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Answer Key
1. B
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45. B
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91. C
1. Competition among media meant that with the arrival of television, radio became
obsolete.
A) True
B) False
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2. Guglielmo Marconi is credited with creating FM radio.
A) True
B) False
3. Guglielmo Marconi envisioned wireless telegraphy only as point-to-point
communication and not as a one-to-many mass medium.
A) True
B) False
4. Alexander Popov was a Russian academic whose experiments in wireless
communication occurred at roughly the same time as Marconi’s.
A) True
B) False
5. During his lifetime, Nikola Tesla received much recognition for his wireless inventions.
A) True
B) False
6. Inventor Lee De Forest developed a vacuum tube capable of detecting and amplifying
radio signals.
A) True
B) False
7. The word broadcasting derives from the steel industry, in part because KDKA in
Pittsburgh was one of the first stations to begin using radio as a mass medium.
A) True
B) False
8. In its entrepreneurial phase, radio was marketed as a ship–to-shore communication
device.
A) True
B) False
9. The Titanic sank in 1912, resulting in the loss of about fifteen hundred lives; had it not
been for radio, seven hundred additional lives would have been lost.
A) True
B) False
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10. Congress passed the Radio Act of 1912 in response to the sinking of the Titanic.
A) True
B) False
11. The American Marconi Company had trouble developing as a business after World War
I in part because the U.S. Navy did not want a foreign-controlled company wielding so much
power in the field of emergent radio technologies.
A) True
B) False
12. Because of the role of the navy in early broadcast history, the United States today has a
national broadcasting system both controlled and supervised by the government.
A) True
B) False
13. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was formed after World War I to give the
United States an early worldwide monopoly over radio broadcasting.
A) True
B) False
14. During the 1920s, the United States was the only country that allowed commercial
interests to control broadcasting.
A) True
B) False
15. Network radio helped modernize America by deemphasizing local in favor of national
programs.
A) True
B) False
16. In the 1920s, CBS operated two radio networks, CBS-Red and CBS-Blue.
A) True
B) False
17. The aim of early radio networks such as CBS and NBC was to serve the public interest.
A) True
B) False
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18. Under the Radio Act of 1927, broadcasters were allowed to own their radio channels.
A) True
B) False
19. The Radio Act of 1927 created the Radio Corporation of America.
A) True
B) False
20. In the 1940s, NBC willingly sold its Blue network because it was losing money.
A) True
B) False
21. With the Communications Act of 1934, the Federal Communications Commission
officially became the Federal Radio Commission.
A) True
B) False
22. Radio soap operas got their name because they were a “clean” form of entertainment that
lived up to the social and moral codes of the time.
A) True
B) False
23. Throughout radio’s early history—from the 1920s through the 1940s—advertisers
exercised very little control over program content.
A) True
B) False
24. Most early radio shows had many sponsors instead of a sole sponsor.
A) True
B) False
25. Edwin Armstrong filed five patents on AM to offer static-free radio reception.
A) True
B) False
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26. The first transistor radio was marketed by Sony in 1953.
A) True
B) False
27. By the 1960s, most radio listening was done outside the home.
A) True
B) False
28. RCA delayed the deployment of FM radio for many decades because it was more
concerned with the development of television.
A) True
B) False
29. The first person to discover and develop FM radio in the 1920s and the 1930s was David
Sarnoff of RCA.
A) True
B) False
30. Edwin H. Armstrong developed AM radio.
A) True
B) False
31. FM radio was an immediate commercial success and made its inventor a rich and happy
man.
A) True
B) False
32. The Top 40 format refers to the forty most popular hits in a given week as measured by
record sales.
A) True
B) False
33. The vast majority of the top radio talk-show hosts promote conservative viewpoints.
A) True
B) False
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34. Country is the most popular radio format today.
A) True
B) False
35. Laws from the 1930s allocated 25 percent of all broadcast frequencies to nonprofits. The
law is still in effect.
A) True
B) False
36. In 1948, the FCC approved 10-watt FM stations with a seven mile broadcast range to
allow more people to participate in radio.
A) True
B) False
37. Politicians have threatened to cut government funding for public broadcasting.
A) True
B) False
38. Contemporary public (noncommercial) radio mostly follows a variety rather than a
specified format.
A) True
B) False
39. HD radio has had a slow roll-out, however, by 2016 every major auto manufacturer sold
models with built-in HD radios.
A) True
B) False
40. iHeartRadio is no longer one of the major Internet radio stations.
A) True
B) False
41. Clear Channel refused to make a deal with the music industry about equalizing royalty
rates paid by broadcast radio, satellite radio, and Internet radio.
