Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-11
new JERSEY LAW
REGULATES RADIO
Follows Lead of Michigan and
Nevada in Asserting Broad.
casting Rights.
BY MARTIN CODEL,

New Jersey has followed the lead of
Michigan and Nevada in enacting legis-
lation asserting State rights over radio
broadcasting.
of the governor, New Jerseys Legisla-
ture yesterday passed a law requiring
/ the issuance of a certificate Of public
convenience and necessity by its State
public utilities commission before a new
broadcasting station shall be erected
within the State and before any changes
in station wave lengths, powers and
hours of operation may be effected by
the Federal Radio Commission.
A legal clash with the Federal radio
authorities, who hitherto have exercised
sweeping powers over radio almost with
out dispute, seems inevitable. A test
case will very likely be carried to the
Supreme Court of the United States.
New Jersey asserts the right under its
police powers to protect its radio lis
teners from undue and unreasonable
blanketing or interference" which might
result from the erection of new stations
or increases in the powers of others. So
far the Federal Radio Commission has
not only determined who shall broad
cast and with what wave lengths and
powers, but 1t has approved and disap-
proved the specific locations of stations
within the States.
The legal assumption has been that
radio waves, being interstate in their
ranges and effects, the Federal authority
extends to the source of those waves.
The New Jersey act does not apply
retroactively to the many stations, large
and small, now clustered in that State.
1t does, however, apply to ANY future
| transfer Of any existing broadcasting
station or transmitter and to any
change in the existing power, wave
length, frequency or hours of operation
Of an existing broadcasting station or
| transmitter."
Accordingly any future shifts ordered
by the Federal Radio Commission must
| first be approved by the State public
utility board. This is the feature OF
| the law which will precipitate an early
court test, for changes in assignments
are constantly being made.
State versus Federal authority over
radio has long been a moot subject.
General agreement has prevailed that
the States and municipalities have the
right to curb nuisances. such as inter-
ference with radio reception caused by
electrical devices and annoyance to
neighborhoodS caused by loud speakers.
Counsel for the Federal Radio Com
mission have contended that laws like
those of Michigan, Nevada, and now
New Jersey which extend State control
over public utilities to radio transmits
sion are invalid. In a document cover
ing the State and municipal regulation
| Of radio, prepared by Paul D. p. Spear
man, assistant general counsel of the
commission, and Paul M. Segal, former
assistant counsel, is the following state
ment:
Neither the Federal Radio Commission
| nor the radio act Of 1927, as amended,
places a broadcast station in the classi-
fication of public utility from the
standpoint that the station is compelled
to sell time on the air to any and all
persons desiring TO purchase 1t for any
and all purposes and any and all types
of use. Such requirement would carry
within it the germs of the destruction
of the American system of broadcasting.
THE attempted imposition by States
upon broadcasting stations of a stand
ard different from that of Federal law
Is invalid"
(Copyright $780, by North American News
paper Alliance.)