We study the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) problem for two different kinds of communications systems, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Multi-Code Code-Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA). We describe a common coding theoretic approach to reducing the PAPR of both kinds of transmissions. In both cases, the classical Reed- Muller codes turn out to play a critical role. There is an intimate connection between Reed-Muller codes and Golay complementary sequences which can be exploited to produce codes suitable for OFDM. For MC- CDMA, it turns out that bent functions lead to transmissions with ideal power characteristics. In this way, the problem of finding good codes for OFDM and MC-CDMA can be closely related to some old and new problems in algebraic coding theory and sequence design. 26 Pages