Page 125 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

114 Communication, Commerce and Power

range of corporate interests would be directly affected by the outcome
of the conference, American state officials invested an extraordinary
amount of preparatory work. According to Michael Stoil:

Adverse actions by the conference could potentially have prevented
expansion of AM radio broadcasting in the US, delayed
development of critical electronic warfare equipment, reduced the
effectiveness of the Voice of America, scuttled [potential] US
proposals for direct broadcasting satellites .... Interest in W ARC
among suppliers and users of telecommunication services and
equipment was understandably high, and participation in US
preconference activities was unusually high .... Some commentators
warned that radical lesser-developed countries would use the
concept of the New World Information [and Communication]
Order to rally support against benefits enjoyed by the technically-
advanced countries in the existing Radio Regulations. 25

Although the State Department Office of International Commun-
ications Policy (OICP) - later reformed and enlarged into the
Bureau of International Communications and Information Policy -
was put in charge of the US delegation in 1976 because of its official
responsibility for foreign relations concerning communications,
within a year President Carter opted to appoint a special ambas-
sador to coordinate the US effort. Two reasons were given. First,
the OICP was deemed to be too small and lacking in the resources
needed to prepare for the conference. Second, because the State
Department was not responsible for implementing domestic
communications policy, other agencies possessing this expertise and
holding established relationships with key private sector interests
were seen to be more desirable pre-WARC coordinators. Preliminary
preparations for W ARC-79 were made by President Nixon's Office
of Telecommunications Policy. Under Carter, the OTP's successor,
the NTIA, became the lead agency. However, due to the direct
responsibility held by the Federal Communications Commission for
domestic issues, FCC officials argued that they should take charge
of the W ARC preparations in consultation with the Department of
State. When, in 1977, Carter attempted an inter-agency compromise
by naming Glenn Robinson (a law professor and a former FCC
Commissioner) as the WARC-79 chair and the US ambassador-
designate for the conference, while also naming three vice-chairs -
one representative from the NTIA, one from the FCC, and one