Ultimately, five major, not unrelated, issues became the focus of deliberations: (I) the designation of a standard for color television; (2) the reservation of channel space for educational, noncommercial television; (3) the reduction of channel interference; (4) the establishment of a national channel allocation map or scheme; and (5) the opening up of additional spectrum space.

     With the April 14, 1952, issuance of the commission's Sixth Report and Order, the freeze was finally lifted. This document presented to an anxious broadcast industry and impatient viewers the resolutions to the five questions.

     The decision on color came down to a choice be­ tween an existing but technologically unsophisticated CBS mechanical system, which was incompatible with existent television receivers (i.e., "color" signals could not be received on black-and-white television sets) and an all-electronic system proposed by RCA, which was compatible with black-and-white TV sets but still in development. The commission approved the CBS system, but it was never implemented because the television set manufacturing industry refused to build what it considered to be inferior receivers. The FCC rescinded its approval of the CBS system in 1950, and in 1953 it accepted the RCA system as the standard.

     The reservation of channel space for noncommercial, educational television was spearheaded by FCC commissioner Frieda B. Hennock. When the channel reservation issue was raised for radio during the deliberation leading up to the Communications Act of 1934, the industry view prevailed. Broadcasting was considered too valuable a resource to entrust to educators or others who had no profit motive to spur the development of the medium. Absolutely no spectrum space was set aside for noncommercial (AM) radio. Hennock and others were unwilling to let history repeat in the age of television. Against heavy and strident industry objection (Broadcasting magazine said such a set-aside was "illogical, if not illegal"), advocates of noncommercial television prevailed. Two hundred and forty-two channels were authorized for educational, noncommercial television, although no means of financial support was identified. The commission acquiesced because it reasoned that if the educators succeeded, the FCC would be viewed as prescient; if the educators failed, at least the commission had given them an opportunity. Additionally, Hennock and her forces were a nuisance; the noncommercial channel issue was helping keep the freeze alive and there were powerful industry and viewer forces awaiting its end.

     Channel interference was easily solved through the implementation of strict rules of separation for stations broadcasting on the same channel. Stations on the same channel had to be separated by at least 190 miles (some geographic areas, the Gulf and northeast regions, for example, had somewhat different standards). A few stations had to change channels to meet the requirements.

     Channel allocation took the form of city-by-city assignment of one or more channels based on the general criterion of fair geographic apportionment of channels to the various states and to the country as a whole. The "assignment table" that was produced gave some cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, many stations. Smaller locales were allocated fewer outlets.

     The question of opening up additional spectrum space for more television stations was actually the question of how much of the UHF band should be utilized. Eventually, the entire 70-channel UHF band was authorized. Therefore, the television channels then available to U.S. broadcasters and their viewers were the existing VHF channels of 2 through 13 and the new UHF channels of 14 through 83.