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The growing concentration of power in the network and affiliate system raised a red flag for government leaders. Throughout the 1920s to early 1940s, lawmakers would enact many regulations aimed at regaining control over the industry. In particular, by the late 1920s, the government had become alarmed by RCA/NBC’s growing influence over radio content. Moreover, as radio moved from narrowcasting to broadcasting, battles among various players over issues such as more frequency space and less channel interference heated up. Manufacturers, engineers, station operators, network executives, and the listening public demanded action to address their conflicting interests. Many wanted more sweeping regulation than the simple licensing function granted under the Radio Act of 1912, which gave the Commerce Department little power to deny a license or to unclog the airwaves.

To restore order, Congress passed the Radio Act of 1927, which introduced a pivotal new principle: Licensees did not own their channels but could use them only as long as they operated to serve the “public interest, convenience, or necessity.” To oversee licenses and negotiate channel problems such as too many stations trying to air on too few frequencies, the 1927 act created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), whose members were appointed by the president.

Although the FRC was intended as a temporary committee, it grew into a powerful regulatory agency. In 1934, with passage of the Federal Communications Act of 1934, the FRC became the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Its jurisdiction covered not only radio but also the telephone and the telegraph (and later television, cable, and the Internet). More significantly, by this time Congress and the president had sided with the already-powerful radio networks and acceded to a system of advertising-supported commercial broadcasting as best serving “public interest, convenience, or necessity,” overriding the concerns of educational, labor, religious, and citizen broadcasting advocates.

In 1941, an activist FCC set out to break up what it saw as overly large and powerful networks, which led to a Supreme Court ruling forcing RCA to sell NBC-Blue. The divested enterprise became the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Such government crackdowns brought long-overdue reform to the radio industry. However, they came too late to prevent considerable damage to noncommercial radio.