Chapter 5
Popular Radio and the
Origins of Broadcasting
The Demise of Local Radio
The consolidation of
stations into massive radio
groups like Cumulus and
Clear Channel in the
1990s and 2000s resulted
in budget-cutting
demands from the
corporate offices and,
ultimately, stations with
less connection to their
local audience.
Maxwell and Hertz Discover Radio Waves
• The telegraph, precursor
of radio technology,
introduced the idea of
nearly instantaneous
communication.
o However, the telegraph could
not transmit voice and was
limited by the reach of wires.
• James Maxwell
o Theorized the existence of
electromagnetic waves (1860s)
• Believed a portion of these
waves, later known as radio
waves, could be harnessed
to transmit signals
• Heinrich Hertz
o Proved Maxwell’s theories (1880s)
o Advanced the development of
wireless communication
Figure 5.1: The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Marconi and the Inventors
of Wireless Telegraphy
• Guglielmo Marconi
o Received a patent on
wireless telegraphy in
England in 1896
• Alexander Popov
o Made parallel discoveries
in Russia
• Nikola Tesla
o Invented a wireless system
in 1892
o Marconi used much of
Tesla’s work.
o Deemed inventor of radio
in 1943
Wireless Telephony: De
Forest and Fessenden
• Lee De Forest
o Wrote the first Ph.D. thesis on
wireless technology in 1899
o Primary interest was wireless
telephony
o Biggest breakthrough was the
development of the Audion
• Reginald Fessenden
o First voice broadcast
•
Regulating a New
Medium
• Four months after the
1912 Titanic disaster,
Congress passed the
first law …
• Radio Act of 1912
o Required licensing
o Adopted the SOS distress signal
• World War I
o Navy took control of radio.
o Corporate heads and
government leaders conspired
to make sure radio served
American interests.
Regulating a New
Medium (cont.)
• The formation of RCA
o GE broke off negotiations to sell radio technologies to European
companies, then took the lead in founding the Radio Corporation of
America (RCA).
o RCA became a monopoly and gave the United States almost total
control over the emerging mass medium of broadcasting.
The Evolution of Radio
• Charles “Doc” Herrold
o Began a station in 1909 that later became KCBS
• Westinghouse engineer’s radio experiments in a
Pittsburgh garage in 1916 evolved, in 1920, into
KDKA, the first commercial radio station.
• Frank Conrad
o Established the first commercial broadcast station, KDKA, in 1920
• U.S. Commerce Dept.
o Licensed five radio stations for operation in 1921
The RCA Partnership
Unravels
• AT&T
o Broke its RCA
agreements in 1922 in
an attempt to
monopolize radio
o Began making and
selling its own radio
receivers
o Started WEAF in New
York, the first station to
sell advertising
o Created the first radio
network
• GE, Westinghouse,
and RCA created
their own radio group
in response
Sarnoff and NBC:
Building the “Blue” and “Red” Networks
• David Sarnoff
o RCA’s first general manager
o Created NBC, which was
shared by RCA, GE, and
Westinghouse
o The original telephone group
became known as the NBCRed network, and the radio
group became known as the
NBC-Blue network.
Sarnoff and NBC:
Building the “Blue” and “Red” Networks
• NBC affiliates
o Paid NBC to carry its programs
o NBC sold national advertising.
o Emphasized national programming
• Sarnoff also
o Cut a deal with GM to manufacture car radios
o Merged RCA with the Victor Talking Machine
Company
Government Scrutiny Ends
RCA-NBC Monopoly
• FTC charged RCA with violations of antitrust laws as
early as 1923.
• RCA bought out GE and Westinghouse’s shares in
RCA’s manufacturing business.
• Government accepted RCA’s breakup proposal
before trial.
CBS and Paley:
Challenging NBC
• First attempt at CBS
failed
• William S. Paley
o Bought a controlling share in
the company, and launched
new concepts and strategies
• Hired PR guru Edward
Bernays
• Used option time to lure
affiliates
• Raided NBC for top talent
• Became the top
network in 1949
Bringing Order to Chaos
with the Radio Act of 1927
• Radio Act of 1927
o Stated that stations could only
license their channels as long
as they operated to serve the
“public interest, convenience,
or necessity”
o Created the Federal Radio
Commission (FRC), which
became the Federal
Communications Commission
(FCC) with the
Communications Act of 1934
Bringing Order to Chaos with the
Radio Act of 1927(cont.)
• Activist FCC went after
the networks in 1941
o Outlawed the practice of
option time
o Demanded that RCA sell one
of its two NBC networks
• NBC-Blue was sold and
became the American
Broadcasting Company
(ABC).
