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65. What established the Federal Radio Commission?
A) The Radio Act of 1912
B) The Radio Act of 1919
C) The Radio Act of 1927
D) The Radio Act of 1934
E) None of the options are correct.
66. The act that first emphasized that broadcasters did not own their channels but were
granted licenses provided they operated in the “public interest, convenience, or necessity” was
the _________________.
A) Federal Communications Act of 1934
B) Radio Act of 1912
C) Radio Act of 1927
D) 1932 revocation of RCA’s monopoly status
E) None of the options are correct.
67. With the Federal Communications Act of 1934, the Federal Radio Commission became
the ______.
A) Wireless Communication Commission
B) National Broadcasting Company
C) Federal Communications Commission
D) Radio Corporation of America
E) None of the options are correct.
68. What time period is considered the “golden age” of radio?
A) 1960s
B) Early 1900s
C) 1920s and 1930s
D) 1890s
E) 1990s
69. Which radio program panicked listeners on Halloween eve in 1938?
A) The Shadow
B) The Green Hornet
C) Amos ‘n’ Andy
D) War of the Worlds
E) None of the options are correct.
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70. Why did the public find it easy to believe that Orson Welles’s broadcast of War of the
Worlds was a real event?
A) Newspapers also printed the story as true.
B) It was done in the style of a real news broadcast.
C) A sizable meteor really did hit New Jersey that day.
D) The broadcast was never identified as fiction or a dramatization.
E) All of the options are correct.
71. Which of the following technologies did not cause major changes in the radio industry?
A) Television
B) The Internet
C) The transistor
D) FM transmitters
E) The telegraph
72. The transistor made radio receivers ______.
A) portable
B) expensive
C) larger
D) stereophonic
E) disposable
73. Prior to the 1950s and 1960s, most radio listening occurred in the home because ______.
A) people didn’t have televisions yet
B) radio sets before the invention of transistors used bulky and delicate vacuum tubes
C) automobiles weren’t really widespread yet so most people couldn’t leave home
D) radio programs used to be longer and required people’s undivided attention
E) None of the options are correct.
74. Which of the following best sums up the advantages and disadvantages of FM radio
versus AM?
A) FM included less static, had better sound fidelity, but traveled for shorter distances.
B) FM included less static, could travel longer distances, but had uneven results with
pitch.
C) FM was an older, cheaper technology but did better with stereo sound.
D) FM was much better suited to the spoken voice because music sounded clearer on
AM.
E) None of the options are correct.
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75. When the radio industry was forced to reorganize in the 1950s, which of the following
was not among the changes made?
A) A turn to format-driven radio
B) A greater dependence on recorded music
C) Featuring top deejays during prime driving periods
D) A move to reach national audiences
E) The repeated playing of top songs
76. Which statement indicates why radio typically has its biggest audiences between 6 and 9
A.M. and between 4 and 7 P.M.?
A) Many people listen to the radio as they drive to and from work.
B) The funniest shows are on at those times.
C) The lucrative teenage audience listens most during those times.
D) Radio stations want it to be that way.
E) None of the options are correct.
77. Which of the following indicates how radio listeners today are different from radio
listeners in the 1930s?
A) Listeners today are loyal to specific stations or formats rather than to specific
shows.
B) Listeners today tune in at a specific time to hear their favorite radio programs,
rather than cruising through stations.
C) Peak listening occurs in the evening hours today, rather than during drive time.
D) Today, people listen to their radio at home more than people did in the 1930s.
E) None of these options are correct.
78. Radio formats usually target specific audiences according to ______.
A) age
B) gender
C) race or ethnicity
D) income
E) All of the options are correct.
79. One of the driving forces behind the adoption of format radio was that ______.
A) radio stations could charge an advertising premium for target audiences
B) paperwork became easier for program directors
C) disc jockeys had a chance to play a wider variety of music
D) it made it easier for record companies to promote new artists
E) radio stations could fulfill their public service requirements
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80. Which of the following statements about the news/talk/information radio format is true?
A) From 1987 until 2014, the number of stations with this format rose from just under
200 to more than 2,000.
B) It is more expensive to produce than a music format.
C) It appeals to advertisers looking to target working- and middle-class adult
consumers.
D) It tends to appeal to listeners over thirty-five years old.
E) All of the options are correct.
81. The most popular music format on U.S. radio today is ______.
A) country
B) contemporary hit radio
C) urban contemporary
D) top 40
E) adult contemporary
82. Nonprofit radio today is ______.
A) accepting liquor advertising
B) prospering
C) buying up commercial radio stations
D) converting to analog equipment to save money
E) struggling to survive government funding cuts
83. Which of the following statements about National Public Radio is true?
A) It is fully funded by the U.S. government with reliable support from the Republican
Party.
B) It has fewer than two million listeners nationwide each week.
C) It is completely free of sponsorship from private businesses and corporations.
D) Morning Edition and All Things Considered are two of its popular programs.
E) None of the options are correct.
84. Satellite radio ______.
A) relies on transmitters and towers on the ground to reach consumers
B) is now being provided by only one company in the United States
C) is mostly used by ham radio operators for secure signals, not by the general public
D) is free to consumers once they buy the equipment that receives the satellite signal
E) is splintered into dozens of competing satellite radio providers
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85. Which of the following is true about HD radio?
A) It allows a radio station to broadcast several different formats simultaneously on the
same frequency it already uses.
