978-1305580985 Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Radio: Riding New Waves

Chapter Outline

• Radio Sounds Are Everywhere

• Radio Takes a Technological Leap

• Broadcasting Is Born

Wireless Breakthrough: Guglielmo Marconi

Experimental Broadcasts: Reginald Aubrey Fessenden

Detecting Radio Waves: Lee de Forest

A Household Utility: David Sarnoff

• Federal Government Regulates the Airwaves

Government Approves Commercial Broadcasting

Experimental Stations Multiply

KDKA Launches Commercial Broadcasting

• Radio Audience Expands Quickly

Blanket Licensing

Commercial Sponsorship

Federal Radio Commission

• Radio Grows into a Powerful Force

• “The War of the Worlds” Challenges Radio’s Credibility

• Radio Networks Expand

David Sarnoff Launches NBC

William S. Paley Starts CBS

Edward Noble Buys ABC

• Radio Adapts to Television

Inventor Edwin H. Armstrong Pioneers FM

Licensed Recordings Launch Disc Jockeys

Clock, Car and Transistor Radios Make Radio a Necessary Accessory

Gordon McLendon Introduces Format Radio

Payola Scandals Highlight Broadcast Ethics

• Radio at Work

• Congress Creates National Public Radio

• Portability and Immediacy Help Radio Survive

• Telecommunications Act of 1996 Overhauls Radio

• Are Radio Ratings Accurate?

• Radio Depends on Ready-Made Formats

• Audience Divides into Smaller Segments

• Competition Revives Payola

• Digital Audio Delivers Internet and Satellite Radio

• Streaming Splits Radio Industry Income

Suggested Activities, Discussions, and Exercises

1. Divide the class into groups. Assign each group a radio station with a

distinct format (country, hip hop, Top 40, etc.). Ask each group to program

their morning drive time radio show. What music will they play if any?

Why? What other elements will be part of the show? Why or why not?

Have students present it to the class either in the classroom or in an

online report.

2. Visit a radio station (perhaps a campus radio station) or invite the general

manager or program director of a local commercial or public station to visit

your class to discuss the current state of the industry and its future.

3. Assign your students to listen to two radio stations with distinctly different

formats in your market area and write a comparison paper.

4. Listen to a recording of a popular radio program from the 1930s or

1940s—The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, The Jack Benny Program, or

others—with your students. Ask the students to interview their parents,

grandparents or other older adults who remember listening to those

programs for their memories about the “golden days” of radio.

5. Identify a radio station (or group of stations owned by the same company)

in your area that uses both local talent and syndicated programming.

Invite to your class a representative that can discuss the pros and cons of

both approaches.

Activity Pages

Use the following activity pages as class handouts for exercises and to

accompany some of the classroom Ideas described above.

Comparing Radio Stations

Listen to two radio stations with significantly different formats as described in the

textbook (country, adult contemporary, religious, middle of the road [MOR],

Contemporary Hit/Top 40, album–oriented rock [AOR], News/Talk, Spanish–

language). You may need to call the stations to find the answers to some of the

following questions. Be prepared to share the results in class.

• What are the station’s call letters and

frequency on the dial?

• What is its format?

• How long has the station been on the

air?

• Who owns the station? Is it locally

owned or part of a national corporation?

• Does the station have a mission

statement? What are its broadcasting

goals?

• Give some examples of frequently

played songs/artists/programs.

• Does the station have live

announcers/disc jockeys, tape, or

satellite format?

• Who are the most popular

announcers? What are the most popular

programs?

• What kinds of programming does the

station offer during the day? Evening?

• What is the station’s target audience?

How many people does it reach? What

were its latest Arbitron ratings?

• Does the station have a website? What

online services does it offer?

• Who are the station’s biggest

advertisers? How much does a 30–

second commercial in the evening sell

for? How much does a 30–second spot

in morning drive time sell for?

• How much advertising per hour is

there? What types of ads does the

station most commonly run?

• What special promotions does the

station do? What kind of events does it

sponsor to be visible in the community?

