Origins of American Broadcast Regulation: A Revisionist Theory

It is widely believed that radio regulation imposed by the 1927 Radio Act was required to control signal interference that threatened broadcasting with a tragedy of the commons: too many stations producing interfering signals. Thomas W. Hazlett (1990, 2001) disputes this view, contending that powers adequate to cope with interference were already provided by the 1912 Radio Act, but, more important, that no such government regulation was needed to eliminate signal interference, a fact well known to policymakers of the period. This article evaluates Hazlett's claims.