# Radio Act of 1927 Signed by Calvin Coolidge on **February 23, 1927**, the **Radio Act of 1927** created the five-member Federal Radio Commission to license stations and assign frequencies, ending the interference chaos of early broadcasting. Its central idea is that the airwaves belong to the public: broadcasters hold licenses, not ownership, and must serve the "public interest, convenience, or necessity." That standard carried into the [[Communications Act of 1934]], which replaced the commission with the [[FCC]], and became the legal basis for the [[Fairness Doctrine]] and for every later use of the broadcast license as leverage over content. See [[Media Timeline]]. > [!note] Stub > Expand with the Hoover-era radio conferences, the 1926 court rulings that left Commerce unable to assign frequencies, and the Act's treatment of political broadcasting. ## See also - [[Communications Act of 1934]] - [[FCC]] - [[Radio]]