Test Bank for Media of Mass Communication, 11/e
Chapter 5 Sound Media
5.1 Multiple-Choice Questions
1) What is the name of the Internet radio site on which users create a radio station by naming a
performer and allowing the site to choose similar music?
A) AOL
B) Music4U
C) Pandora
D) SoFloRadio
2) What is the greatest value radio provides to the music industry?
A) free airplay
B) fees paid to play songs
C) concert promotions
D) insightful interviews
3) Radio and the recording industry have a symbiotic relationship that
A) cuts into the profits of both as they share audiences and revenue.
B) is based on the recording industry’s need for to promote and sell its products.
C) offers the greatest benefit to radio stations by increasing their appeal to advertisers.
D) used to be based on the now-illegal practice of payola.
4) Airplay can be described as all of the following EXCEPT
A) broadcast time devoted to a piece of music, discussion topic, ad, or other specific message.
B) a commodity greedy DJs and radio executives thought they could sell.
C) the gain record companies sought to receive from payola.
D) radio or television game shows.
5) The music and record industries have been connected since the
A) 1890s.
B) 1920s.
C) 1940s.
D) 1950s.
6) How many global companies dominate the recorded music industry with corporate tentacles
into other media?
A) 2
B) 4
C) 9
D) 12
7) Independently owned record-making companies, not part of the Big Four, are called
A) online outlets.
B) private labels.
C) A & Rs.
D) indies.
8) Which of the following is NOT one of the top-four, global music companies?
A) Universal Music
B) Sony Music BMG
C) Motown
D) Warner Music
9) Sony Music BMG is based in which country?
A) U.S.
B) England
C) France
D) Japan
10) Who invented Napster?
A) Michael Robertson
B) David Geffen
C) Shawn Fanning
D) Steve Jobs
11) What company did the recording industry first target in an attempt to stop file sharing of
music?
A) Grokster
B) Kazaa
C) Napster
D) iTunes
12) Downloading music without paying is considered
A) OK if you or your friend bought the CD.
B) legal.
C) illegal.
D) OK if you own the computer.
13) While it lasted, Napster did all of the following EXCEPT
A) helped drive countless radio stations into bankruptcy.
B) made Shawn Fanning a folk hero as a benefactor of music-loving computer-users.
C) reduced the sale of recorded music in the U.S by more than 50%.
D) violated the copyrights of music creators, producers, and distributors.
14) Which of the following has NOT suffered financially because of the online delivery of digital
music?
A) Sam Goody
B) Musicland
C) Amazon
D) Napster
15) Whose idea was iTunes?
A) Al Gore
B) Gerald Levin
C) Steve Jobs
D) Bill Gates
16) Who introduced the iPod?
A) Apple
B) Gateway
C) Dell
D) Napster
17) Compared to Napster and other peer-to-peer file-swapping systems, iTunes offered all the
following advantages EXCEPT
A) it used a new and more efficient file format that required less disk space.
B) it was much cleaner and more virus-free than peer-to-peer file-sharing.
C) its prices and selection of available tunes was widely appealing.
D) i sound quality, although acceptable, wasn’t as good as Napster had offered.
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18) The amount of music that is downloaded for free outside of the recording industry’s revenue
stream is
A) estimated as being 95% of all music downloaded worldwide.
B) far worse in the U.S. than it is in Europe.
C) good news for iTunes.
D) steadily declining as more recording companies switch over to online sales.
19) The rationale behind government regulation of the radio industry was based on the concept
that
A) the electromagnetic spectrum is a public asset.
B) the Constitution did not have radio in mind, so radio is not covered by free-speech protections.
C) by making money radio became a business and therefore subject to government regulation.
D) radio waves were illegally being used by con-artists and hatemongers.
20) As the airwaves became regulated, licenses were given to those stations that broadcast
A) content that would fit within strict guidelines.
B) frequency-modulated signals.
C) only during daytime hours.
D) in the public interest, convenience and necessity.
21) By licensing stations to operate in specific service areas and limiting individual ownerships, the
government intended to foster
A) cacophony.
B) local accountability.
C) networks.
D) national pride.
22) The legal principle that justifies government licensing of radio and television stations is
A) the Bill of Rights.
B) the First Amendment.
C) the marketplace concept.
D) the trusteeship concept.
23) The total number of commercial and public radio stations in the United States is over
A) 5,000.
24) The leading radio format in the U.S. is
A) religious.
B) country.
C) classic rock.
D) top 40.
25) Current popular radio station formats include all of the following EXCEPT
A) adult contemporary.
B) adult spontaneous.
C) classic rock.
