Henry Geller: Fifty Years Ahead of His Time

There’s no such thing as a “new” idea, said Mark Twain. In the Federal Communications Commission World there really isn’t because someone thought of almost every great new idea 50 years earlier. That someone was the FCC world’s Visionary-in-Chief, former FCC General Counsel and National Telecommunications & Information Administration Director Henry Geller. On April 7, at the age of 96, Henry passed away. Who in their field has matched what Henry accomplished in ours? Irving Berlin (songs). James Brown (dances). Abe Lincoln (oratory). Yes, he was that prolific. Consider this short and incomplete list of Henry’s Greatest Hits:

• Viewer and listener standing in broadcast cases (1966 – along with Dr. Everett Parker)

• Opening the FCC commissioners’ offices, and the Office of General Counsel, to minority lawyers and law clerks (1967)

• Prohibiting racial discrimination by broadcast licensees (1969)

• Minority media incubators (1969)

• Banning cigarette advertising on television (1970)

• Exempting presidential debates from the equal time rule (1975)

• Replacing comparative hearings with auctions (1977; implemented 1992)

• Spectrum fees paid by commercial broadcasters to underwrite noncommercial ones (1978 – but never implemented)

• The Children’s Television Act (1990).