FILM 4210
Critical History of
Radio & Television
WEEK 1:
MON: CLASS OVERVIEW, INTRODUCTIONS,
LECTURE (ORIGINS OF BROADCASTING)
WED: SCREENING EMPIRE OF THE AIR
EARLY VISIONS OF TELEVISION
Punch – Du Maurier, 1879
predicted two way
communication
of sporting
events.
1882 french artist, Robida
predicted that women would use
the “telephonoscope” to learn
about consumer goods for the
home and men would watch “girlie
shows” and “battles” in the
comfort of their living rooms.
INNOVATORS
GUGLIELMO MARCONI –
- a “boy tinkerer” worked “outside the academy”
- His mother, Annie Jameson Marconi, supported
ambitions
- drew from existing telegraph technologies and theories of
“the ether” to develop wireless communication.
- Key contributions the “antenna” which allowed for
telegraphed messages using MORSE CODE to be
transmitted through the air. – the “wireless”
- Italians rejected his invention. Mrs. Marconi and the
Jameson family connected him with British government.
INNOVATORS
GUGLIELMO MARCONI –
- 1897 Marconi Company formed
- 1899 the New York Herald invited Marconi to the
U.S. to cover The America’s Cup Race using his
“wireless”
- 1899 “wireless” technology marketed to US Navy
under the subsidiary American Marconi
INNOVATORS
Key reasons why US press supported Marconi’s
wireless technology:
- it could compete against the high priced Western Union
telegraph and Bell Telephone monopolies.
- Postal Service was slow and “antiquated”
- Newspapers anticipating owning their own wireless
stations
- PROMOTED REASON: save lives, promote
understanding, reduce loneliness and isolation, put long
distance communication in the hands of the people.
RESULT: Massive eruption of “wireless mania” and “boy
amateur operators”
INNOVATORS
REGINALD AUBREY FESSENDEN-Canadian electrical engineer contracted to work on
wireless experiments for US Dept of Agriculture
- Formed National Electric Signaling Company and
focused on wireless “voice” transmissions.
- Coined the term “radio”
- 1906 Christmas Eve ship wireless operators throughout
the Atlantic Ocean and as far as the West Indies heard a
woman sing “O Holy Night” and a man read the
Christmas story passage from Luke 2:1-20
- United Fruit Company equipped their banana boats with
radios
- Fessenden’s company acquired by Westinghouse
INNOVATORS
LEE DE FOREST –
- Further developed voice transmission with the use of the
“audion tube”
- Conducted several demonstrations using popular music,
live readings of newspaper articles, and women’s suffrage
speeches. [A precursor to commercial radio broadcast
programming formats]
- Conceptualized “broadcasting” rather than person-toperson or ship-to-shore communication.
- “Broadcasting was thought to have “no commercial
value” but the amateur operators embraced the
news/entertainment program format
INNOVATORS
DAVID SARNOFF- Russian Jewish immigrant
- Not an inventor or a scientist. As a young began working as a
wireless operator for American Marconi.
- By age 18 he was a manager at American Marconi. Is credited
with reporting the sinking of the Titanic.
- After WWI when the US Government forced American
Marconi to transfer its interests Sarnoff went to work for
Radio Corporation of America (RCA).
- [RCA formed from United Fruit, AT&T, Westinghouse and
American Marconi]
- Later became President of RCA and debuted the first
television public broadcast at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair
REGULATION & OWNERSHIP
- First 10 years of wireless were unregulated
- Congress presented several bills. None passed.
- Navy wanted total control over wireless
- “amateur boys” lobbied Congress to keep airwaves
free and in the hands of the people.
- Collision of the Republic and the Florida led to the
- 1910 Wireless Ship Act
REGULATION & OWNERSHIP
1910 Wireless Ship Act
- The Republic’s wireless helped save 1200 people.
- Ships must be equipped with wireless if:
-
- they carry 50+ people
-entering or exiting a US port
Traveling 200 miles or more.
REGULATION & OWNERSHIP
Key reason for proposed regulation:
- Interference on the airwaves. Overcrowding.
- 1910 Wireless Ship Act created more overcrowding
REGULATION & OWNERSHIP
The Titanic Wireless Room Jack Phillips refuses to leave
post
- The California was less than 20 miles from Titanic but
they’d shut down for the night. Wireless left unmanned.
(1912) Titanic disaster led to:
- Ship wireless must be manned and operational at all
times. (two employees and auxiliary power).
- Fines and jail time for erroneous reports
- Ships required to respond to distress calls
- The Radio Act of 1912
REGULATION & OWNERSHIP
Radio Act of 1912
- All operators must be licensed
- Stations adhere to assigned wave allocations
- Amateurs (who passed license test) relegated to
“short waves”
- Fines for “malicious interference”
- Strongest end of the spectrum given to the Navy
- The government could take full control in a time of
crisis/war.
REGULATION & OWNERSHIP
WWI
- All amateurs required to leave the air and seal their equipment in
-
-
a closed box for the duration of the War
After War Navy tries once again to wrestle control of wireless
from corporate interests
Congress did not pass Navy owned wireless. (In part due to
continued “boy amateur” protests).
Instead required all radio to be US owned. Forced American
Marconi to dissolve.
Gov’t set up a shell corp called Radio Corporation of America and
orchestrates collection of assets and stock sales to GE,
Westinghouse, AT&T and United Fruit
RCA would become the leader in international communication