Radio Act of 1927

The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government body that regulated radio use in the United States from its creation in 1926 until its replacement by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1934. The Commission was created to regulate radio use "as the public interest, convenience, or necessity" requires. The Radio Act of 1927 superseded the Radio Act of 1912, which had given regulatory powers over radio communication to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The Radio Act of 1912 did not mention broadcasting and limited all private radio communications to what is now the AM band.

The Dill White Bill was proposed and sponsored by Clarence Dill and Wallace H. White Jr. on December 21, 1926. Senator Dill and Representative White had made several attempts at creating regulations prior to the Dill White Bill. However the Dill White Bill was the first bill actually considered by the Senate to start regulating the radio waves. The bill originally proposed that a committee of five members (one member representing each time zone) would be given the power to regulate radio waves and licenses. The bill was officially brought to the Senate floor on January 28, 1927. After a month of debates the bill was finally passed as the Radio Act of 1927 on February 18, 1927 and signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on February 23, 1927, as Pub.L. 69–632, 44 Stat. 1162.

Prior to 1927, radio was regulated by the United States Department of Commerce. Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover played a strong role in shaping radio. His powers were limited by federal court decisions, however; in particular, he was not allowed to deny broadcasting licenses to anyone who wanted one. The result was that many people perceived the airwaves to suffer from "chaos," with too many stations trying to be heard on too few frequencies. Others believed the government simply wanted to control content. (Initially only two frequencies were available for broadcasting with one of these being reserved for "Crop reports and weather forecasts.") After several failed attempts to rectify this situation, Congress finally passed the Radio Act of 1927, which transferred most of the responsibility for radio to a newly created Federal Radio Commission. (Some technical duties remained the responsibility of the Radio Division of the Department of Commerce.)

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