4. Akio Morita is best known as the engineer who invented the Sony Walkman in the late 1970s.
5. Sales of prerecorded music have been in a downward spiral for many years and show no sign
of bottoming out any time soon.
6. KDKA was the United States’ first commercial radio station.
7. Frank Conrad was the engineer who put KDKA, the first commercial radio station in the
United States, on the air.
8. Frank Conrad was the promoter responsible for transforming Elvis Presley into a major
recording star.
9. The golden age of radio was from the late 1960s until 1985.
10. Both of the actors on the radio show Amos ’n’ Andy were white.
11. The BBC World Service continues to be primarily a shortwave radio service around the
world, staying away from online and social media.
12. Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry both helped create rock ’n’ roll by combining white hillbilly
music with black R&B music.
13. The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones were all rock groups that were a part of the
British punk movement of the 1970s.
14. Motown was one of the first recording labels publishing songs for black artists to perform as
hits rather than providing a source of covers for white artists.
15. Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon helped show that recorded music could exist as
something independent from live musical performances.
16. In Los Angeles, Spanish-language stations have low ratings and can’t attract enough
advertisers to turn a profit.
17. Rob Cesternino has shown that he can use his fame from being on a short-head television
reality show to being a successful host of a long-tail podcast series.
18. Political talk radio is populated primarily by liberal hosts.
19. Shock jocks draw listeners by making offensive and outrageous comments on the air.
20. National Public Radio’s Morning Edition news program attracts a larger daily audience than
any of the television networks’ morning news programs.
21. Content broadcast on satellite radio has to meet the same level of content decency as
terrestrial radio does.
22. New car audio systems allow drivers to listen to streaming audio sources like Pandora as well
as CDs or terrestrial radio.
23. Brian Ibbot is the host of the podcast Coverville.
24. In North Africa, hip-hop music is used primarily to talk about drinking and partying.
Essay
1. What was the key difference between Edison’s phonograph and Berliner’s gramophone?
2. How does notated music differ from non-notated music?
3. What was the significance of David Sarnoff’s “Radio Music Box” memo?
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. How does the BBC avoid charges of being a colonial voice with its program Focus on Africa?
5. In the recording industry, what is a “cover”?
6. Who was Dewey Phillips?
7. What makes talk and sports radio so popular with advertisers?
8. The new form of digital AM radio broadcasting is known as ______.
9. Who are the major providers of consumer satellite radio in the United States?
10. How do streaming audio and podcasting differ from each other?
11. How do musicians make money in China, where CD piracy is rampant?
12. List two reasons why 12” vinyl LP albums have a staged a resurgence in popularity.
13. In a brief essay, discuss the role that rock ’n’ roll played in integrating music.
14. In a brief essay, explain what podcasts are, how they provide a long-tail alternative to
broadcasting, and discuss what kind of programming can be found in podcasts.
15. In a brief essay, explain how recording artists have responded in the twenty-first century to
the threats of file sharing and other new digital media to their ability to make a living.
16. In a short essay, using Rob Cesternino as an example, explain how being successful on a
short-head media program and a long-tail program differ.
