From WNYKRC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. Last week came the announcement that Michael Powell, Lightning Rod Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission for the past four years, would be leaving the FCC.

Bob takes a look back at his stormy tenure.

Well, the Do Not call list was wildly popular.

In teaming up with the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on telemarketers,

FCC Chairman Michael Powell can look back to at least one chapter of his leadership,

not clouded by controversy ideology and widespread outrage.

When his watch, the FCC also mandated fully digital TV broadcasts by 2007,

allowed consumers to easily switch mobile phone carriers without changing phone numbers,

and made it easier for blind people to enjoy TV programs via a special narration soundtrack.

Otherwise, he will be remembered chiefly for two things.

The first is content regulation in the form of fines against local and national broadcasters

for on-air indecency.

His most notorious target, radio host Howard Stern, self-described martyr to free speech.

What's the name of Mel Gibson's movie?

The Passion of the Christ.

The Passion of the Stern. Special appearance by Yucco the Clown.

Something like that.

Michael Powell is Pontch's pilot.

Some believe the FCC has a mandate to keep public airwaves free of indecent content, that it has to draw the line somewhere, say, at Janet Jackson's exposed nipple.

Others see the fines as a clear case of government censorship.

Stern, they said, was a sacrificial lamb.

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