| Act | Provisions | Effects |
| Wireless Ship Act of 1910 | Required U.S. seagoing ships carrying more than fifty passengers and traveling more than two hundred miles off the coast to be equipped with wireless equipment with a one-hundred-mile range. | Saved lives at sea, including more than seven hundred rescued by ships responding to the Titanic’s distress signals two years later. |
| Radio Act of 1912 | Required radio operators to obtain a license, gave the Commerce Department the power to deny a license, and began a uniform system of assigning call letters to identify stations. | The federal government began to assert control over radio. Penalties were established for stations that interfere with other stations’ signals. |
| Radio Act of 1927 | Established the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) as a temporary agency to oversee licenses and negotiate channel assignments. | First expressed the now-fundamental principle that licensees did not own their channels but could only license them as long as they operated to serve the “public interest, convenience, or necessity.” |
| Communications Act of 1934 | Established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to replace the FRC. The FCC regulated radio, the telephone, the telegraph, and later television, cable, and the Internet. | Congress tacitly agreed to a system of advertising-supported commercial broadcasting despite concerns of the public. |
| Telecommunications Act of 1996 | Eliminated most radio and television station ownership rules, some dating back more than fifty years. | Enormous national and regional station groups formed, dramatically changing the sound and localism of radio in the United States. |