The Federal Communications Commission is an octogenarian, following its birthday last week.
Its direct predecessor, the Federal Radio Commission, was created when President Calvin Coolidge signed the Radio Act of 1927 on Feb. 23 of that year, according to an online history by Fritz Messere, associate professor of broadcasting and mass communications at State University of New York – Oswego.
“The Act created a five-member commission with each member representing a different geographic region of the country,” he wrote. “Members’ terms overlapped and ran six years. The FRC was given licensing authority for only one year, after which licensing authority was to revert back to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The Commission’s primary duty was to solve the interference problem which developed after the Radio Act of 1912 became unenforceable.”
