Federal Communications Commission

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION. As the radio spectrum became increasingly crowded during the mid-1920s, it became necessary to regulate its frequency allocations. The Post Office and Commerce Departments and the Interstate Commerce Commission had initiated some regulation, and in 1927, Congress created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC). Its purpose was to regulate all forms of interstate and foreign radio transmissions and communications. FRC roles included assigning the frequencies and power of each station and revoking a station's license when the station violated the Radio Act of 1927 or the Commission's guidelines.

On 19 June 1934, the Communications Act became the latest addition to Roosevelt's New Deal. Introduced for the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio, it created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The task before the FCC was to make available a rapid, efficient, national and worldwide wire and radio communication service.

Agency Structure

The FCC is an independent U.S. government agency with jurisdiction over communications in all the states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Originally intended to regulate only radio, telephone, and telegraph industries, today the agency is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. It is not that the agency exceeded its charter; rather, the Act's flexibility and a sympathetic Supreme Court have allowed the agency to regulate additional communication media and related industries as they develop. However, when these modifications became too complex, Congress stepped in and passed additional amendments and acts, such as the 1962 Communications Satellite Act, to guarantee that the FCC could keep up with the pace. Congress's changing views on regulation and the market found their way into the agency and its guidelines, as reflected in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

The agency is directed by five commissioners—appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate—and they serve five-year terms. To avoid political bias, only three commissioners can be members of the same political party, and none of them may have a financial interest in any FCC-related business. The chairperson, assigned by the president, is responsible for setting the agency's agenda and, with the aid of the executive director, of running the Commission. By 2002, the FCC had almost 2,000 full-time employees and an annual budget of $245,071,000, about 90 percent of which comes from fees paid by the regulated industries—not from taxpayers.

The FCC, with its seven bureaus and ten offices, has a functional division of labor. The bureaus deal with the main communications sectors—processing their licenses, conducting investigations, looking into complaints, developing and implementing regulatory programs, and taking part in hearings. The offices provide the bureaus with support services. The Cable Services Bureau, originally established in 1993 to implement the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, ensures competition among cable and satellite companies and regulates the distribution of multi channel video programming. The Common Carrier Bureau is responsible for policies regarding long distance and local service telephone companies (called "common carriers"); its primary focus is affordable, efficient, national and worldwide telephone service. Similarly, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is responsible for the licensing, enforcement, and regulation of all wireless telecommunications, except satellite and broadcasting; these include cellular telephone, paging, personal communications services, and amateur radio services. It is also responsible for public safety and the efficient use of the frequency spectrum in these areas.

The Mass Media Bureau regulates over 25,000 broadcast stations throughout the United States (television, radio, translators, and boosters). A station found in violation of FCC rules may be asked to rectify the situation and pay a fine; in extreme cases the bureau may revoke a station's license or refuse to renew it. The International Bureau is responsible for worldwide communications. In addition to advising and representing the FCC on all international communication matters, the bureau is concerned with the development of efficient, available, and reliable domestic and international communications services and with administering the Commission's international telecommunications policies and obligations. The Consumer Information Bureau is the FCC's link to the public. It is also charged with overseeing disability mandates. Finally, the Enforcement Bureau is responsible for enforcing most of the provisions of the Communications Act as well as the Commission's rules, orders, and authorizations.

Industry Regulation

During its early days, radio industry practices demonstrated that regulating the spectrum was necessary. In 1926, a federal district court ruled in U.S. v. Zenith Radio Corp. et al. that the Commerce Department had no authority to establish radio regulations. Left to the forces of the market, stations decided to set their own frequencies and transmission power, thus crowding the spectrum and filling the airwaves with interference. Following that ruling and its negative effects on the industry, Congress passed the Radio Act, making a clear statement that the frequency spectrum was a public domain and that public broadcasting was a national interest. The 1934 Communications Act gave the FCC the power to regulate all wire and radio communication. This was later interpreted by the Supreme Court to include other industries, such as cable TV. (See U.S. v. Southwestern Cable Co. [1968].) Ever since, the FCC has been responsible for allocating all frequencies and making sure that one industry or station does not interfere with another.

