Profile America — Thursday, June 19th. As radio broadcasting matured, the Federal Communications Commission was established on this date in 1934 to regulate use of the airwaves in the public interest. The agency’s job has grown much larger and more complex in the years since and includes all non-federal government use of the frequency spectrum.
Current issues include obscenity on the air, concentration of ownership of radio stations, and the blurring of distinctions between telephone companies and cable television. Among the firms the FCC monitors are 1,750 television stations, about 9,000 cable television systems, and cell phone companies with more than 233 million subscribers.