The Golden Age of Radio
• Early radio
programming
o Only a handful of stations
o Live music daily
o 15-minute evening programs
• Variety shows
• Quiz shows
• Dramatic programs
o Most shows had a single
sponsor.
Radio Programming as a
Cultural Mirror
• The most popular
comedy by the 1930s
was Amos ‘n’ Andy
o Stereotyped black characters
as shiftless and stupid
o Created the idea of the serial
show
o Moved to TV and was the first
show with an entirely black
cast
o Canceled in 1953 amid the
strengthening Civil Rights
movement
The Authority of Radio
• War of the Worlds
o Broadcast by Orson
Welles on Halloween
eve in 1938 in the style
of a radio news
program
o Created a panic in
New York and New
Jersey
o Prompted the FCC to
call for stricter
warnings before and
during programs
imitating the style of
radio news
Transistors Make Radio
Portable
• Transistors
o Small electrical devices that
could receive and amplify
radio signals
o More durable and less
expensive than vacuum tubes,
used less power, and
produced less heat
o Led to the creation of small
pocket radios
o Made radio portable
The FM Revolution and
Edwin Armstrong
• FM (frequency
modulation) radio
o Discovered and developed by
Edwin Armstrong in the 1920s
and 1930s
• Greater fidelity and clarity
than AM (amplitude
modulation) radio
• Lost RCA’s support to TV
o FCC opened up spectrum
space for FM in the 1960s
o Surpassed AM radio by the
1980s
The Rise of Format and
Top 40 Radio
• Format radio
o Formula-driven radio
o Management controls
programming
o Developed by Todd Storz in
1949
o Used rotation
o Led to the development of the
Top 40 format
o Creation of the program log
and day parts
Resisting the Top 40
• Expansion of FM in the mid-1960s created
room for experimenting.
o
o
o
o
Progressive rock
Experimental stations playing hard-edged political folk music
Album-oriented rock (AOR)
General classic rock
The Sounds of Commercial Radio
• Listeners today are
unlike radio’s first
audiences in several
ways.
o Radio has become a
secondary or background
medium.
o Peak listening time is during
drive time rather than prime
time.
o Stations are more specialized.
Format Specialization
• Variety of formats
o News, talk, and information
o Music formats
• Adult contemporary (AC)
• Contemporary hit radio (CHR)
• Country
• Urban contemporary
• Spanish language
• Classic rock
• Oldies
Figure 5.4: Most Popular U.S. Radio Formats, Ages 12+
Nonprofit Radio and NPR
• Early years of nonprofit
radio
o In 1948, the government began
authorizing noncommercial
licenses and approved 10-watt
FM stations.
• First noncommercial
networks
o Public Broadcasting Act of
1967
• National Public Radio
(NPR) and the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS)
mandated to provide
alternatives to commercial
broadcasting
New Radio Technologies Offer More Stations
• Satellite radio
o XM and Sirius merged to
become Sirius XM Radio in
2008.
o Accessible through satellite
radios, mobile devices, and
cars with a satellite band
• HD Radio
o Enables multicasting by AM
and FM broadcasters and
provides program data
Radio and Convergence
• Internet radio
o Broadcast radio stations now
have an online presence.
o Online-only radio stations like
Pandora growing in popularity
• Podcasting and
portable listening
o A popular way to listen to
radio-style programs on a
computer or portable music
device
Local and National Advertising
• Radio advertising
o
o
o
o
Comprises 8% of media advertising
Industry revenue has dropped, but the number of stations keeps growing.
Only 20% of budget goes toward programming costs.
National networks provide programming in exchange for time slots for
national ads.
Manipulating Playlists
with Payola
• Payola
o Record promoters paying deejays to play particular records
o Rampant in 1950s
• In 2007, four of the largest broadcasting companies
agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle a payola
investigation by the FCC.
Radio Ownership: From
Diversity to Consolidation
• Telecommunications Act of 1996
o Eliminated most ownership restrictions in radio
o Combined, Clear Channel, Cumulus, and CBS
• Own roughly 1,500 radio stations (more than 10% of all radio stations)
• Dominate the fifty largest markets
• Control about one-half of the entire radio industry’s $17.4 billion
revenue
Alternative Voices
• In the 1990s, activists
set up “pirate” stations
to protest large
corporations’ control
over radio.
• In 2000, the FCC
approved
noncommercial lowpower FM (LPFM)
stations to give voice to
local groups lacking
access.
• Prometheus Radio
Project
o Educates about low-power
radio
Radio and the Democracy
of the Airwaves
• Influence of radio in the formation of American
culture cannot be overestimated.
• Early radio debates
o Requirement to operate in the “public interest, convenience, or necessity”
• Trend of radio moving away from its localism