I believe that the Radio Act, approved so recently as 1927 is ample to take care of all the troubles that some members of the House are complaining about. The Radio Act of 1927 provided, briefly, that there shall be an equitable distribution of radio services in the various five zones. The country, as you know, is divided into five zones. Complaint has been heard on many sides that some of the zones have insufficient amount of stations and power. But I can see no reason why the Radio Commission should of necessity be blamed because some of the zones are deficient in that power, because you must reflect, that radio stations existed long before the Radio Commission sprang into being and the so-called disparity between the sections of the country as to the stations existed long before 1927.
We have had stations and they have been broadcasting on the air since 1020, seven years before we had the Radio Commission, and it is very that the complaint comes from those communities and States which did not establish or erect radio broadcasting stations in general prior to the enactment of the Radio Act. The predominating sections or zones, as far as stations and station power are concerned, are those which had men in them who were courageous enough and willing enough to invest their funds in the establishment of these stations before the Radio Commission sprung into being. So we must not blame the Radio Commission if this difference or disparity has developed. It has been a natural development. From what I can gather from the reports of the Radio Commission and conversations with them, they have sought with might and with main to allow a natural development of radio. They have sought to allow the art of radio to spread and grow with as little unnatural restraint as possible, consistent with carrying out an "equitable distribution of service," as the Act of 1927 provided.
Now, the amendment which the committee made to the Senate bill, to my mind, will put the radio art into a straitjacket; it will cramp its development; it will retard its progress, and instead of doing anything worth while for radio, it will make it more chaotic and will make confusion worse confounded. It will wreck radio.
It changes the idea of "equitable service" as in the parent Act, and says there shall be a numerical, mathematical, and equal division of broadcasting licenses, wave lengths, and station power among the five zones.
No discretion is given to the Radio Commission, as far as the zones are concerned; the language is mandatory, and I quite agree that the Radio Commission is given administrative duty to divide equally the licenses, the wave lengths, and the station power among the five zones. Then when it comes to the zones themselves, the Radio Commission:
"Shall make a fair and equitable allocation among the different
States thereof in proportion to the population and area."
Now, if I may give an example, it is like having a sort of large radio pie and endeavoring to divide that radio pie into five equal parts and to give a one-fifth equal part to each of the five radio zones, as it were. Suppose you sit down to a table and there are children and adults at the table. I am sure you would not be very likely to give an equal piece of pie to the child as you would to the adult. I do not mean to imply that the zone three is necessarily like unto a child, but I will say this: That as far as industry, commerce, radio population, as far as enterprise is concerned with reference to broadcasting, as far as willingness is concerned to enter this field - and facts are facts and you cannot change them - certain sections are not as fortunate as others. Some are smaller in all these items than others, through causes probably beyond their control. Because of these different conditions in the different zones it would be absurd to treat each zone in identical fashion. Because of these different conditions, and without reflection upon any zone, you cannot give each zone an equal slice of the radio pie.
Comments of the Honorable Emanuel Celler in the October 1928 Congressional Digest continued
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