Broadcast Regulatory Actions
When broadcasting began to be regulated, and stations had to have a broadcast license, some saw this as an infringement of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution stating that the government shall not stop freedom of speech in the media. This was because prior to broadcast licensing, anyone could start transmitting their views cheaply and efficiently. The FRC cracked down on "vulgar" language — for example the profanity-filled rants of William K. Henderson (on KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana), non-mainstream political views, and "fringe" religions.
Almost from the start, the FRC was accused of being captured by the industry it regulated, radio broadcasters. Historians and contemporary critics who held this position generally pointed to the results of FRC regulation which, in many cases, advantaged large commercial radio broadcasters at the expense of smaller noncommercial broadcasters. Early radio regulation has since become a commonly-used example of rent-seeking.
Read more about this topic: Federal Radio Commission
Famous quotes containing the words broadcast and/or actions:
“Radio news is bearable. This is due to the fact that while the news is being broadcast the disc jockey is not allowed to talk.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1951)
“If one had to worry about one’s actions in respect of other people’s ideas, one might as well be buried alive in an antheap or married to an ambitious violinist. Whether that man is the prime minister, modifying his opinions to catch votes, or a bourgeois in terror lest some harmless act should be misunderstood and outrage some petty convention, that man is an inferior man and I do not want to have anything to do with him any more than I want to eat canned salmon.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)