A) True
B) False
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42. Problematic in the 1950s, payola, the practice of manipulation of play lists, is no longer
an issue in radio broadcasts because of Internet radio.
A) True
B) False
43. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 set off an unprecedented consolidation in radio
station ownership.
A) True
B) False
44. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 decreased the number of broadcast stations a
single person or corporation can own.
A) True
B) False
45. Radio generates its largest profits by selling big national ads.
A) True
B) False
46. In the late 1990s, hundreds of radio stations shifted from individual to chain ownership.
A) True
B) False
47. iHeartMedia radio stations can be heard throughout most of the United States.
A) True
B) False
48. The nation’s largest radio network is owned by telephone giant AT&T.
A) True
B) False
49. The nation’s largest broadcast group owns more than eight hundred radio stations.
A) True
B) False
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50. The rise of pirate micropower radio stations in the United States in the 1990s led the
federal government to approve a new class of noncommercial low-power FM radio stations in
2000.
A) True
B) False
51. The telegraph was useless as a means of communicating between ships at sea or between
ships and the shore because ______.
A) its signal was too weak to travel across bodies of water
B) the telegraph signal was distorted by the electromagnetic spectrum
C) telegraph equipment was too cumbersome to be used aboard ship
D) the telegraph required a wire cable connecting the sending and receiving stations
E) All of the options are correct.
52. The very earliest uses of Marconi’s wireless radio were for ______.
A) military and commercial shipping
B) gossip and shipping
C) advertising and the military
D) entertainment and ads
E) playing rock-and-roll records
53. The ______ was important to radio technology because it allowed radio signals to be
amplified.
A) Hertz
B) Audion vacuum tube
C) cathode ray tube
D) telephony
E) electromagnetic wave
54. Which statement best indicates how inventors and government offices were able to
establish who was responsible for early developments in radio technology?
A) Patents clearly indicate who invented what piece of technology first.
B) Only Italians and Americans were interested in early broadcasting.
C) Inventors respected other inventors out of a sense of professional courtesy.
D) The early days of radio were heavily regulated, and therefore clearly documented,
by government officials.
E) Simultaneous and independent discoveries, along with competing claims for
patents, often had inventors going to court over their inventions.
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55. Reginald Fessenden is credited with making the first ______, on Christmas Eve in 1906.
A) wireless telegraph
B) distress call from a sinking ocean liner
C) on-air paid advertisement
D) voice broadcast
E) use of Morse code
56. The term broadcasting was originally used in ______.
A) farming
B) construction
C) commercial fishing
D) carpentry
E) manufacturing
57. Which event led to the Radio Act of 1912 (which required most large ships to carry
wireless technology)?
A) Fessenden’s 1906 Christmas Eve transmission
B) The sinking of the Titanic
C) David Sarnoff’s wedding
D) Lee De Forest’s Eiffel Tower broadcast
E) Marconi’s founding of American Marconi
58. The Radio Corporation of America bought which of the following companies?
A) British Marconi
B) American Marconi
C) AT&T
D) Westinghouse
E) WNBC
59. Why were AT&T and GE able to undercut Marconi’s influence with the U.S. Navy, even
though Marconi was the best company?
A) The U.S. Navy wanted to use government-owned companies over private
companies.
B) The U.S. Navy was concerned about a foreign-controlled company having so much
power over their communications.
C) The U.S. Navy wished to promote international relations by using foreign
companies.
D) The U.S. Navy was dissatisfied with the way American Marconi was being run.
E) None of the options are correct.
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60. What three companies controlled most of RCA when it was first a government-approved
commercial monopoly in the early 1920s?
A) NBC, GE, United Fruit
B) AT&T, GE, Westinghouse
C) GE, AT&T, American Marconi
D) ABC, NBC, CBS
E) AT&T, Clear Channel, CBS
61. Who set up a crude radio station above his Pittsburgh garage in 1916?
A) Edwin H. Armstrong
B) David Sarnoff
C) Ethan Zuckerman
D) Rush Limbaugh
E) Frank Conrad
62. Which company became the first to sell ads on the radio?
A) American Marconi
B) AT&T
C) NBC
D) RCA
E) Westinghouse
63. In the late 1920s, which of the following was not a part owner of the National
Broadcasting Company?
A) RCA
B) General Electric
C) Westinghouse
D) CBS
E) All of the companies were owners of the National Broadcasting Company.
64. As a new network, CBS was able to compete with NBC by ______.
A) charging affiliates less for its programs
B) paying affiliates to broadcast its programs
C) being the first network to broadcast in high fidelity
D) advertising its programs on billboards
E) being the first to offer musical programs and quiz shows