Chapter 8
Radio: The Hits Keep Coming
Chapter Outline
History
Industry
Controversies
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Early Development
 In 1887, Heinrich Hertz ran an electric current through one coil,
which produced a current in another coil across the room.
 Scientists determined that radio waves were transmitted across
an electromagnetic spectrum.
 When you think of radio what are things that come to mind?
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 1896, Italian Inventor Guglielmo Marconi combined
▪ Edison’s electric power,
▪ Hertz’s Coil and Morse’s telegraph key
▪ With a grounding system and an antenna of his own design.
 Registered his patent in England
▪ Set up an international corporation,
▪ Began manufacturing radio equipment to allow ships at sea to
communicate through messages in Morse Code.
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The First Broadcasters
 On November 2, 1920, engineer and radio enthusiast Frank
Conrad announced over Pittsburgh’s KDKA that Warren G.
Harding had won the U.S. presidential election.
 KCBS in San Francisco, WHA in Madison and WWJ in
Detroit all debuted around the same time.
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
The Rise of the Networks
 A broadcast network
▪ A group of interconnected stations that share programming and a parent
company that supplies programming to stations.
 Owned and operated stations (O&Os).
▪ When networks own and operate some of the local stations that they
provide programming to,
 Most stations in a network are network affiliates,
▪ Local stations that are not owned by, but have a contractual relationship
with the network.
▪ What is the Largest Radio Network in the U.S.
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 The first radio network was born in 1923
▪ AT&T connected its New York and Boston stations.
 In 1926, RCA’s David Sarnoff formed the first two national radio
networks,
▪ NBC Red and NBC Blue, and dominated the industry.
 Network radio helped unify the country
▪ Provided an experience in which people coast-to-coast were listening to the
same programs at the same time.
 What are some radio programs that you listen too
▪ Howard Stern, Tom Joyner, Dr. Laura
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
Early Programming
 Radio networks invented
▪
▪
▪
▪
Formula dramas, situation comedies,
Soap operas, game shows,
Musical variety, talk shows,
Broadcast news and sports.
 Spectrum scarcity caused a jumble of static as broadcasters
interfered with one another.
 The Radio Act of 1912, - first law governing radio passed
largely in reaction to the Titanic disaster.
▪ Required ships at sea to leave their radio on 24 hours a day and required
federal licensing of all radio transmitters.
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
The Radio Act of 1927
 Established the Federal Radio Commission (FRC)
▪ Power to limit # of broadcasters, assign frequencies, and revoke the
licenses of broadcasters who did not in comply.
 Required the broadcaster to operate in the
▪ public interest, convenience, and necessity.
 Station’s call letters
▪ Would begin with a W if it was east of the Mississippi River
▪ Or a K if it was west. With few exceptions
▪ What is Cerritos College Radio Call Letters
 Communications Act of 1934
▪ Changed FRC to Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
▪ Gained authority over interstate telephone, telegraph and radio
communication.
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
The Golden Age of Radio
 Radio’s golden age lasted from the 1930s until just after
WW II.
▪ Talk shows in the morning, soap operas in the afternoon.
▪ Musical shows featured big bands with singers like Bing Crosby and
Frank Sinatra.
▪ Comedy shows featuring
▪ Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen,
▪ Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope more
 Radio dramas included,
▪ The Shadow, The Lone Ranger,
▪ The Green Hornet.
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 TV News vs Radio News, which would you prefer?
▪ Why
 After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941,
▪ 60 million people tuned in to hear President Roosevelt’s
address to Congress.
 FDR used frequent “fireside chats” to broadcast
encouragement during the war.
▪ Americans felt as if he were in the room with them, like a
friend or neighbor.
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 When the drama, comedy and game shows
moved to television,
▪ Radio needed help in order to survive.
 By 1958 the radio industry was using the superior
sound of FM to compete with television.
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
The Transistor Portable
 A 2nd development that helped radio compete with TV
▪ The transistor, a miniature version of the vacuum tube, which made
radio portable.
 First transistor portable radios
▪ Introduced in 1954, and by the 1960s they were cheaper than
conventional vacuum tube radios.
 Portable radios were taken to
▪ The beach, the corner hangout, or to the park.
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
Format Radio
 Format radio was the third development that allowed radio to
survive television’s popularity
▪ A consistent programming formula that creates a recognizable sound and
personality for a station,
▪ Station owners like formats because they encourage listener loyalty.
▪ Advertisers like them because they enable ads to target audiences with
specific needs and buying habits.
 Top 40 was one of the most popular formats.
 Format programming led to the payola scandals of the 1950s
▪ When record promoters paid disc jockeys to play certain records.
 What are some of your favorite radio shows?
▪ What is their format
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
Concentration and Fragmentation
 Today’s 13,750 stations define themselves with increasingly
narrower formats.
 Clear Channel Communications
▪ Owns 1200 of the largest and most profitable radio stations in the U.S.
▪ Several other companies own hundreds of stations.

