Brandon HendrickIt was early February 2004 and barely a week into my tenure as editor in chief of Broadcasting & Cable when I first got to see the power of the venerable trade publication in action. Word had surfaced that Comcast was making a hostile $51 billion bid to acquire Disney, and only minutes later, it was B&C’s star reporter John Higgins who had a direct line to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and his lieutenants as they crisscrossed the country on the corporate jet to rally support from the financial community.
The bid failed in the end, but the terrific cover story in that week’s issue made sure Comcast’s ambitions (fulfilled years later, when it successfully acquired NBCUniversal) were part of the historical record on corporate media ownership. And that exemplified B&C’s vital role as a chronicler and occasional watchdog for what remains the most dynamic and consequential industry of the past century.
Broadcasting (as it was originally known) began publication on Oct. 15, 1931, after its legendary founder, Sol Taishoff, had decided that the radio industry needed “its own Editor & Publisher,” the must-read trade publication of the newspaper business. According to those who knew him, Taishoff had both a sense of humor and an unshakeable belief in the First Amendment. Although accounts that he had trademarked the tagline “The Magazine of the First Amendment” may be apocryphal, he undoubtedly led his enterprise in that spirit, insisting that all perspectives had a voice.