While the FCC's emphasis during its first few decades was on securing the existence of communication services, since the mid-1970s, as the public has become more antagonistic toward "big government," the agency has initiated more deregulation than regulation. After various pieces of legislation in the 1980s and early 1990s, and some deregulation by the agency itself during this period, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the most significant piece of communications legislation since the Act of 1934. By lifting various limitations, such as cross and multiple ownership restrictions, the act opened all telecommunications markets to competition. While the Commission argues that competition will benefit the public, as more service providers and cheaper prices become available, consumer advocates maintain that it will only lead to mergers of communication corporations, creating media empires that will drive prices up and service quality down.

Content Regulation

The FCC faces a far more difficult job than other independent regulatory agencies, for it must regulate an industry as well as its content. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, and Title III of the Communications Act prohibits censorship by the FCC, yet the Commission and the courts have made it clear that speech may be limited when it does not serve the law's "public interest" requirement. "It was not that the speech of broadcasters was to be protected, as much as it was the right of the radio audience to be protected from certain forms of speech" (Creech, p. 68). This protection mainly refers to the broadcasting of obscene and indecent material; the former is completely prohibited, while the latter is only regulated.

Concerned about children's exposure to violent programming, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which required all TV sets with screens larger than 13 inches to be equipped with V-chip technology. When the chip is used with a voluntary TV rating system created by the television industry, this technology allows parents to program their TV sets to block programs that carry any sexual, violent, or other material they believe may be inappropriate for their children. A similar attempt to block such materials over the Internet was found to be unconstitutional in ACLU v. Reno (1996), when the court argued that the Internet deserves the broadest constitutional protection because it more closely resembles newspapers than a limited-spectrum broadcast.

Limitations placed on multiple ownership to promote diversity of ideas were relaxed in 1985 and significantly changed in 1992, as Congress favored promoting the availability of diverse views and information through the marketplace. Yet, even in an era of multiple ownership, stations must serve the needs of their own communities by covering local issues. While the FCC provided some guidance as to what it saw as adequate public service (in its 1960 Blue Book), it was always up to individual stations to determine how they could best serve their communities.

As part of that public service, the Communications Act forced any station allocated airtime to any political candidate to afford other candidates equal opportunities. Later, in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC. (1969), the Supreme Court affirmed the "fairness doctrine," arguing that the right of the people to a marketplace of ideas has precedence over the rights of broadcasters. By 1985, however, in its Fairness Report, the Commission argued that diversity of opinion was being served by the multiplicity of voices in the marketplace. Following some criticism from the courts, the FCC abolished the doctrine in 1987.

It was Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter who argued in National Broadcasting Co. v. U.S. (1943) that Congress's lack of technical knowledge required it to delegate some of its legislative powers to the FCC. Today, as media content breaks its traditional borders (TV and radio broadcasting over the web, cell phones providing web content, digital radio transmissions via satellite) and as demand for more information and stations reaches new levels, Congress continues to lack the ability to keep up with technical advancements. Whether the FCC will be able to fill this void without being transformed into a semi-legislature for all communication issues remains to be seen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Creech, Kenneth C. Electronic Media Law and Regulation. 3d ed. Boston: Focal, 2000.

Federal Communications Commission. FCC Handbook. Available from http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/.

Federal Communications Commission. The Public and Broadcasting. Available from http://www.fcc.gov/mb/.

Lowi, Theodore J. The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States. 2d ed. New York: Norton, 1979.

Messere, Fritz. "Regulation." In Encyclopedia of Radio. Edited by Christopher H. Sterling. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2002.

Napoli, Philip. Foundations of Communication Policy: Principles and Process in the Regulation of Electronic Media. Creskill, N.J.: Hampton, 2001.

Israel Waismel-Manor