1976 Communications And Media

New York television journalist Barbara Walters, 44, accepts a 5-year contract from American Broadcasting Company to co-host the network's nightly news program for $1 million per year. Despite the remark of a former NBC News president in 1971 that "audiences are less prepared to accept news from a woman's voice than from a man's," Walters has successfully been co-anchoring NBC's morning Today Show. Indianapolis-born WMAQ-TV Chicago television news co-anchor Jane Pauley, 26, succeeds Walters as news co-anchor of the Today show, a position she will hold until 1990.
The first word-processing program for personal computers goes on sale under the name Electric Pencil, but PCs are still in their infancy. Dedicated word processors made by Wang Laboratories begin to revolutionize offices with work stations that share central computers (see 1974; technology [Wang], 1951).

Fax (facsimile transmission) machines gain ground as second-generation technology cuts transmission time from 6 minutes per page to 3. The devices translate a printed page or graphics into electronic signals, transmit them over telephone lines, and print out signals received from other fax machines thousands of miles (or one block) away. Government offices, law enforcement agencies, news agencies, publishers, and banks are the major users. Prices fall for machines, but quality remains poor (see 1982).