D) urban contemporary.
26) With the 1996 deregulation of radio stations, the government moved from a trustee concept of
regulation to a
A) channel scarcity concept.
B) democratic concept.
C) laissez faire concept.
D) marketplace concept.
27) The two different technologies that are used to define radio channels and signal characteristics
are frequency modulation (FM) and
A) aerial modification (AM).
B) amplitude modulation (AM).
C) antenna magnetization (AM).
D) azimuth modernization (AM).
28) Revenue streams for public radio stations include all of the following EXCEPT
A) contributions from donors and members.
B) federal funds channeled through the CPB.
C) subsidies from the National Association of Broadcasters.
D) underwriting from corporate and organizational sponsors.
29) Which medium has become a ubiquitous mass medium, available anytime, everywhere?
A) television
B) radio
C) newspaper
D) news
30) On a weekly basis, how much time does the average teenager or adult spend listening to the
radio?
A) about 8 hours
B) about 16 hours
C) the equivalent of almost an entire 24-hour day
D) the equivalent of almost two full days
31) Radio remains very popular, but some of its listeners have recently been turning to all of the
following alternatives EXCEPT
A) iPods and other personal music storage devices.
B) MTV and other music programming on television.
C) Pandora and other online music streaming services.
D) Sirius XM, and other direct-to-listener satellite services.
32) Thomas Edison introduced a recording-playback device in the
A) 1850s.
B) 1870s.
C) 1890s.
D) 1920s.
33) Radio personality Tom Joyner has a reputation for
A) playing crude music.
B) spearheading social issues.
C) his jazz programming.
D) his Motown playlist.
34) Comedies, dramas, variety shows and quiz shows, which once dominated network radio
programming, migrated to television during which decade?
A) 1930s
B) 1940s
C) 1950s
D) 1960s
35) During the 1970s, AM stations experienced a declining audience as listeners fled to
A) television.
B) cassette recordings.
C) FM radio.
D) cable television.
36) Such radio pioneers as Edward Murrow helped radio pioneer breaking news coverage during
A) World War I.
B) World War II.
C) the Cold War.
D) the Vietnam War.
37) The programming innovator who created the all-news radio format was
A) Edward R. Murrow.
B) Gordon McLendon.
C) Garrison Keillor.
D) Walter Cronkite.
38) What set National Public Radio and its flagship program All Things Considered apart from other
radio news programming?
A) long-form stories
B) headline news
C) breaking news
D) two-minute news segments between Top 40 hits
39) Many radio stations began dropping their expensive news operations during the 1990s when
A) the public appetite for news decreased.
B) advertising revenue began to decline.
C) the Federal Communications Commission dropped its public service requirement.
D) cable television stole their audience.
40) Which characteristic does NOT represent the majority of listeners to political talk shows on
radio?
A) Republican
B) lower economic class
C) white
D) male
41) Originally developed to focus on news, politics, and societal trends, many talk radio stations
devolved into emphasizing all of the following EXCEPT
A) controversial and often wacky or vitriolic, personalities.
B) humor, including call-in comedy competitions.
C) self-help, heath and relationship advice.
D) sports boosterism and trivia.
42) The first programming created by NPR was
A) Morning Edition.
B) All Things Considered.
C) A Prairie Home Companion.
D) Fresh Air.
43) NPR’s economic future was secured by a major gift from
A) Rush Limbaugh.
B) Edward R. Murrow.
C) Joan Kroc.
D) Gordon McLendon.
44) How much of the content aired by an average NPR affiliate station is actually produced by the
station itself?
A) almost two-thirds
B) about one-half
C) almost one-third
D) about one-quarter
45) SiriusXM, the company formed by the merger of Sirius and XM, reaches its audience via
A) terrestrial networks.
B) satellite transmissions.
C) techno-works.
D) public radio stations.
46) Terrestrial radio is a term that encompasses
A) all forms of non-digital radio.
B) radio delivered through radio towers.
C) digital radio transmissions.
D) radio programming from networks.
47) The self-proclaimed founder of podcasting who called himself “podfather” was
A) Adam Curry.
B) Tom Joyner.
C) Al Gore.
D) Shawn Fanning.
5.2 True/False Questions
1) Pandora is a satellite radio network.
2) The symbiosis between radio and the recording industry arose in the 1980s in response to the
emergence of the Internet.
3) Payola, which is illegal pay-to–play bribery of radio personnel, is a reflection of how strong the
symbiotic relationship between radio and the recording industry is.
4) Radio and recorded music are based on very different technologies, but what they have in
common is their interest in mass marketing sound.
