Marvin Robert Bensman

Background

Marvin Bensman was born on September 18, 1937, in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, United States to the family of David and Rose Swerdlow Bensman.

Education

Marvin Bensman started his university education at the University of Wisconsin. There he received his bachelor's degree, master's degree and in 1969 he became a Doctor of Philosophy in Radio, television, film, and journalism. Later in 1981, being a Professor Emeritus, Bensman earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Memphis School of Law.

Career

Marvin Bensman started his career at the University of Vermont where he served as an assistant professor of speech. In 1969 he joined the Department of Theatre and Communication at the then Memphis State University. Professor Emeritus, Marvin Bensman taught 35 years such subjects as entertainment law, electronic media law, and broadcast history. During the university career, he also became the founder and director of the Bensman radio program archive housed at the university and has served two terms on the board of the national Broadcast Education Association.

During his active life, Dr. Bensman has contributed a lot to discover the history of American broadcasting. His publications are widely cited in texts and journals and the web-pages on the topic are often used by teachers and students. In 1983 he published Broadcast Regulation: Selected Cases and Decisions and in 1990 gave birth to Broadcast/Cable Regulation.

Ten years later, in 2000, McFarland published Dr. Bensman's book The Beginning of Broadcast Regulation in the Twentieth Century. Besides, there are numerous chapters in various books.

Achievements

• Marvin Bensman developed a 72-volume series on the History of American Broadcasting for Arno Press of the New York Times. Besides, he has contributed a lot to the Historical Dictionary of American Radio, History of the Mass Media in the United States, the Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, and The Encyclopedia of Radio. His web-pages on broadcast history are widely used by teachers and students.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Beginning of Broadcast Regulation in the Twentieth Century

    (The Radio Act of August 13, 1912, provided for the licens...)

    2000
  • Broadcast regulation: Selected cases and decisions 1983
  • Broadcast/Cable Regulations 1990

Views

At The Beginning of Broadcast Regulation in the Twentieth Century where Marvin Bensman concentrates on the period preceding the passage of the Radio Act of 1927, he argues that those were officials at the Commerce Department who orchestrated the move toward regulation.

Membership

• Broadcast Education Association

  1982 - 1984

Interests

• radio program collections

Connections

On August 21, 1965, Marvin married Harriet. They have two children: David and Lauren.

Father:

David Bensman

Mother:

Rose Swerdlow Bensman

Spouse:

Harriet Bensman

Son:

David

Daughter:

Lauren Adkins

colleague:

Barbara Moore

colleague:

Jim Van Dyke