chapter 4 slides from mc201 siue - radio industry & history

Questions to ask:

• Do you still listen to radio? What stations?

• What do you like about radio? Dislike?

• In your opinion, does radio have a future? Why or why not?

232 million people DAILY…..

• how is radio different?

• Is radio necessary?

• Telephone/telegraph– Private

communication between individuals

• Radio–Communication

from one to a mass audience–Allowed

immediacy

Let’s start with the basics:James Maxwell 1860s physicist

Electromagnetic spectrum

• “Invisible electronic impulses similar to visible light”–Maxwell determined that a range of

these – radio waves – could be harnessed

Marconi 1874-1937

Took Maxwell’s radio waves and figured out how to transmit Morse code on them– THE FIRST RADIO! 1894 “one to one radio”

Marconi• Received a patent on “wireless

telegraphy”

• He saw radio merely as a wireless telegraph (one-to-one)

Marconi – just MorseDe Forest – music & voice

• Called himself • “Father of Radio”

• Changed radio to• “one to many”

DeForest• “I discovered an Invisible

Empire of the Air, intangible yet solid as granite.”

Broadcasting is born!

• Used to be a farming term

• Now “radio” can reach many at once

So we’ve got a new medium…..

• Let’s regulate it! – Wireless Ship Act of 1910• American ships need to have radios

– Radio Act of 1912• Radio stations need licenses to keep the airwaves from

getting too crowded

• Radio waves could not be owned.

• World War I – what happened?• 1921 - 5 radio stations• 1923 – 600 radio stations• By 1925• 5.5 million radios

AT&T’s station: WNBC New York

Hey! Let’s sell commercial time!!–One ad, $50. 1922

–What do you think the public reaction was?

David Sarnoff

• Marconi’s message boy at age 15

David Sarnoff

• “I have in mind a plan …which would make radio a household utility in the same sense as the piano or phonograph…..the idea is to bring music into the house by wireless.” (age 24)

• Went on to create……..?

• Also built car radios for General Motors

Radio Act of 1927

Station owners did NOT own the airwaves, just the licenses to operate within them

Stations had to serve “the public interest, convenience and necessity”

Golden age of radio•1930s – 1940s

•Why??

War of the Worlds, 1938

Transistors

• Built by Bell Labs 1947

• Made smaller radios possible

Edwin Armstrong

• Discovered FM radio in the 1920s• Thought FM was the future• First FM station: Empire St Bldng• Long legal battles with Sarnoff• Killed himself in 1954

AM radio vs FM radio

Radio station programming

Done in blocks–6-10am–10am – 3pm–3 pm – 7pm–7 pm – midnight

–What are characteristics of each block?

• PAYOLA– Illegal–Paying DJs to play

a certain song

• PAY FOR PLAY– Legal–Paying for “time”

on the air for the station to play certain songs a certain number of times

Top Formats

• #1 News/Talk• #2 Adult contemporary• #3 contemporary hit radio (Top 40)• #4 country• #5 urban• #6 Spanish

All formats tracked by Arbitron ratings

Telecommunications Act 1996

• Lifted restrictions on how many radio stations a corporation could own

• (34% fewer radio station owners now than in 1995)

Syndicated Radio Shows

• Tom Joyner

• Rush Limbaugh

“Lost localism” in radio

What is that?

Clear Channel Stations

Emmis Communications

CBS Radio

Bonneville Corporations

How is NPR different?

Trends in radio……

Old Communication Model

• What about www.pandora.com?

• Does the radio industry give listeners what they want?• Or do they give listeners what

the industry wants?