Editing Communications Act of 1934 (section)

===Creation of the Federal Communications Commission===
The [[Commerce Clause]] in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the authority to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. By the early 20th century, radio transmission had become the most efficient way to facilitate communication about commerce and therefore, radio frequencies on the [[electromagnetic spectrum]] could constitutionally be regulated. The [[Wireless Ship Act of 1910]] called for Congress to modestly regulate the wireless industry and the [[Radio Act of 1912]] was their first attempt to make more legislative oversight to the entire radio industry.

This act required anyone who wanted to transmit over the radio to have government issued permission in form of a license. Along with the help of important legislators, these were the early building blocks that eventually evolved into the FCC.

Secretary of Commerce [[Herbert Hoover]] played a large role regarding regulation because he issued the licenses which allocated the spectrum. Once radio broadcasting became popular, Hoover brought attention to the limited amount of frequency space the spectrum held. This problem made obtaining frequencies and airtime very difficult, as well as making "noise" on existing frequencies. Between 1923 and 1924, Hoover expanded the number of assigned frequencies to reduce the interference, but his quick fix failed, which, in turn, ended self-regulation of spectrum space. Congress then passed the Radio Act of 1927 to create the framework for regulating the rapidly-growing broadcast industry.

President [[Calvin Coolidge]] was an important aspect of radio regulation by signing the Radio Act of 1927, which invested regulatory power to the Federal Radio Commission (FRC). Senators Clarence Dill and [[Wallace H. White,&nbsp;Jr.]] also pushed toward passing the 1927 act. The FRC had a short, 6-year term in American history and transferred its responsibility, as the agency for managing the radio spectrum, to the FCC after the Communications Act of 1934. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the bill in 1934. This change in power was needed to develop a better way of determining who got to use what radio bands and for what purposes. There were many factors and individuals that played a role in the creation of the FCC, but in the end, Congress created the agency.<ref>{{cite web|last=Messere|first=Fritz|title=Encyclopedia of Radio|url=http://www.oswego.edu/~messere/RadioReg.pdf|access-date=May 2, 2011|archive-date=March 19, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319144632/http://www.oswego.edu/~messere/RadioReg.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=About the FCC|url=http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/aboutfcc.html|work=FCC Consumer Facts|publisher=Federal Communications Commission|access-date=May 2, 2011|archive-date=August 10, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100810193244/http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/aboutfcc.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>