1. Popular Radio and the Origins of Broadcasting
Chapter 4:
Popular Radio
and the Origins
of Broadcasting

2. Some guiding questions
What technological developments led to the birth of broadcasting?
How did commercial radio networks get started?
How has radio reinvented itself in the TV age?
What are some issues about radio ownership, government regulation, and democracy?

3. What impact has radio had on 20th-century American culture?

4. RADIO ESTABLISHED
The origin and foundations of today’s broadcast industry (including patterns of ownership and control)

5. RADIO ORIGINATED the genre model of drama and comedy programming (still used on TV today)

6. RADIO NEWS created models for newsgathering and electronic journalism

7. RADIO PROVIDES
an example of how the function and format of a mass medium can change to survive

8. ORIGINS OF THE BROADCASTING INDUSTRY

9. Technological Inventions
1. Telegraph (1840s) and telephone (1870s)
2. Marconi: invented wireless telegraphy (1894) -- used code, not voice
Established British Marconi (1897) and American Marconi (1899)

10. Technological Inventions
3. Fessenden: first to broadcast human voice on radio waves (1906)
4. DeForest: invented vacuum tube (1907 )
Sold patent to AT&T*

11. WHO WAS INTERESTED IN EARLY RADIO TECHNOLOGY?
What groups had an interest in either the technology or the potential uses of radio?

12. Early experimental stations (1910s)
Educational, community-oriented
At some colleges and universities

13. Amateurs: ham operators (1906-WWI)
Put together their own receiving sets; attempted to tune in shipping messages and to transmit their own messages
Similar to today’s computer hackers and cyberpunk cultures--on cutting edge of new technology

14. Companies holding patents to broadcasting technology
General Electric (GE)
Westinghouse
AT&T
United Fruit

15. Shipping Industry
E.g., United Fruit, Inc. had large banana plantations in Central and South America.
Needed to communicate between ships and main offices onshore

16. U.S. Navy Needed reliable ship-to-ship/shore communications
In era before WWI, increasing need for defense and other military communications

17. EARLY REGULATION of the new radio medium by the U.S. Government
Why did the government need to regulate it?
What steps did it take?
How did this help the industry?

18. ACTS OF U.S. CONGRESS Wireless Ship Act of 1910 Radio Act of 1912
To protect ship passengers
Gave the radio industry a boost in sales
Radio Act of 1912
Gave U.S. Department of Commerce the power to license private broadcasters and set guidelines for frequencies and power

19. WORLD WAR I was the central force in the formation of broadcasting:
WORLD WAR I was the central force in the formation of broadcasting: How and why?

20. When America declared war in 1917, the U. S
When America declared war in 1917, the U.S. Navy seized control of radio
Shut down all other uses (especially amateurs)
Developed portable radios for field operations

21. After the war, a big struggle for control of the radio industry
U.S. Navy seized American Marconi stations to eliminate foreign interests
Amateur Radio League opposed Navy's control
U.S. Government wanted to eliminate disputes between GE, Westinghouse, AT&T, etc.

22. So -- the U.S. Government placed control of the radio industry in the hands of corporate interests by forming the RCA monopoly.
WHY?

23. Formation of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1919: AMERICA’S FIRST BROADCASTING MONOPOLY

24. What was RCA? a patent pool
AT&T telephone lines
GE & Westinghouse radio transmitters and receivers
United Fruit, Inc. patents on components

25. Purpose of forming RCA: to create American supremacy in communications technology
Nationalistic -- no foreign companies allowed
Marconi forced to sell transmitters, stations, and patents to RCA

26. RCA marketed all radio equipment produced by subsidiary companies.
However, internal disputes between GE, Westinghouse, and AT&T continued.

27. BIRTH OF COMMERCIAL RADIO UNDER RCA

28. First commercial stations
1920: KDKA, Pittsburgh (Frank Conrad, owned by Westinghouse)
1922: WEAF, New York (owned by AT&T): introduced concept of "toll broadcasting"
By 1922, 400 stations licensed by Department of Commerce

29. FORMATION OF NETWORKS
RCA patents pool was legally questionable under antitrust law.
In 1923, the FTC formally charged RCA with monopolistic practices.

30. The parties settled out of court.
AT&T agreed to withdraw from broadcasting in 1925.
RCA, GE, and Westinghouse formed NBC in 1926.
NBC’s stations would be linked by AT&T's phone lines.

31. NBC went on the air in 1926 with twenty-five affiliated stations
Affiliate: a station connected to the network but not owned by it.
Legally, no single company could own more than seven radio stations.
NBC was, in fact, becoming another monopoly.

32. NBC grew rapidly
By 1928, NBC had two affiliates in every area of the country.
Since they were the only game in town, business was booming and profits were high.

33. So -- in 1928, the NBC network split itself into two networks:
NBC BLUE: carried more high culture: dramas, symphony music
NBC RED: carried more entertainment, popular programming

34. What about independent stations?
Couldn't provide the high quality programming.
Didn't have the economic resources of a network.
Inevitably, other stations attempted to network themselves together -- that's how CBS started (c. 1927).

35. CBS got off to a shaky start .
William S. Paley bought CBS
New concepts and strategies
By the 1930s, CBS competitive with NBC

36. GOVERNMENT REGULATION: The Radio Act of 1927
established Federal Regulatory Commission (FRC) to regulate all forms of radio communication

37. The Radio Act of 1927
Radio was to serve the public interest -- to operate in "the public interest, convenience and necessity" (PICAN Principle), since the public owns the airwaves.
Therefore, the FRC licensed stations to use frequencies, not to own them.

38. PURPOSE OF U.S. BROADCASTING: to attract audiences for advertisers
“Delivering” consumers to sponsors
Programming produced as "bait" for consumer
Most radio programs (except news and public affairs) were produced and controlled by sponsors: called single-sponsor system.

39. How Radio influenced TELEVISION
Single sponsorship system of commercial radio
Program segmentation and format
Liveness: real time, sense of immediacy--tradition of broadcast news and sports
Continuing characters--
Identification and attachment

40. HOW DID RADIO RE-INVENT ITSELF in the television age?
Alliance with music recording industry
Rise of FORMAT and Top 40 radio (age of the disk jockey)
National network radio programming
Growth of TALK RADIO

41. COMMERCIAL RADIO TODAY
Economics based upon advertising
National network radio services provide programming
Specialized radio formats (Top 40, news/talk, adult contemporary, Spanish language, country, etc.)

42. NONPROFIT RADIO
Public Broadcasting Act and Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1960s: established NPR and PBS
Variety of formats, both traditional and experimental
NPR: distinctive niche in radio news

43. Alternative Voices in RADIO
1948: Pacifica radio stations began occupying left-wing, radical niche
Low-power stations (10-watt) licensed ; revitalized in 2000 with LPFM service
Micropower “pirate” radio broadcasting