Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks of every year, we are deluged with information from innumerable sources in the modern world. News and information “junkies” must be thrilled with the pace of information flow daily. We’ll leave it to mental health specialists and philosophers to debate how this information overload affects humans.
A long time ago and far, far away (to coin a phrase), the only media source people were subject to, or able to access, was that of radio. Any student of American history will be familiar with the fact that a regular part of most American’s daily routine decades ago was that of sitting by the radio listening to everything from the latest sports scores to current stock market trends.
Paraphrasing a standard pop song, “what a difference a century makes.” Every conceivable way in which information can be produced and broadcast to the masses has been discovered or invented. Just think radio, television, the internet, music, telephone, movies, even walkie-talkies. Information is everywhere all at once it seems.
Well, perhaps you yourself have thought about becoming a part of this vast information juggernaut in one way or another. Radio disc jockey? Television reporter? Music producer? How about a .com businessperson?
Whatever it may be, just be prepared to wrestle with the modern American socialist ‘nanny state’ if you think you’re going to sit in your basement and start broadcasting anything over the airwaves. Welcome to that behemoth of administrative bureaucratic government agencies, the FCC, aka the Federal Communications Commission.
Simply put, the FCC oversees and regulates ‘the airwaves,’ radio, and television broadcasts. At its inception in 1934, the U.S. Congress directed the FCC to regulate broadcasting. The Radio Act of 1912 really laid the foundation for all broadcasting regulations to come later.
Unless you are involved in media broadcasting, the role and power of the FCC is poorly understood by most citizens, a surprise for such a mammoth agency that intrudes on our daily lives. The FCC issues and regulates broadcast licenses, accompanied by a myriad of rules and regulations which have all the force of law. The FCC mandates various rules that all broadcast stations must comply with, lest they risk having their licenses revoked or not renewed upon request.
One of the underlying, core principles of all broadcast media, including radio and television, is that all FCC licensees must operate their station “in the public interest, convenience, and necessity.” Part of this idea is that local broadcasters must be “tuned in to” (pun intended) the needs and problems of the local community in which the broadcaster operates. Radio and television broadcasters are obligated to address and treat ‘local’ issues and concerns in their local news, political and public affairs programming. Further, broadcasters are required to file regular reports, usually quarterly, detailing how they have met these obligations. To serve their intended purpose, these reports are available to the public.
It is the original Communications Act of 1934 which gave birth to the FCC. In furtherance of its statutory duties under the Act, the FCC, in issuing broadcast licenses, must do so in a way that poses no interference (conflicting airwave signals) between and amongst stations. This becomes a question of the laws of nature and physics, so the FCC must call upon various experts and specialists in these fields to advise it.
As with all administrative agencies, the FCC itself is governed and guided by the processes and procedures it must follow in carrying out its regulatory duties. On occasion, especially in the heat of election year campaigning, the FCC is sometimes accused of using its vast power and authority to silence political opposition or to advocate for or against this or that candidate or this or that issue. This important topic is the subject of our next follow-up article; stay tuned!
