- Date:
- February 23, 1927
- Location:
- United States
- Context:
- Federal Radio Commission
- Key People:
- Herbert Hoover
Radio Act of 1927
The Radio Act of 1927 was signed into law by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge on February 23, 1927, and is considered to be the foundation of broadcast regulation in the United States. The impetus for the legislation was to provide greater control and oversight of the fast-growing wireless communications industry. In the 1920s, the growth of commercial radio stations in the United States was dramatic. Yet little direction existed for how frequencies were assigned and the strength of the signals used by broadcasters. As a result, the American airwaves were unregulated, and interference was rampant. Additionally, congressional leaders and vocal citizens believed the airwaves to be an important national public resource and, in an effort to protect them from unregulated exploitation, exerted pressure to have the airwaves placed under greater federal control. A series of conferences were held throughout the 1920s to explore the issue.
Under the direction of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, Senator Clarence Dill, and Congressman Wallace H. White, the Radio Act of 1927 was proposed and approved. The bill created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) and empowered it to oversee federal control of the airwaves. The new commission required broadcasters to apply for broadcast licenses, assigned frequencies, ensured the equal distribution of radio signals, and regulated the hours stations could broadcast. This law was the first expansive effort by the U.S. federal government to regulate the radio airwaves and cemented the belief that the radio airwaves are a public resource.
Overview
By the mid-1920s, the rise of American industry and the growing interest in radio broadcasting alarmed some within the congressional ranks, especially Senator William Borah and Representative Wallace H. White. They believed that the airwaves, because of the limited electromagnetic spectrum, belonged in the public domain and therefore should be regulated as a public resource. There was a concern that the growing power of American business was exploiting radio for corporate interests and building a tightly controlled monopoly. As well, the absence of regulation created a chaotic environment. There was insufficient control over station call letters, how licenses were assigned, and on what frequencies the radio stations operated. A previous effort, the Radio Act of 1912, attempted to provide some order; however, the government’s authority was challenged by court decisions, and the legislation eventually disintegrated. Federal regulators had little control over who broadcast and where on the radio dial content was offered. Any amateur broadcaster, station, or ownership group could apply for, and obtain, a license to broadcast. The limited oversight led to a tumultuous environment as different entities competed for radio frequencies.
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Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce under President Coolidge, sought to provide structure and oversight to the growing medium. In early 1922, Hoover called a conference that included congressional members, representatives from commercial radio, and amateur broadcasters. The purpose of the conference was to address necessary regulatory changes. Hoover’s opening remarks reinforced the notion that the radio airwaves are a public entity and that the meeting would address radio’s rapid growth. Hoover wanted the government to determine who could use the airwaves, how that determination would be made, and for what purpose the airwaves could be used.
At the end of the three-day conference, Hoover prepared a bill that was distributed to congressional representatives for their approval, but it ultimately failed to gain a foothold. The bill was rejected because of a lack of industry support, a disinterested Senate, and a provision that placed full regulatory control into the hands of a single entity: the Secretary of Commerce. Congress was concerned that one person, susceptible to political and other influences, would have too much influence in shaping radio’s growth.
Undeterred by the setback, Hoover called a second conference, and when attendees realized that more time was needed to shape legislation, a third conference was held. Again, the proposed bill from those efforts did not muster the necessary votes in Congress. At the conclusion of a fourth conference in 1925, Hoover presented legislators with a newly refined radio policy, and two years later, Congress finally passed the Radio Act of 1927, which endorsed the policy developed by Hoover, White, and Dill.
The Act delineated dramatic changes regarding how radio airwaves would be regulated and established the precedent for how the communications industry would be governed in the United States. The most considerable change was removing regulatory authority over radio from the Department of Commerce, where it had resided since 1912; instead, the bill created a new independent federal commission called the FRC and transferred all regulatory oversight to it. The FRC was composed of five individuals, who were appointed by the U.S president and represented five geographic zones within the United States. Congress believed that this would help ensure that the interests of all areas of the country were equally represented; furthermore, by expanding the commission to five individuals, the Act provided safeguards against a single authority controlling radio.
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The Act also officially elucidated the commission’s mandate: ensure that the radio airwaves serve the public interest. However, the term public interest remained vague and open to interpretation. A clause in the Act required that broadcasters applying for licenses agree to serve the “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” While the commission was given no official power of censorship over content, it interpreted this clause to mean that programming could not include obscene or indecent content or profane language. The Act also contained a provision that equal airtime be granted to political candidates seeking office, which eased fears that radio would become a political weapon. If a broadcaster agreed to these stipulations, and could then consistently prove it met the standards, the FRC assigned or renewed a frequency for the licensee and largely allowed the station to operate with little oversight. If licensees failed to meet the public interest standard, the FRC had the authority to revoke the license, although it was rare that this occurred.
The Act did not address important areas that would soon come under scrutiny: chain broadcasting and advertising content. Chain broadcasting, or networks, was growing in strength. The National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and later Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) began accumulating affiliates and increasing distribution avenues for their programming. Some in congressional leadership feared that the growth of radio networks would create a monopoly by dominating the industry, stifle radio localism, and influence legislation—thereby limiting the public interest provision. They sought government intervention; however, the FRC had little direction or authority to stop these organizations from expanding. The other major limitation included a lack of clear guidelines for advertisements broadcast on the public airwaves. While in its infancy, radio advertising was seen as an influential funding source for publicity and persuasion. Concern grew over the effect of radio ads on audiences, yet clear standards never emerged in the Act.
In 1928, just a year after the bill’s passing, the FRC implemented a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting by issuing General Order 40. The provision—driven by the need to reduce interference from far-reaching signals at night and the desire to provide nationwide coverage in case of national emergency—separated the 96 available frequencies into a tiered frequency structure. At the top were the most powerful stations, called clear channels. These stations were assigned prominent call signs and allowed to operate on the most powerful frequencies, giving them significantly greater range and market penetration. Only 40 clear channels were assigned, so they would not interfere with each other, and they were allowed to broadcast at night. The clear channels were assigned by region so that every part of the country was equitably represented. The second and third tiered stations were smaller regional and local frequencies. They were often restricted to daytime hours and lower power frequencies.
Also in 1928 the Davis Amendment was added as a modification to the Radio Act of 1927. It was intended to ensure equal distribution of radio signals across the five geographic zones since the East Coast and other larger population centers had a higher concentration of stations.
Legacy
The Radio Act of 1927 was an important benchmark in mass communication policy, signaling the first sweeping communications regulation in the United States. It designated a federal regulatory commission to oversee radio communications and gave it the authority to bring order to what had been a chaotic patchwork of radio signals. The Act’s most important contribution was that it helped codify the airwaves as a public resource and provided programming standards that could be enforced.
The Act laid the foundation for federal oversight over the medium and reinforced the airwaves as a public commodity. It failed to address growing issues facing the medium, however. Further, the governing commission was plagued by a turbulent relationship with Congress. The Act faced complaints about partisanship, unfair license allocation, and limited authority. In 1928, just a year after the Act was passed, Congress imposed the Davis Amendment, which called for more equality in the distribution of licenses to geographical regions.
Congress overhauled the regulation of radio with the Communications Act of 1934, which eliminated the FRC and in its place instituted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and added to its responsibilities the regulation of not just radio but all telecommunications and the burgeoning television industry. That bill would serve as the governing document for communications regulation for the next 62 years, until the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Nevertheless, the framework on which all U.S. telecommunications bills have been built rests upon the foundation laid by the Radio Act of 1927.
The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.