chapter 4 slides from mc201 siue - radio industry & history
TRANSCRIPT
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……
• Does the radio industry give listeners what they want?• Or do they give listeners what
the industry wants?