American Decades

The Radio Act of 1927.

The regulation of the burgeoning broadcasting industry began with the Radio Act of 1927, which for a few years brought order to chaos. But the 1927 act treated radio broadcasting differently from telephone and telegraph communications and set up a confusing range of federal agencies with control over different aspects of the industry. During the first few years of the Radio Act of 1927 it became clear that, while the legislation had done a good job with the radio portion of the industry—especially with the formation of the Federal Radio Commission—it had failed by not including the telephone and telegraph industries within its scope,

Government Regulation.

By 1929 many of the ideas later incorporated into the 1934 act had been discussed and agreed upon by members of Congress but not passed into law. During the first several years of the Great Depression, Congress was more concerned with...