Frederick Ford, Ex-FCC Chief, Dies

Frederick W. Ford, 76, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in the final months of the Eisenhower Administration--an embattled period in that agency’s history--has died of cancer, the FCC announced.

Ford, of Alexandria, Va., served on the commission from 1957 until 1964 and was appointed chairman in March, 1960. President Dwight D. Eisenhower made the appointment after FCC Chairman John D. Doerfer resigned under fire for accepting a yacht trip from a broadcaster.

A Republican, Ford was replaced as chairman at the start of the Kennedy Administration but remained a member of the FCC.

He was reappointed as a commissioner by President Lyndon B. Johnson but resigned before the end of his second term to become president of the National Community Television Assn.

During his tenure at the FCC, the commission wrestled with the beginnings of communications satellites, pay TV and the now-lucrative cable TV industry. It also resumed vigorous enforcement of broadcast regulations, including the investigation of record company payments to disc jockeys in return for playing their songs on the air.

He had practiced law in Washington since 1970.

Ford, who died Saturday, was born in Bluefield, W. Va., and started his federal civilian career in 1939. He worked in various staff positions at the FCC, then became an assistant deputy attorney general at the Justice Department before being appointed to the FCC.