• What does the station do as part of its

public service obligation?

• What do you think makes this station

successful?

• What do you think it needs to improve?

• Why do you, your family or your friends

listen to this station?

• Does the station offer a news

program? At what times? Who are the

on–air reporters? How many editors are

there? How many people does it take to

put the news on the air? How much

does it cost?

• Does your station broadcast on the

Internet? If so, how is that different from

traditional broadcasting?

• How do you envision your station in

2020? What will it look and sound like?

Internet Radio

Using the Internet, compare at least two Web radio sites. Answer the following

questions for each of the sites you choose.

Address of website:

website’s actual name:

Format of site:

Three examples of music or programming on the site:

•

What you like about the site:

What you’d like to see on the site:

Address of website:

website’s actual name:

Format of site:

Three examples of music or programming on the site:

•

What you like about the site:

What you’d like to see on the site:

Chapter 6 Quiz

Multiple Choice

1. Heinrich Hertz:

a. experimented with radio waves, which became known as Hertzian waves.

b. promoted wireless radio wave transmission.

c. sent the first message by telegraph.

d. was a radio advertising pioneer.

2. The ________ is responsible for scheduling commercials on a radio

station.

a. general manager

b. account executives

c. program manager

d. traffic department

3. The Radio Act of 1912:

a. dictated that broadcasters could operate only in New York City.

b. forbid commercials on radio.

c. required federal licenses for people who wanted to broadcast or receive

messages.

d. required RCA to sell one of its two networks.

4. Blanket licensing meant that:

a. all stations owned by the same company came up for license renewal at the

same time.

b. the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers charged stations

a fee for licensed music.

c. stations paid musicians and composers directly for the rights to the music.

d. stations were allowed to play music only if they also devoted a portion of their

broadcasts to news and public affairs.

5. The man credited with inventing “format” radio is:

a. Alan Freed.

b. Reginald Fessenden.

c. Gordon McLendon.

d. David Sarnoff.

ANS: C

6. Payola:

a. is the payment of cash or gifts by disc jockeys or program directors to keep

competitors’ recordings off the air.

b. concerns the payment of cash or gifts by recording companies to disc jockeys

or program directors in exchange for air play.

c. does not violate FCC rules.

d. is allowed only in certain states.

7. The Telecommunications Act of 1996:

a. limits the number of radio stations that one company can own worldwide.

b. removed the limit on the number of radio stations a company can own

nationwide.

c. encourages more local programming.

d. None of these are correct.

8. Cross ownership is:

a. illegal in the broadcast industry.

b. when a company owns individual radio and TV stations in the same market.

c. the percentage of total population that a station reaches.

d. when two companies share ownership of a radio station.

9. The ___________________, which said broadcasters must operate in the

“public convenience, interest or necessity,” became the foundation for all

broadcast regulation.

a. Radio Act of 1912

b. Radio Act of 1927

c. Telecommunications Act of 1996

d. Communications Act of 1934

10. The most significant trend in radio today is toward:

a. network programming.

b. more music programming.

c. greater audience segmentation.

d. public radio popularity.

True/False

1. The first radio network was CBS, established in 1926.

ANS: F

2. Pittsburgh’s KDKA radio was the nation’s first commercial station, established

in 1920.

3. “The War of the Worlds” broadcast demonstrated that alarming information

could be misinterpreted by the public, and radio stations had to take

responsibility for their broadcasts.

ANS: T

4. Many Spanish-language radio stations are AM stations that have been

converted from less-profitable formats.

5. The form of payola under investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot

Spitzer in 2005 involved payments to stations by music artists.

Essay Questions

1. How has the Telecommunications Act of 1996 affected the industry? What

changes has it brought about?

2. Describe the role of the federal government in regulating radio

broadcasting.

3. Discuss the controversy over whether Arbitron radio ratings are accurate

and what the effects of potential inaccuracy may be.

4. Discuss the early development of radio networks.

5. Discuss the impact of digital technologies on the delivery of radio signals

and on the future of commercial broadcasting revenue.