Digital Radio
 Digital radio results in a crisp clear signal
 Takes up less space
▪ Allowing more format choices to be offered.
 Digital signals radiate from
▪ Satellites, the Internet, and from local stations.

Webcasting
 As of 2007, about 10,000 radio stations had broadcast Web sites,
▪ Enabling web surfers to tune into radio anywhere in the world.
▪ Also dozens of Web-only broadcasters, with no over-the-air operations.

Local Digital: HD Radio
 Local station are also adopting digital radio
▪ Prepares them for the day when high definition or HD radio becomes
popular.
 According to equipment manufacturers,
▪ HD radio, (which requires an HD receiver)
▪ Brings FM-quality sound to AM stations and CD-quality sound to FM
broadcasts.
 Does anyone listen to radio online?
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Top Formats by Audience Listening Preference
According to the chart in the text what are the top 5?
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
Dayparts
 Dayparts are how radio divides the day.
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▪
▪
▪
▪
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Morning Drive time: 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Midday: 10a.m. to 3 p.m.
Afternoon Drive time: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Evening: 7 p.m. to midnight.
Overnight: midnight to 6 a.m.
Stations top personalities like Howard Stern or Don Imus
 programmed during drive times or “prime time” of radio programming.
 This audience might also be given more traffic, weather, and news reports
 What are the controversial issues with Howard Stern and Don Imus?
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
Talk/News Formats
 Talk radio, had around 170 stations in 1987.
 By 2007 it had grown to more than 1,300 stations.
 The format appeals to working and middle-class adults
▪ 35+ who appreciate outspoken opinions of the show’s hosts.
 News formats attract a more upscale audience
▪ By providing a formula that listeners can rely on for information.
 Any talk radio fans in here?
▪ What shows do you listen to?
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 The formula never varies at WINS, a popular New
York City all-news station:
▪ Complete news update every 22 minutes.
▪ Time every 3 minutes.
▪ Weather every 5 minutes.
▪ Traffic every 10 minutes.
▪ Sports at 15 minutes before and after every hour.
▪ What are some radio stations you listen to because
of placement of material?
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
Public Radio
 Congress set up National Public Radio in 1970
▪ To interconnect public, or noncommercial stations
▪ Produce programs for them to use.
▪ Stations get income from listener memberships and corporate
underwriting.
 Government funding was reduced drastically during the 1980s.
▪ Critics fear that stations will not offer programs that critically examine
donor corporations.
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
Station Personnel
▪ On-air talent includes talk show hosts, reporters and disc jockeys.
▪ The program/music director, determines the station’s playlist,
▪ typically includes three dozen new singles, or “currents.”
▪ A hot current will be placed in “heavy rotation” airing four or five times a
day.

Audience
▪ Most listeners want a station to be dependable and are loyal to just two or
three stations.
 Who has 2 or 3 stations that they listen too regularly
▪ Which ones are they?
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
The Effects of Concentration
 Critics are concerned that concentration of ownership
▪ May cut down on the number of different voices that are heard on the
important debates of the day.
 When government rules limited the number of stations a
network could own, listening choices multiplied.
 The Telecommunications Act of 1996
▪ Eliminated restrictions and radio outlets are being placed in fewer hands
creating potential conflicts of interest.
▪ Disney was once criticized for refusing to allow its Disney-owned ABC
radio networks to air news reports critical of its Disney-owned theme
parks.
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
Shock Radio
 Shock Jocks like Howard Stern
▪ Derive humor and ratings by using vulgarity, racism, sexism, cynicism,
▪ Things that will attract amazed listeners.
▪ The FCC has levied fines against several stations that air shock radio.
 The fines became so heavy by 2007 that shock radio moved
mostly to satellite radio.

Diversity and Censorship
 Some radical groups avoid censorship by creating pirate radio
stations, which are unlicensed, illegal, low power outlets.
▪ Some pirates regularly move locations to avoid being closed down by the
FCC.
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved