Radio
The first electronic mass medium
Early broadcasts
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1st experimental broadcast
1910
 U.S. inventor Lee DeForest
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1st non-experimental public program
Nov. 2, 1920
 Radio station KDKA Pittsburgh
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Early Radios
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Issues
Required headphones; limited to 1 listener at a time
 Poor reception, static
 Programs few and infrequent
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Growth of Radio
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2 years after 1st broadcast, 1.5 million radios in
the U.S.
More than 500 broadcast stations
Chain, now known as a network:
1st linking of radio stations
 Jan., 1923
 Broadcast concert in NY and Boston simultaneously
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Impact on Culture
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Brought music (popular and classical) to
thousands who had no access to live music
Created national interest in sports
Helped create national heroes out of sports stars
 Gave rise to fans who knew all about nationally
famous teams
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Financing Radio
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Publicity
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American society of composers, authors, & publishers
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As early as 1922, members of this group demanded to be
paid for the right to air their music
Annual fees
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Entertainers agreed to perform on radio because of the
publicity it generated
Paid by stations – ranged from $100’s to $1,000’s
Ad time
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1st radio commercial – long announcement by an apt.
complex in NY for $50
Toll stations- stations that aired ads
The Birth of the FCC
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Rapid growth of radio caused some problems:
Frequencies overlapped
 Interference from competing stations
 Gov’t regulation was needed to keep order
 Herbert Hoover (Sec. of Commerce in 1922) played
major role in developing radio system controlled by
business yet closely watched by gov’t
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Radio Act of 1927
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Created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC)
Developed as a result of Hoover’s efforts
1934, FRC replaced by FCC
Federal Communications Committee
(FCC)
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Licenses radio stations
Controls many of the technical aspects of
broadcasting
Transmitter power
 Wavelength
 Antenna height
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Programming Formats
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After WW II, radio resembled today’s television
in several ways:
People listened to specific programs
 Radio dominated by 3 major networks
 Growth of tv and increasing # of radio stations
changed nature of radio, and various programming
formats developed
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Profits down
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With so many stations available, it was no longer
possible for 1 station to deliver to a large
enough audience to make a network profitable
Not enough advertising $ to go around
Energy/development $ being spent on
television
Radio lost network-supplied programs and
became local medium
Local Stations
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Turned to phonograph records
Disc jockeys
Broadcasts of “rip and read” news items
Inexpensive programs that would attract
advertisers
Talk shows
 Sports broadcasts
 All news
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Narrowcasting
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Carefully selecting music to attract a certain
segment of the population to deliver to
advertisers
FM (frequency modulation) Radio
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The introduction of FM Radio brought
revenues to an all-time high
FCC decided AM stations that owned FM
outlets should not be allowed to broadcast the
same signal on both stations all the time
Limits placed on the amount of time an AM
station could simulcast – created demand for
new type of programming different than AM
FM Radio, cont’d
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FM filled this programming void
Forum for Rock n’ Roll music
1970’s practically overwhelmed AM
1980’s – explosion of specialized program
formats
Trend of narrowly targeting people with
particular taste in music continued through
1990’s and is still the case today
Satellite Radio
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Developed in the 1990’s, satellite radio has
become increasingly popular
Privately held companies received permission
from the FCC to launch satellites and blanket
the nation with digital radio programming
Digital sound signals are sent via satellite to any
radio with proper receivers
2 main types of satellite radios, Sirius and XM –
merged in 2009
Satellite Radio and Regualtion
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FCC cannot regulate content, as it is a paid
service (like HBO/Cinemax are to tv)
Satellite radio does not rely on advertisers for
revenue, again, as it is a paid subscription
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Most stations commercial-free (my favorite perk!)
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That’s all, folks!