Liberating American Communications: Foreign Ownership Regulations from the Radio Act of 1912 to the Radio Act of 1927

Abstract

Although foreign ownership regulations, embodied in Section 72 of the Radio Act of 1927, are most commonly associated with propaganda and broadcasting, this study shows that they targeted wireless telegraphy as a weapon of war. Archival research reveals that these rules formed part of the U.S. Navy's strategy to break the supremacy of Britain in international communications. Foreign ownership rules are only one example of pro- visions in the Radio Act that target telegraphy, not broadcasting, prompting us to reinterpret the Act as a hybrid legislation, designed to regulate two different uses of the same technology.