Table : TABLE 5.1 MAJOR ACTS IN THE HISTORY OF U.S. RADIO
ActProvisionsEffects
Wireless Ship Act of 1910Required 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 1912Required 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 1927Established 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 1934Established 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 1996Eliminated 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.