Ch8.radio

Brief lectures in

Media History

Chapter 8 Radio’s Golden Age

(11 of 15)

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.”

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 Gifted amateur who used Edison

“cut and try” method Made radio telephony practical

1906 ◦High frequency transmission ◦lower power transmitter◦Bounced signal off ionosphere

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system ◦ Protected by patents but ◦ Long out of date◦ Only one signal at a time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)

David Sarnoff envisions radio broadcasting supported by advertising

Monopoly radio network Demand for radio sets explodes after

World War I ◦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 ◦A 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

On radio1928 –

1960

On TV 1951- 1953,

Withdrawn 1966

Lowbrow, sterotyped

humor

But with some social

values

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 Eden

With

“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

Hindenburg news / War of Worlds

Welles and script writers studied the Hindenburg broadcast to make War of the Worlds more authentic.

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 approved 1997

◦ 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

Podcasting makes satellite radio more or less obsolete

Mobile asynchronous audio devices like iPods mean the end of the radio audience

But storytelling is never obsolete

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