Wagner–Hatfield amendment was a proposed
amendment to the
Communications Act of 1934
The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 19, 1934 and codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, et seq. The Act replaced the Federal Radio Commission with ...
aimed at turning over twenty-five percent of all radio channels to
non-profit radio broadcasters
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...
.
[Organization of American Historians]
Media and Democracy: The Emergence of Commercial Broadcasting in the United States, 1927-1935
Retrieved on April 23, 2008 The amendment, proposed by senators
Robert Wagner of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
and
Henry Hatfield Henry Hatfield may refer to:
* Henry D. Hatfield (1875–1962), American politician in West Virginia
* Henry Rand Hatfield (1866–1945), American accountant and pioneer in accounting education
{{hndis, Hatfield, Henry ...
of
West Virginia, would have given the issue to the new
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to study and to hold hearings on the effectiveness of the amendment and to reported its finding to
Congress.
The amendment, was designed to take effect within ninety days of the creation of the FCC and was supported by educators who wanted more radio access. The radio lobby attacked the Wagner–Hatfield amendment fiercely. Initially, it appeared that the amendment would pass, but it was defeated on the Senate floor on May 15, 1934, by a vote of 42–23, mostly because the clause added to the communications bill that called for the FCC to study the viability of the Wagner-Hatfield proposal and report to Congress the following year. The passage of the Communications Act of 1934 Congress effectively removed itself from the discussion of broadcast policy issues.
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References
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United States proposed federal legislation
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