Government in the radio

Government regulation and intervention shaped radio in the 1920s by issuing broadcast frequency licenses in 1923 and through the creation of the Federal Radio Commission by the Radio Act of 1927.

When a new media becomes viable for transmission of ideas for commercial, military, or other purposes, the government must choose whether or not to intervene in its functioning. If it does not intervene, the media will continue to evolve without any direction provided by the government. If the government does choose to intervene, which it often does, it can either incorporate the media entirely into its purview and remove it from public use, or it can choose to regulate its function within the public sphere. If the government does choose to regulate the media, as it has with television and radio, it selects guidelines for the media to follow including what content is suitable for presentation.

After World War I, the U.S. Navy returned radio to civilians for public use after a period of military usage. In the early 1920s, as many sought commercial uses for the radio as a medium, there was a flood of interference as a plethora of frequencies were being used in the same areas. In 1923, the Commerce Department decided to intervene and began supervising radio, issuing out licenses for frequencies in order to limit interference. In 1927, the government chose to intervene once again, this time establishing the Federal Radio Commission under the Radio Act of 1927 to regulate the medium for the foreseeable future. The new agency set broadcast bands, limited night broadcasts, and standardized the names for frequencies. These two acts allowed the government to retain basic control of the airwaves and influenced the evolution of radio by keeping some formalized structure and function of the medium in a time when the threat of chaos was imminent. 

Just for grins, here's a link to one of the more popular radio stations back home: http://www.mix1029.com/main.html