Communications Act of 1934 Creates FCC and Consolidates Federal Media Regulation Under Public Interest Standard

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Communications Act of 1934 (Chapter 5 of Title 47 U.S. Code), replacing the Federal Radio Commission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and consolidating federal regulation of all interstate and foreign communications including radio, television, telegraph, and telephone under a single independent agency governed by the “public interest, convenience, and necessity” standard. The Act codifies the principle that broadcast spectrum frequencies are publicly owned resources requiring licensees to serve the public interest, creating enforceable regulatory authority over private communications corporations.

The Act’s Section 326 explicitly prohibits government censorship while simultaneously directing the FCC to regulate broadcasting “in the public interest,” granting the Commission authority to revoke or refuse renewal of broadcast licenses for violations of public interest obligations. This framework treats broadcasters as speakers with First Amendment rights while simultaneously subjecting them to public accountability requirements that would be unconstitutional for print media - justified by spectrum scarcity and public ownership of the airwaves as established in the Radio Act of 1927.

The Communications Act empowers the FCC to: assign broadcast frequencies and licenses; regulate rates and fees for communications services; establish technical standards; enforce competition requirements; set terms of subscriber access; regulate commercial advertising; ensure broadcasting serves public interest objectives including diverse viewpoints; and prioritize government communications needs during emergencies. The Act’s public interest mandate provides legal foundation for subsequent regulatory policies including the Fairness Doctrine (1949), equal time provisions, ownership diversity requirements, children’s programming standards, and media concentration limits.

However, the Act’s public interest framework is progressively weakened through corporate-funded regulatory capture and deregulation campaigns: FCC commissioners increasingly appointed from industry backgrounds (revolving door 1980s-present), ownership limits systematically relaxed or eliminated (1984-1996), public interest obligations declared outdated and removed (Fairness Doctrine abolished 1987), and “marketplace” ideology substituted for regulatory enforcement (Telecommunications Act 1996). The Supreme Court’s Red Lion Broadcasting decision (1969) initially upheld stronger public interest obligations for broadcasters versus print media, but subsequent FCC policy effectively nullifies this framework despite the Communications Act remaining on the books, enabling six corporations to control 90% of American media by 2017.