5) Radio airplay of a recording company’s music is important because it helps the recording
company know what artists and sounds should be recorded next.
6) Although radio stations get a discount, their purchase of music to play on the air is an important
source of revenue for the recording industry.
7) A big problem in the early days of rock and roll on radio, payola virtually disappeared after
federal prosecutions in 1959 cleaned up the radio industry.
8) A radio station’s playlist contains all of the songs that its DJs are allowed to play on the air.
9) The music industry is concentrated in major companies known as the Big Six.
10) One of the most successful indies in recording industry until it was bought out was Motown.
11) The Big Four recording companies account for roughly 84% of the U.S. market and 75% of the
global market for recorded music.
12) All of the Big Four recording companies are U.S.-owned and based conglomerates.
13) Shawn Fanning wrote the Napster software for file-sharing audio downloads.
14) The Supreme Court halted iTunes’ free distribution of music.
15) Napster’s impact on the recorded music industry was incredibly dramatic and caused several
major music-retailing chains to go out of business.
16) Some of the most obvious casualties of file-sharing were independent, stand-alone music stores.
17) When it was first introduced, iTunes faced some of the same legal challenges that drove Napster
out of business.
18) The recording industry is worried that up to 95% of all music downloaded worldwide is outside
of its revenue-generating channels.
19) The problem of free music-swapping is now much worse outside the U.S. than it is here.
20) Even though the sales of downloaded music are up, the sales of other recordings are so far
down that they have offset the gain and produced an overall decrease in total sales.
21) The Federal Radio Commission, created in 1927, was the predecessor of the Federal
Communications Commission.
23) Early government regulation of radio stations was implemented under the marketplace
concept.
24) When radio licensing was established, each station was assigned a specific frequency and
maximum power level so its broadcast signal wouldn’t interfere with other stations.
25) There are more than 13,000 radio stations in the United States.
26) Even though radio station licenses specify that they must serve a particular geographic area,
few stations today are actually locally owned.
27) The FRC was able to license radio stations, but networks were exempt from government
licensing because they didn’t direct use the public airwaves.
28) Because they don’t sell advertising and operate as non-profit entities, public radio stations are
except from FCC licensing.
29) Country radio programming trails adult contemporary and classic rock formats in popularity.
30) Choosing a format is a marketing decision radio stations make to help them deliver an audience
with clearly defined characteristics to their advertisers.
31) Although sound recordings could be made and re-played in the 1870s, it wasn’t possible to
duplicate them for another ten years.
32) Arbitron is a company that surveys radio listenership.
33) Many radio stations eliminated news departments after deregulation in the 1990s.
34) News on radio stations that limited their news coverage to very short stories and 2-3 minute
newscasts were often called a headline service.
35) National Public Radio was the first all-news station.
36) The audience for talk radio is representative of mainstream Americans.
37) The proliferation of talk radio formats creates a perception of more news and information
being on the air than ever before, but there are actually fewer stations broadcasting news.
38) NPR went on the air in the 1930s.
39) NPR is much more financially secure since it received millions of dollars from the widow of the
founder of McDonald’s restaurant chain.
40) Sirius and XM, once independent satellite radio networks, have merged into one company.
41) Terrestrial radio no longer exists because of digital advancements.
42) MP3 players have contributed to an increased radio audience.
43) Adam Curry, who is often called “podfather,” is said to have invented podcasting.
44) Podcasting is another name for “on-demand radio broadcasting.”
45) TuneIn Radio allows listeners to draw on-demand programming from 50,000 radio stations
from all around the world.
46) Napster demonstrated how traditional mass media industries often miss transformational
opportunities presented by new technologies until it’s almost too late to save themselves.
47) Although they were late in developing, the recording industry’s adoption of selling mechanisms
for downloaded music have now replaced the revenue they initially lost from declining CD sales.
48) Radio’s shift away from news to more music in the 1990s clearly demonstrated its basic
capitalistic nature and desire to maximize profits.
5.3 Short Answer Questions
1) __________ changes the role of the radio listener from being a passive recipient of someone else’s
playlist into an active participant who helps determine what is played.
2) Radio __________ is essentially free advertising for the recording industry because radio listeners
may buy the songs they hear and like on the radio.
3) A radio station’s __________ contains all of the songs that its DJs are allowed to play on the air.
4) Radio stations have become financially dependent on recorded music because it is __________
programming compared to bringing live talent into the studio to perform.
5) There are __________ recording companies that make up the group known as the majors.
6) Warner Music and __________ are the members of the Big Four with headquarters in the U.S.
7) Shawn Fanning developed technology for online music swapping that he called __________.
