rc 8.radio
TRANSCRIPT
Media History from Gutenberg
to the Digital Age
Slides based on the Bloomsbury book by Bill Kovarik
Revolutions in
Communication
Chapter 8 – Radio and the Golden Age
Web site & textbook
Textbook:
1st edition – 2011
2nd edition – 2016
http://www.revolutionsincommunication.com
Hertz, Maxwell
Like discovering a new continent Interest in electromagnetic spectrum
sparked by solar flares of 1859 James Clerk Maxwell publishes theoretical
paper on the mathematics of the electromagnetic spectrum
Heinrich Hertz tests Maxwell’s theory and measures radio waves ◦Asked about the value of the experiment, Hertz
told students: “It’s of no use whatsoever.”Edison discovers thermionic emission Scientific basis for radio in place by 1890s
Two visions of radio Guglielmo Marconi Reginald Fessenden
Spark radio telegraphy Continuous wave telephony
Guglielmo Marconi Gifted amateur who used Edison
“cut and try” method Made radio telegraphy practical
1890s ◦Low frequency ◦Grounded antenna ◦High power transmitter
The signal soaked up the entire spectrum – only one transmitter at a time possible
Reginald Fessenden Scientific approach Made radio telephony practical
1906 ◦High frequency transmission ◦lower power transmitter◦Bounced signal off ionosphere
Used modified Edison / Fleming tube, triode
Continuous wave - many transmitters possible at the same time
Titanic - April 15, 1912 Marconi spark
system ◦ Protected by patents but ◦ Long out of date◦ Only one signal at a time
Nearby ship Californian told to “get off” the air “Sixteen hundred lives were lost that should have
been saved if the wireless communication had been what it should have been.” NY Times, May 2, 1912
Titanic changes radio Radio monopolies outlawed –
◦Federal Radio Act of 1912 Fessenden continuous wave
system widely adopted American Marconi becomes Radio
Corporation of America (RCA)
Radio Music Box Memo 1916 (20?)
David Sarnoff of RCA envisions radio broadcasting supported by advertising
"I have in mind a plan of development which would make radio a 'household utility' in the same sense as the piano or phonograph. The idea is to bring music into the house by wireless.
"Radio Music Box" Memo, David Sarnoff, November, 1916/January, 1920(?)
Monopoly radio network Demand for radio explodes after WWI
◦5,000 tubes per month in 1921 to 200,000 by mid-1922; by 1930 125 million / month
RCA creates NBC 1926 ◦Network broadcasts begin
FRC 1927 General Order 40 ◦Created 25 super stations (clear channel)
23 of these were NBC owned or affiliated ◦Some 700 independent and educational
radio stations were pushed off the air
The Golden Age of radio An “electronic hearth” McLuhan:
◦“Re-tribalizing” effect ◦Return to oral culture
Radio borrowed from vaudeville and theater
During its golden age in the 1930s and 40s, radio attracted the best entertainers in the world.
Amos n’ Andy - 1st popular show
Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, two white actors, gave humorous portrayals of African Americans around a barber shop and taxi service. The show was stereotyped and offensive by modern standards.
On radio1928 – 1960
On TV
1951- 1953, Withdrawn
1966
Lowbrow, stereotyped
humor, offensive to
African Americans.
Less controversial at
the time than the present.
