Opposition to civil rights
The station gained 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. Indeed, a number of station executives, including general manager Fred Beard, were Citizens' Council members. It went as far as to coordinate opposition to civil rights with these groups.[1] For instance, the station allowed the WCC to operate a bookstore in the lobby of its studios in downtown Jackson.[3] Station manager Fred Beard 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, blacking out coverage of it from NBC News programming (and often falsely claiming that the interruptions were the result of technical difficulties), and providing a platform on its local newscasts and public affairs programs for individuals advocating resistance to efforts by the federal government to integrate public schools and allow African-Americans to vote. It also preempted NBC programs that even mildly referred to racial justice or featured African-American actors prominently.[3] In 1955, when civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall—later appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court—appeared on The Today Show, WLBT interrupted the interview, putting up a sign that said, "Sorry, Cable Trouble."[4] Beard later declared he had pulled the interview, saying that television networks had become instruments of "Negro propaganda".[5]
Owners and staffers at several other television stations in the South did not like network coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, including WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Alabama, WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, and WUSN-TV (now WCBD-TV) in Charleston, South Carolina. Although some Southern stations severed their ties with their networks in order to prevent being forced to air coverage of the movement (WRAL and WUSN both switched from NBC to ABC in 1962), WLBT kept its affiliation with NBC, even though that network historically had an extremely low tolerance towards local preemptions at the time.[3] Indeed, many NBC stars, like Bonanza's Michael Landon and 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—along with civil rights groups and the work of Rev. Everett Parker of the United Church of Christ (UCC)—sent numerous petitions to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to complain of WLBT's flagrant bias.[5][4] The FCC issued several warnings to Lamar, but these went unheeded. Finally, in 1964, Rev. Parker and the UCC's Office of Communication formally petitioned the FCC to revoke WLBT's license. The FCC ruled that the petitioners had no standing because they had no economic interest in the station or were not subject to electronic interference from WLBT's signal. The UCC appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In 1966, the court, in an opinion by Warren Burger, later to become Chief Justice of the United States, ruled that the public had the right to take part in FCC hearings in order to protect the public interest.[5]
By this time, WLBT had taken a few steps to change its segregationist image. It had fired Beard, hired some black announcers and began airing black church services.[5] At a new hearing held in 1967, the FCC again ruled in favor of Lamar. The UCC again appealed to the Appeals Court, which found Lamar's record to be beyond repair and ordered the FCC to revoke Lamar's license in 1969. Lamar appealed, but lost in 1971.[6] 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.
While hearings were held for a permanent licensee, WLBT's license was transferred to Communications Improvement, Inc.—an integrated, non-profit group that promised to make the station a beacon of tolerance, on June 14, 1971, at 3 a.m.[7][8] 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. However, it retained the WLBT callsign and claimed the original station's history as its own. It retained the NBC affiliation and most of its employees, and also donated revenue to charities.[9][3]
In 1973, the FCC was asked to revoke WLBT's broadcast license because the station's largest shareholder, William Mounger, also served as a Jackson Academy Vice President.[10] The FCC filing stated that, since Mounger was affiliated with a segregation academy, he was not fit to hold a broadcast license.[10][11] In 1974, the FCC rejected the complaint on the grounds that the complaint was untimely since the evidence of Mounger's association with the school and the school's discriminatory practices was available from at least 1969.[12]
WLBT today
WLBT was one of the first television stations in the South to devote a significant block of airtime and dedicated personnel to the production of local investigative, documentary-style news—these blocks typically aired during off-network hours. Probe was a 30-minute program that aired weekly. It garnered numerous awards, including a George Foster Peabody award in 1976 for a segment called "Power Politics in Mississippi".[13]
As the hearings dragged out through the 1970s, the five competing groups concluded that nothing was to be gained from further proceedings. They merged as TV-3, Inc., a consortium with Blacks holding controlling interest and headed by a majority-Black board. The merged group was awarded the license in late 1979,[5] and took control of the station on January 9, 1980. In 1984, Civic Communications, one of the five groups that won the full license, bought out its partners and became sole owner of the station. Frank Melton, who later became mayor of Jackson, became CEO.
From 1982 to 1991, the station operated a low-power satellite in Meridian, Mississippi, WLBM; that station is now a stand-alone station, WGBC.
In 2000, Melton sold the station to Liberty Corporation.
