ABSTRACT
By the early 1950s, the broadcasting industry had begun the process of overhauling many of its production and business practices. Radio was fast becoming more about the musical tastes of local markets and less about the national presentation of narrative. In 1952, the FCC lifted its four-year freeze on licenses, and as a result new television stations proliferated in areas outside of the Northeast, significantly altering the demographic makeup of the television audience. During that same year, the television industry established its censorship manual, the Television Code; NBC and CBS invested heavily in the construction of studios in Los Angeles; telefilm became a viable option; coaxial cable enabled coast-to-coast simultaneous transmission; the cost of television production was rising to unforeseen heights; and the television, film, and radio unions engaged in a very public battle over the representation of television actors.
