The public will vs. the public trust: Early american radio as a public information resource

Abstract

ABSTRACTOver the century that has transpired since the first public broadcasts aired in the US, radio programming has become a staunchly commercial enterprise. The earliest radio broadcasts, by contrast, were seen as public goods to be protected in the interest of neutrality of the information being conveyed. In the late 1920s and early 1930s a range of colorful individuals contracted with stations in order to broadcast news and information that involved the sale of personal and medical consultations to individual listeners. Astrology, in particular, became a significant factor in Federal Radio Commission (FRC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license renewal hearings due to two main perceptions: (1) because such broadcasts constituted point‐to‐point transmission of information, and (2) because such programs were usually related to the marketing of some product or involved the solicitation of funds, therefore, they were deemed to be contrary the interests of the public at large. While the mandate of the FRC and FCC did not involve oversight of content or outright censorship, these hearings nonetheless effectually resulted in the development of guidelines that banned certain types of broadcasts and sometimes shuttered local stations entirely. For a brief time during these decades, educational and cultural institutions benefitted from the utopian ethos of these federal regulatory efforts. During this time science journalism emerged and scientists themselves experimented with the new medium as a means of public edification. Discussion of the early history of radio broadcasting in the US is relevant to the core concerns of information science and technology research given that its development gave shape to the social practices and legal principles surrounding public use of and access to the ICTs (information and communications technologies) that emerged in its wake—from television programming to the provision of Internet service.