Lamar Broadcasting (WLBT, Jackson, Mississippi) was one of two TV stations in mid-Mississippi in the early 1960s. Its ownership was not subtle in its racism.
from Wikipedia:
[quote]The station (WLBT, NBC-3, Jackson, Mississippi)attained notoriety for its aggressive support of racial segregation in Mississippi in the 1950s and 1960s. Lamar had close ties to the state's white political and business elite and with segregationist groups, such as the White Citizens' Council. It went as far as to coordinate opposition to civil rights with these groups. For instance, the station allowed the WCC to operate a bookstore in the lobby of its studios in downtown Jackson. and the station manager editorialized on the air against the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi in 1962, arguing that states should determine who should and should not be allowed to attend their schools.
For the most part, the station ignored the Civil Rights movement, cutting out coverage of it from the NBC News feed (largely by pretending that technical problems were the cause of interruptions). It also pre-empted NBC programs that even mildly referred to racial justice or featured African American actors prominently. At the same time, it provided a platform on its local newscasts and public affairs programs for individuals advocating resistance to efforts by the federal government to enable African Americans to vote and gain access to basic amenities such as non-segregated public schools.
Many television stations in the South felt chagrin at network coverage of the Civil Rights movement, especially WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Alabama and WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina. Although some Southern stations severed their ties with their networks in order to prevent being forced to air coverage of the movement, Channel 3 kept its affiliation with NBC, even though that network historically had an extremely low tolerance towards local pre-emptions at the time. Indeed, many NBC stars, like Bonanza's Pernell Roberts, were speaking out on behalf of civil rights. This was largely because WLBT's only competition was CBS affiliate WJTV, a situation that lasted until 1970, when the market picked up a full-time ABC affiliate in WAPT.
Over the years, NBC, civil rights groups and the United Church of Christ (represented locally by the Woodworth Chapel at nearby Tougaloo College) sent numerous petitions to the Federal Communications Commission to complain of WLBT's flagrant bias. The FCC issued several warnings to Lamar, but these went unheeded. The issue was contested in court, with the United States courts of appeals, in an opinion written by Warren Burger, forcing the FCC to revoke the station's license in 1969. Lamar appealed, but lost in 1971. That June, control of the station was given to a bi-racial, non-profit foundation called "Communications Improvement, Inc." The group promised to make the station a beacon of tolerance. While most WLBT employees were retained, a new group of managers, including some of the first African American television executives in the South, recreated the station as a far more neutral news source.
To this day, WLBT remains one of only two television stations that has ever lost its license for violating FCC regulations on fairness. The other station, WJIM-TV (now WLNS-TV) in Lansing, Michigan, had its license reinstated on appeal. [/quote]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WLBT
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