ABSTRACT
The massive impact of radio and television upon our way of life has been discussed in Chapter 2. We noted that both these media possess great potentialities for educational and commercial purposes, ranging from the telecasting of a medical operation or a Senate committee hearing to the filmed commercial or personal sales message. Furthermore, the radio or television message can originate in a studio in New York and be received by sets throughout the country. Thus, radio and television transcriptions, carried on air waves that are not the private property of any individual, firm, or corporation, cannot be confined within the boundaries of one state. Radio and television are inherently national in character and must be regulated, if at all, by the federal government, for the separate states are incapable of supervising such a national phenomenon. The federal government has elected to control the use of the nation's air waves for radio and television broadcasting, and the instrumentality to exercise such control is the Federal Communications Commission.
