ADVERTISING: An Hour Commercial?

As television viewers might suspect, the Federal Communications Commission takes a permissive position on how much time stations may allot to commercials. The general rule: stations that want favorable FCC consideration when their licenses come up for renewal should hold their commercials to just a mind-numbing 16 minutes an hour in non-prime time and 9½ minutes in prime evening time, which is the limit specified by the nonbinding code of the National Association of Broadcasters.

Lately, at least one station has tried for the ultimate: an hour-long commercial. Station WUAB-TV, Lorain, Ohio, applied to the FCC to run an hour program...

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