Ashbacker Radio Corp. v. Federal Communications Commission
United States Supreme Court
326 U.S. 327 (1945)
The FCC (defendant) granted Fetzer's broadcast-license application without a hearing, then designated Ashbacker's (plaintiff) mutually-exclusive competing application for a hearing it was statutorily entitled to under the Federal Communications Act, but the FCC's own hearing notice acknowledged Ashbacker's application couldn't succeed unless it showed its proposed station wouldn't cause "intolerable interference" with Fetzer's already-approved station.
Whether an applicant for a broadcast license under the Federal Communications Act is accorded a hearing to which it is statutorily entitled when the Federal Communications Commission grants another application which is mutually exclusive with the applicant's.