B) It is the same thing as satellite radio.
C) It has been exploding in popularity, and consumer demand is outstripping the ability
of radio stations to keep up.
D) HD radio is an analog technology.
E) It was developed in the 1950s but kept from the public for decades by business
owners.
86. Which of the following statements about the relationship between the radio industry and
the concept of media convergence is false?
A) The convergence between radio and the recording industry was just the earliest
instance of radio overlapping with another form of mass media.
B) Radio has heavily converged with the Internet with things like podcasts and
streaming audio.
C) Internet stations are able to negotiate royalty rates directly with the music industry.
D) Internet radio harkens back to the early days of radio, with its large variety of
stations, and to the transistors of the fifties, with its portability.
E) Internet radio only includes existing stations that simulcast over the Web.
87. Podcasting is ______.
A) an agricultural term that refers to spreading pods over a large area
B) a radio industry practice of sending a bundle, or pod, of programming to affiliates
C) the practice of making a program available online that can be played on computers
or portable MP3 players
D) a reference to the small booths, or pods, that disc jockeys work in
E) None of the options are correct.
88. Despite new technologies like personal MP3 players and music online, traditional radio
continues to see billions of dollars in advertising money because ______.
A) advertisers are accustomed to using radio and are slow to change
B) advertisers like the music played on a particular radio station
C) over 90 percent of American teenagers and adults listen to the radio in a given week
D) advertisers are required by law to place a percentage of their ads on the radio waves
E) None of the options are correct.
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89. The top three radio companies in the United States are ______.
A) CBS, Salem, and Univision
B) iHeartMedia, Cumulus, and Townsquare
C) Cox, Cumulus, and CBS
D) Cumulus, Cox, and CBS
E) iheartMedia, CBS, and Lotus
90. Univision is the top ______ broadcaster in the United States.
A) nonprofit
B) European
C) alternative
D) Spanish-language
E) None of the options are correct.
91. What has been the defining feature of public debate regarding radio as a natural
resource?
A) Broadcasting companies are eager for questions on their financial arrangements.
B) Public debate is vigorous and intense over the role of radio.
C) There is little public debate over the issue.
D) Record companies want to encourage debate in order to create the best environment
for artists to grow on the airwaves.
E) All of the options are correct.
92. Invented in the 1840s, the _________________________ was the precursor of radio
technology.
93. The system of sending electrical impulses from a transmitter through a cable to a
reception point was developed by American inventor Samuel _________________________.
94. In the mid-1860s, James Maxwell theorized that _________________________ waves
existed.
95. Lee De Forest claimed as his biggest breakthrough the development of the
_________________________, or triode, vacuum tube.
96. Now a media term, _________________________ was once an agricultural term that
referred to casting seeds over a large area.
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97. Westinghouse established a station with the call letters _________________________,
which aired national returns from the Cox-Harding presidential election on November 2, 1920.
98. The government-approved commercial company that allowed the United States to gain
world leadership in broadcasting was named _________________________.
99. The Radio Act of _____________________ established the Federal Radio Commission.
100. The Communications Act of _________________________ established the Federal
Communications Commission.
101. A type of radio and sound transmission that stresses the volume or height of radio waves
is called _________________________.
102. _________________________, originally called Top 40 radio, encompasses everything
from hip-hop to pop punk.
103. The _________________________ is a private, nonprofit corporation created by
Congress in 1967.
104. _________________________ is a noncommercial radio network established in 1967 by
the U.S. Congress to provide an alternative to commercial broadcasting.
105. _________________________ is a digital technology that enables AM and FM radio
broadcasters to multicast two or three additional compressed signals within their traditional
analog frequency.
106. _________________________ could refer to an online simulcast of a traditional radio
station or to a service designed especially for this use.
107. _________________________ is the practice of making audio files available for
download over the Internet.
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108. The practice of record promoters paying deejays or programmers to play particular songs
is called _________________________.
109. _________________________ is the company that owns the largest number of radio
stations in the United States.
110. _____ developed the FM Radio.
111. _____ launched National Broadcasting Company (NBC).
112. In the late 1800s, _____ developed wireless telegraphy.
113. Playing a central role in the improvement of wireless signals, _____ was the first to send
voice through the airwaves.
114. _____ developed the Audion, or triode, vacuum tube, which detected and amplified radio
signals.
115. Why was the development of the telegraph important in media history?
116. Marconi is widely considered the father of radio, yet he never did any broadcasting, nor
was he part of the media. Explain.
117. What were De Forest’s and Fessenden’s contributions to radio?
118. Why was the RCA monopoly formed?
119. WEAF in New York was the first “toll broadcasting” station. What does that mean?
120. How and why did radio networks develop?
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121. By the late 1920s, radio had grown from a dispersed and local medium into a national,
commercial mass medium. Describe two important consequences of that growth for
programming.
122. How did broadcasting come to be federally regulated?
123. Explain how radio survived the coming of television.
124. Define format radio, and give examples.
125. Will Internet radio mean the end of traditional radio? Why or why not? How are
traditional radio stations and networks responding to this latest round of technological change?
126. Since the 1950s, in what ways could the radio industry be said to have experienced
convergence with other media?
127. What kind of radio consumer are you? Describe the ways you use radio—regular
broadcasts, podcasts, HD radio, satellite radio, or Internet radio. Do you actively listen to the
radio or is it just “in the background”?
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Answer Key
1. B
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45. B
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91. C