[abb]

I’m deep into this book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Air:_The_Men_Who_Made_Radio

There’s a very interesting couple of pages (which I’m transcribing) about how the US Govt seized control of almost all radio broadcasting during WWI.

Here’s the man who did it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_Daniels

[Erasmus]

I believe Ronald Coase was the first economist to take a serious look at the whole government takeover of the airwaves issue in a paper of 1959, and subsequent economists have also studied the issue from a property-rights perspective.

In the year 1927, pioneer radio stations were beginning to stake out claims to frequencies over given areas in the courts, based on a property rights legal theory. Then, the US government stepped in and created the Federal Radio Commission, which immediately nationalized the airwaves.

Coase's revisitation of this historical episode revealed the benefits that would have accrued if the original road had been continued.