Working it out together: Radio policy from Hoover to the radio act of 1927

Abstract

Abstract A complex pattern of radio regulation emerged during the mid‐1920s, one in which a close‐knit relationship arose between regulator and regulated. Working together to get radio service to the public were the "regulators"—Herbert Hoover and the Department of Commerce—and the "regulated"— Westinghouse, General Electric (G. E.), the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and American Telegraph and Telephone (AT&T). Together, these two groups set radio's agenda and policy through 1927. This essay shows how that synthesis became the blueprint used even today for broadcast license allocation and station licensee assignments.