8) The recording industry responded to Napster by filing a suit that claimed it was committing
__________ by helping others to illegally duplicate protected intellectual property.
9) Napster was essentially put out of business when the __________ ruled that it was guilty of
facilitating the illegal copying of protected intellectual property.
10) __________ was the driving force behind Apple’s introduction of iTunes.
11) The recording industry is worried that up to __________ of all music downloads are free and do
not produce any revenue.
12) Although recording companies make some money from iTunes, they remain unhappy that
Apple keeps __________ of every 99-cent sale on iTunes for itself.
13) Congress regulated radio stations by saying that the airwaves carrying radio signals are
__________ assets.
14) Broadcast licensees are required to broadcast programs that are in the __________, convenience
and necessity.
15) The Federal __________ of 1927 legally established the government’s right to license and regulate
broadcasting.
16) The financial foundation of broadcasting is __________.
17) Today, noncommercial radio stations are called __________ radio, although most of them were
originally designated educational radio stations.
18) The United States has more than __________ radio stations.
19) The most popular format in radio today is ___________ music.
20) On average, there are more than __________ radio receivers in each U.S. household.
21) __________ is a radio listener survey company.
22) Recent studies show that American adults and teenagers, on average, listen to radio more than
__________ hours per week.
23) Thomas Edison could make and re-play sound recordings by 1877, but there was no way to
copy or duplicate them until __________ found a way to do it 10 years later in 1887.
24) Edward R. __________ was a pioneer broadcast journalist.
25) __________ went on the air in 1970 with its flagship All Things Considered that featured long-form
stories.
26) The quasi-public agency that administers federal funds to noncommercial radio and television
stations is the Corporation for __________.
27) Public radio stations are NOT allowed to carry __________, but they can acknowledge their
supporters on the air, even those who manufacture or sell products.
28) __________ is the company that resulted from the merger of the XM and Sirius satellite radio
networks.
29) Regrettably, the __________ format which has the potential for serious public dialogue most often
ends up airing little more than showmanship and bluster.
30) Some critics think the smart, sophisticated conversation featured on __________, a syndicated
program hosted by John Hockenbery from WNYC, demonstrates what talk radio should be.
5.4 Matching Questions
Match each person in the left column with the appropriate claim to fame in the right column.
1) Tim Westergren
A) iTunes
2) Shawn Fanning
B) Radio talk show host
3) Steve Jobs
C) Major benefactor of NPR
4) Adam Curry
D) Live radio newscasts of World War II
5) Gordon McLendon
E) Napster
6) Joan Kroc
F) Pandora
7) Garrison Keillor
G) Podfather
8) Edward R. Murrow
H) Top 40 and all news radio formats
9) Rush Limbaugh
I) Prairie Home Companion
Test Bank for Media of Mass Communication, 11/e
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Match each organization in the left column with its product or accomplishment on the right..
1) Sony Music BMG
A) On-demand radio
2) Pandora
B) All Things Considered
3) RIAA
C) Radio listener survey company
4) FRC
D)Represents the recorded music industry’s interests
5) CPB
E) Lets listeners program their own musical choices
6) Arbitron
F) One of the Big Four
7) Clear Channel
G) First government regulatory agency for U.S. media
8) NPR
H) Helps fund noncommercial broadcasting
9) TuneIn Radio
I) Radio station chain
5.5 Essay Questions
1) Describe the ways Pandora’s operations differ from over-the-air radio stations, especially how its
playlists differ from those of radio stations. Then discuss the implications of these differences for
building a community of listeners and explain which approach you think is best.
2) Explain how the long-time dependency between the radio and recording industries developed
and cite the benefits that each receives from the other..
3) Discuss how file sharing and other electronic distribution of music via the Internet has changed
the landscape of the recording industry, including distribution and sales. Cite three companies that
were affected by these changes and explain how they were helped or hurt. .
4) Describe how radio’s two-tier infrastructure reflects both local and national influences. Include
at least two examples from each level of policies, practices, or people that show either a local or a
national perspective.
5) Given that commercial radio stations get essentially all of their revenue from advertisers and not
from listeners, discuss whether listeners or advertisers are more important to stations. Explain why
it is or isn’t important for stations to keep their listeners happy.
6) Describe how public radio and commercial radio differ in terms of station ownership, sources of
financial support, and general programming content. With these differences in mind, discuss which
type of stations you would expect to be more responsive to its audience members and their
interests.
7) Describe three alternative ways the general public can receive radio-like program content
without listening to a traditional, locally-licensed radio station. Discuss the extent to which these