On Air 1931 – 1942
NBC Blue network
Comic strip NY Daily News 1924
“Gee whiskers” “Leapin' lizards!”Ovaltine
sponsors wrote radio scripts and shunned comic strip’s original political messages
Sidekick: Punjab
Lone Ranger “Hi-ho Silver,
Away” tagline was invented moments from first airtime
Kimo-Sabe means Faithful Scout
On Air 1933
– 1956
Mutual
NBC
Bruce Beemer played the Lone Ranger on radio in the 1940s and 50s
Radio debut in 1930 as narrator for Detective Story Hour
Comics followed Shadow program
1937Orson Wells
narrated 1937-38 Batman was a
take-off On Air 1937
– 1940s
CBS
NBC Chase & Sanborn Hour NBC’s main Sunday night
program Starred Charlie McCarthy
& Edgar Bergen Also:
◦ Eddie Cantor ◦ Jimmie Durante ◦ Dorothy Lamour
◦ Bob Hope ◦ Nelson Eddy
◦ Don Ameche ◦ Mae West (banned in
1938)
Mae West in the Garden of EdenWith
“If trouble is something that makes your blood run like seltzer water, mmh, Adam, give me trouble… “
Big trouble from the FCC, Dec. 12, 1937
CBS – Mercury Theater
On Air 1938
– 1940CBS
Warof the World
sOct 30
1938
Why a panic? News program style6 million listened, 1 million believed War news from
Europe was new No commercial
breaks (Mercury had no sponsor)Wells didn’t believe that people were
really panicking / didn’t break up program
FDR’s Fireside Chats 1933 – 1944
30 informal talks
Started as NY governor 1929
Term coined by CBS exec, not Roosevelt, but he adopted it.
Edward R. Murrow, Wm. ShirerCBS “director of talks”
Covered London as war broke out
Shirer based in Berlin
Father Charles Coughlin “Hate speech” on the radio Weekly broadcasts 1926 – 1940 16 million listeners in mid-1930s
Anti-communist, antisemitic, isolationist, conspiracy theorist
Openly sympathetic to Hitler Direct paraphrasing Nazi propagandaSecretly took $ from Nazis NBC, CBS refused to run program after Kristalnacht comment in 1938:
"Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted.”
Content regulation FRC licensing upheld in Brinkley, Trinity
cases 1930s ◦ Note press licensing not upheld in Near v
Minnesota, 1933 NAB code changes 1938 FCC Mayflower decision 1940 FCC Blue book report 1946
◦ Attempt to fight “Shabby commercialism” and a “listeners be damned” attitude
◦ Public service requirements Fairness doctrine 1947
◦ Equal time for all viewpoints
Structure regulation NBC two networks – blue and red
◦Blue network becomes ABC following anti trust decision by US Supreme Court, 1942
Loraine Journal v US, 1951◦Supreme Court said newspaper could
not refuse advertising simply because a company also placed radio ads
◦(Regulation of “refusal to deal” was the basis of the Microsoft anti-trust suit 1999)
New competition from TV Television replaces radio early 1950s Radio reverts to local ownership and music
content ◦ Corruption in promotions called “payola”
Music industry growth 4x 1960 – 1980 Formats fragment New competition leaves radio going
bankrupt Telecomm Act 1996 allows consolidation of
radio industry under few owners◦ Clear Channel and Viacom/CBS Infinity
Broadcasting now own most of market
Talk radio End of the “Fairness Doctrine” in
1987 gave a green light to partisan political radio shows
Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, Glen Beck
Liberal talk radio fails to launch ◦Air America 2004 – 2010
Satellite radio, podcasting XM Radio and Sirius get FCC approval
1997 ◦Express condition was that they never merge
XM Radio and Sirius merge 2008 International satellite radio
◦Increasingly useful for UN peacekeeping Podcasting made possible through ITU’s
MPEG-1/Layer3 (mp3) compression technology
Mobile asynchronous audio devices like iPods mean the end of the radio audience
Review: people Heinrich Hertz, James Clark
Maxwell, Guglielmo Marconi, Reginald Fessenden, Edwin H. Armstrong, David Sarnoff, William S. Paley, Lone Ranger (Bruce Beemer), Orson Wells, Herbert Morrison, Mae West, Amos n’ Andy, Edward R. Murrow, William L. Shirer, Father Charles Coughlin, Charlie McCarthy & Edgar Bergen, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Review: Concepts Radio telegraphy, radio telephony,
continuous wave versus spark, talk radio, radio censorship, fireside chats, War of the Worlds broadcast, controversy over news on radio, FRC regulation, Mayflower decision (leading to Fairness Doctrine, Ch 9); payola scandals, radio station ownership consolidation in Telecommunications Act of 1996, satellite radio, internet radio, MP3 players (iPods etc – Decoder Ring Theater)
Next: Chapter 9 Television