FCC chair, industry leaders, members of the media and the general public and also set up his own committee to study the status of colour television technology. His position as commerce committee chair gave him a unique bully pulpit from which he was able to say and do things that FCC commissioners could not. Unencumbered by pressures from the industry or by congressional or executive oversight, Johnson was not afraid to make use of his status to take high-profile stands that were often at odds with the commission and, especially, powerful interests in the broadcast industry.