2. Inventing Radio
Morse’s Telegraph (1840s)
Allowed message transmission across distance
Morse code (1844)
Radio waves
1867: James Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic radiation
1887: Heinrich Hertz discovers “Hertzian Waves”
3. The Original “Wireless”
Narrrowcasting = point-to-point
Broadcasting = point-to-many
Guglielmo Marconi (1894)
Wireless telegraphy wireless telephony radio
Marconi Company makes commercial success
4. Radio Starts
Reginald Fessenden (1890s)
Created “one-to-many” transmission
Christmas Eve, 1906 – “O Holy Night” broadcast
From Brant Rock, Mass. to ships off Atlantic Coast
Lee De Forest – “Father of modern electronics”
Audion vacuum tube (1906)
Picked up & amplified radio signals
5. Early Regulation
1910 – Wireless Ship Act
All ships carrying >50 passengers & traveling >200
mi. off the coast MUST have wireless technology
Radio Act of 1912
After Titanic sinking
All radio stations must have licensed call letters &
trained operators
Formally adopted SOS distress signal
6. The Business of Radio
1919 - RCA (Radio Corporation of America)
GE’s private sector, government-run monopoly
Created in part due to security concerns of WWI
KDKA: 1st Commercial Station (1920)
Frank Conrad’s amateur station, 8XK
Music & news 2x / week
5 stations in 1921 >600 by 1923
7. Business of Radio
Revenue
Advertising (8% of media ads)
Pay-for-play: Up-front pay from record companies to
play songs
Payola
Promoters pay deejays to play records (1950s)
Guaranteed sales
Ongoing?
8. Radio Networks
AT&T’s power grab
Opposed RCA’s monopoly (but had own!)
Made & sold own receivers
Began selling ads – “toll broadcasting”
1926 - NBC (National Broadcasting Company)
RCA (50%), GE (30%), Westinghouse (20%)
1928 - CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System)
William Paley
Paid affiliates $50/hr to carry programs
9. Radio Act of 1927
Problems
Growing power concentration
Channel interference
Frequency usage
Licensees did not own channels, but could use
for “public interest, convenience or necessity”
Federal Radio Commission (FRC)
Dictate stations & frequencies
Later FCC (Fed. Comm. Act of 1934)
10. Radio’s Golden Age
Immediate News
Live Music
Evening Programming
Variety Shows
Quiz, etc.
Genre Shows
Mystery, Comedy,
Western
Sponsorship
Usually one company
Cultural Mirror?
Reflects the times
12. Evolution of Radio
AM FM
Transistors = Portability
Format Radio
Formula-driven
Use rotation
Management controlled
13. Radio Formats
News/Talk
Adult contemporary
Top 40
Country
Urban
Spanish-language
Not-for-profit
14. Evolution of Radio
Digital
Internet radio
On-demand radio apps
Satellite radio
Podcasts
iTunes Radio
15. Modern Radio
Resistance to Top 40
Experimental radio
“Background noise”
Media multi-tasking
Drive Time over Prime Time
Specialization
Editor's Notes
Used in reporting, communication during Civil War. Used electromagnet to send electrical impulsesSamuel Morse…series of short and long beeps to forms words/phrases – first message chosen by niece; quote from bibleHetzian waves = electromagnetic waves = radio waves
Marconi transmitted first radio signal across Atlantic using electromagnetic waves (first long-distance radio)
Fess. Worked for EdisonU.S. Navy & GE sponsored research
Used to use a lot of technology from Europe, telegraphyConrad worked for GE competitor and got found out! Had to make official
Payola - 2007 FCC investigationRevenue dropped over years (ads, not as popular form of media), but # of stations keep growing
After ATT - GE, RCA, Westinghouse followed
15-min night programsSponsorship = “be sure to drink your ovaltine?!”Lots of stereotypes: racial, gender Amos and andy = one of most pop radio progs of 20s-40s: “The first sustained protest against the program found its inspiration in the December 1930 issue of Abbott's Monthly, when Bishop W.J. Walls of the African Methodist Church wrote an article sharply denouncing Amos 'n' Andy, singling out the lower-class characterizations and the "crude, repetitious, and moronic" dialogue. The Pittsburgh Courier was the second largest African-American newspaper at the time, and publisher Robert Vann expanded Walls' criticism into a full-fledged crusade during a six-month period in 1931.The paper, among other publicly stated efforts, published a petition to get the program pulled from the air, with a stated goal of one million signatures. The NAACP national office declined to endorse the protest, although some of their local chapters stood behind the effort. Before the campaign was dropped.”
H.G. Welles~1 million people panicked: “The Panic Broadcast”1 person died of heart attack**Orson lied…was interrupted by boss mid-broadcast & told to stop due to people panicking. He refused to let it be interrupted, and claimed he would announce at end
FM radio works the same way that AM radio works. The difference is in how the carrier wave is modulated, or altered. With AM radio, the amplitude, or overall strength, of the signal is varied to incorporate the sound information. With FM, the frequency (the number of times each second that the current changes direction) of the carrier signal is varied. FM signals have a great advantage over AM signals. Both signals are susceptible to slight changes in amplitude. With an AM broadcast, these changes result in static. With an FM broadcast, slight changes in amplitude don't matter -- since the audio signal is conveyed through changes in frequency, the FM receiver can just ignore changes in amplitude. The result: no static at all. Transister=semiconductor of electric signal/frequencyFav radio station? Format?
Personalization, customization (semantic web)Pandora chooses songs based on >400 variables (when “liking”)Siruisxm merger – 2008 (both came out in early 2000s)