Feb. 23, 1927: President Calvin Coolidge signs the Radio Act of 1927, creating the Federal Radio Commission—the forerunner to the Federal Communications Commission. Before the commission was established, radio was regulated by the Commerce Department under Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover. Naturally, chaos reigned. The biggest problem was that hundreds of stations were trying to broadcast on only two frequencies, a situation that detracted from listening enjoyment. Several solutions were proposed, but most would have required consumers to spend too much money—for example, listeners would need a different radio for each station they wanted to hear. Preposterous! So the FRC began allocating frequencies so that a single receiver could be tuned to several different stations. That solution allowed the commissioners to focus on what really bothered them: profane and obscene shows. That tradition has carried over to the present, with the FCC mainly worried about whether Terry Gross is telling subliminal flatulence jokes. But history is also repeating itself, as the current commissioners are distracted by the issue of satellite radio. The industry currently requires consumers to own a different radio for each station they want to hear.—Jeffrey Kanige
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