decades later. Radio was a harbinger of a panoply of technological changes to come (MacDonald 13).
The year 1934 was a key one in the development of radio and broadcasting of all sorts, given that it was in that year that Congress created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The purpose of the agency was to serve "the public interest, convenience, and necessity" (Lewis 301) by licensing stations, settling disputes, and assuring that the broadcasters served the public interest in return for their use of the airwaves. The Communications Act of 1934 was brought about in part by the many critics pressing for reform because they saw radio as having a power as a medium for education and information and believed that this was being ignored (Lewis 240).
Aspects of this argument are evident in news reports form 1934. Critics then were as eager to reform radio as some are today to reform television, and for much the same reason--they saw the medium as too dedicated to entertainment and commercial interests and not enough to offering news and information to help create an informed citizen. Merrill Denison asked why radio was not better, and more pointedly asked, "Who is to blame for the mediocre quality of most radio entertainment--the broadcaster, the advertiser, or the public?" (Denison 576).
Denison sets out the general structure of programming on radio at that time and finds three types of pr
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