Radio and Television Regulation
Subtitle: Broadcast Technology in the United States, 1920-1960
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: September 27, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 328
ISBN-13: 9780801864506
Subjects: Impact of science & technology on society; Radio & television industry; Social history; Inter-war period, 1918-1939; Second World War, 1939-1945; c 1945 to c 1960; Public Policy; Broadcasting; United States - General; History; Pop Arts / Pop Culture; Television - History & Criticism; Science/Mathematics; USA; Radio - History & Criticism; Media Studies - Electronic Media; Science / History; United States - 20th Century; Broadcasting policy; Television & Video; 20th century; United States
First sentence: During the months soon after the Westinghouse Company's establishment of KDKA in Pittsburgh, a boom in radio swept the nation.
Description: "In Radio and Television Regulation, Hugh R. Slotten examines the choices that confronted federal agencies - first the Department of Commerce, then the Federal Radio Commission in 1927, and seven years later the Federal Communications Commission - and shows the impact of their decisions on developing technologies.".

"Slotten analyzes the policy debates that emerged when the public implications of AM and FM radio and black-and-white and color television first became apparent.

His discussion of the early years of radio examines powerful personalities - including navy secretary Josephus Daniels and commerce secretary Herbert Hoover - who maneuvered for government control of "the wireless." He then considers fierce competition among companies such as Westinghouse, GE, and RCA, which quickly grasped the commercial promise of radio and later of television and struggled for technological edge and market advantage. Analyzing the complex interplay of the factors forming public policy for radio and television broadcasting, and taking into account the ideological traditions that framed these controversies, Slotten sheds light on the rise of the regulatory state.

In an epilogue he discusses his findings in terms of contemporary debates over high-resolution TV."--BOOK JACKET.