First Known Communications Economist

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A LOOK BACK: THE WORLD'S FIRST KNOWN COMMUNICATIONS ECONOMIST

The Harvey J. Levin Papers chronicle the professional and civic life of communications economics pioneer Harvey J. Levin, and are available to researchers and the general public at Hofstra University Archives and Columbia Institute for Tele-Information.

Dr. Levin, an internationally known economist and longtime holder of the Augustus B. Weller Chair at Hofstra University, died of heart failure at his home in Garden City, Long Island, on April 30, 1992. He was 67.

For forty years spanning five decades, as the world's first known communications economist, Dr. Levin researched, published and proposed innovative economic and regulatory solutions that anticipated -- and later addressed -- the problems of competing rights and access to the airwaves, or electromagnetic field, and its overuse and congestion. A frequent consultant to federal governmental agencies, he was the first to propose the auctioning of broadcast frequencies as a means of utilizing the airwaves as a natural resource and diversifying their allocation globally and equitably. His visionary work anticipated the evolution of television, satellites, cellular telephones, electronic remote boxes and wireless internet, and their demands on increasingly congested airwaves.

Testifying for U.S.-Asia Institute, 1970s

Back before satellite antennas and electronic remotes were household appliances, when wireless services were something out of a James Bond movie and cell phones existed only in secret agent Maxwell Smart's "shoe phone", Dr. Levin's proposals were considered "far out". Most observers didn't even consider the airwaves a resource and likened his concerns to those in "Star Trek". It inspired the name of Dr. Levin's pathbreaking 1971 book, The Invisible Resource -- Use and Regulation of the Radio Spectrum, which revolutionized the field.

For twenty-five years, Hofstra's Weller Chair -- the first fully endowed professorial chair on Long Island -- made Dr. Levin's research and publication possible. Consequently, in 1995, three years after his death, the Federal Communications Commission began implementing his longstanding proposals, which culminated in the U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996.

"...I have many opportunities to be 'bruised'. And I'm pleased to be bruised. I don't mind at all. And sometimes in the bruising process, I hear a couple of nice things such as, 'Well, if you kept doing this for another thirty years, you might get through.' And my answer is, you know, I don't have a particular time horizon... Indeed, I'm rather optimistic. I've seen a lot of developments... And so I think we're moving, though we might be moving in a very slow way."

-- Harvey J. Levin

at the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, June 15, 1987

Dr. Levin joined Hofstra's Economics Department in 1955, served as its chairman from 1961 to 1963, held the Weller Chair from 1964 to 1989, founded and directed the university's Public Policy Workshop from 1975 until his death, and served as University Research Professor.

Receiving Weller Chair from Hofstra President Clifford Lord and Augustus Weller, September 23, 1964

He was a longtime Garden City resident and lifelong Long Islander. He was also an outspoken advocate for progressive causes, with Long Island community groups including the Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting (Honorary Advisory Board), the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, the Long Island Area Council of Unitarian Universalist Societies (Social Concerns Committee), the Unitarian Universalist Church of Central Nassau (Man in Crisis Committee), and the Garden City Jewish Center and Malverne Jewish Center (Social Action Committees.)

A memorial service for Dr. Levin was held at Hofstra on May 19, 1992. His legacy is honored by Hofstra's Levin Collection, the Harvey J. Levin Public Policy Workshop, and the H.J. Levin Communications Economics Website (www.harveyjlevin.com).

"Conservatives call for PBS to go private or go dark... With a Senate appropriations bill as the battleground, public television is facing the bitterest political opposition in its history in a struggle that public television executives say could threaten the future of the Public Broadcasting Service."