FCC Chairman Urges Rejection of Liquor Ads

The nation’s top communications regulator is asking local television and radio stations to follow the lead of the major networks and reject liquor advertising. “I would not like to see these ads on television,” said Reed Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. What he plans to do about it remained murky, though. The trade group for the liquor industry has decided to abandon a voluntary pledge not to advertise on television and radio. But the top four broadcast networks--Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, Westinghouse Electric Corp.’s CBS, General Electric Co.’s NBC and News Corp.’s Fox--said they won’t take the ads. Infinity Broadcasting Corp., one of the nation’s biggest radio broadcasters, also said it won’t air the ads.