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Chapter 5
Popular Radio and the Origins of Broadcasting
In this chapter, we examine the scientific, cultural, political, and economic factors surrounding
radio’s development and perseverance. We will:
• Explore the origins of broadcasting, from the early theories about radio waves to the critical
formation of RCA as a national radio monopoly
• Probe the evolution of commercial radio, including the rise of NBC as the first network, the
development of CBS, and the establishment of the first federal radio legislation
• Review the fascinating ways in which radio reinvented itself in the 1950s
• Examine television’s impact on radio programming, the invention of FM radio, radio’s
convergence with sound recording, and the influence of various formats
• Investigate newer developments, like satellite and HD radio; radio’s convergence with the
Internet; and radio’s hopes for greater convergence with the mobile phone industry
• Survey the economic health, increasing conglomeration, and cultural impact of commercial
and noncommercial radio today, including the emergence of noncommercial low-power FM
service
Preview Story: With the emergence of podcasting as an increasingly popular form of reaching
American audiences, radio has answered the challenge by creating podcasts out of their live
programming (and sometimes additional content) as an extension of what they have always
done—build intimate audience connections through sound. While the radio industry (NPR in
particular) has had success in podcasting, fears remain. Will popular independent podcast hosts
be willing to join a broadcast network? Will audiences avoid radio in search of other new
listening experiences? Will expanding podcast inventory dilute audio advertising dollars?
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I. Early Technology and the Development of Radio
A. Maxwell and Hertz Discover Radio Waves
B. Marconi and the Inventors of Wireless Telegraphy
C. Wireless Telephony: De Forest and Fessenden
D. Regulating a New Medium
1. Radio Waves as a Natural Resource
2. The Impact of World War I
3. The Formation of RCA
II. The Evolution of Radio
A. Building the First Networks
B. Sarnoff and NBC: Building the “Blue” and “Red” Networks
C. Government Scrutiny Ends RCA-NBC Monopoly
D. CBS and Paley: Challenging NBC
E. Bringing Order to Chaos with the Radio Act of 1927
F. The Golden Age of Radio
1. Early Radio Programming
2. Radio Programming as a Cultural Mirror
3. The Authority of Radio
III. Radio Reinvents Itself
A. Transistors Make Radio Portable
B. The FM Revolution and Edwin Armstrong
C. The Rise of Format and Top 40 Radio
D. Resisting the Top 40.
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IV. The Sounds of Commercial Radio
A. Format Specialization
1. News, Talk, and Information Radio
2. Music Formats
B. Nonprofit Radio and NPR
1. The Early Years of Nonprofit Radio
2. Creation of the First Noncommercial Networks
C. New Radio Technologies Offer More Solutions
1. Satellite Radio
2. HD Radio
D. Radio and Convergence
1. Internet Radio
2. Podcasting and Portable Listening
V. The Economics of Broadcast Radio
A. Local and National Advertising
B. Manipulating Playlists with Payola
C. Radio Ownership: From Diversity to Consolidation
D. Alternative Voices
VI. Radio and the Democracy of the Airwaves
Examining Ethics: How Did Talk Radio Become So One-Sided?
Media Literacy and the Critical Process: Comparing Commercial and Noncommercial Radio
Global Village: Radio Stories from around the World
Digital Job Outlook: Media Professionals Speak about Jobs in the Radio Industry
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LECTURE IDEAS
I. Early Technology and the Development of Radio
• Early radio’s contributions to the Titanic rescue effort inspired throngs of American boys to
build short-range telegraphy sets as a hobby. Electrical gadgetry became readily available in
hobby stores, and many boys—and perhaps some girls—dreamed of becoming wireless
operators. Wireless clubs also became popular in high schools and colleges.
• The regulation of radio was a topic of active debate in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1933, the
year’s national high school debate topic asked students to argue in favor of either the British
or the American (commercialized) broadcasting system. In the British system, radio was (and
in part continues to be) owned and operated by the government and supported by funds
generated through some form of taxation. In the contested American system, radio would be
owned by private enterprises, and its existence would depend solely on advertising for
funding. Not surprisingly, the debate topic sent shock waves throughout the radio industry.
Educators were angered by both the radio industry’s and the government’s favoritism toward
commercial and not educational radio; the debate topic was one way of fighting back.
During the early 1930s, there continued to be a push among educators, religious organizations,
and other interested groups for 25 percent of all broadcasting licenses to be given to nonprofit
institutions. One central argument was that commercialized radio was promoting negative
cultural values, especially to children. Other educators expressed concern that the radio would
replace parents, teachers, and the clergy in determining children’s attitudes and that it would
simply supplant the public-school system as a creator of mass culture. The broadcasters fought
back by claiming that commercial radio had already brought educational programs to the
American home. In 1934, NBC’s president, Merlin Aylesworth, told educators that radio
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programs were a source of public enlightenment, with 20 percent being educational and 30
percent having some educational value. (Similar arguments were later made for television and
the Internet.) In the end, the FCC, with heavy lobbying pressure from commercial broadcasters,
agreed with Aylesworth that commercial radio was providing enough educational programming
to its listeners.
II. The Evolution of Radio
• Chart the influence of GE, RCA, AT&T, and Westinghouse from their beginnings in radio to
their status as media corporations today.
• Draw comparisons between the development and growth of radio and the development and
growth of the Internet.
• “Clear channels” were among the first AM channels established, and they have the most
powerful signals in radio (50 kilowatts), which enables them to broadcast over an
enormously wide area, often across much of North America. A person listening in Chicago
can sometimes pick up a clear channel from Atlanta, for instance. These AM stations have
long been protected from interference within their primary and secondary service areas. The
best time to listen to a clear channel is at night, when many smaller AM stations are required
to power down to reduce interference. (A complete listing of stations is compiled at:
http://www.AC6V.com/clearam.htm#USA.) WMAQ–AM, one of the most famous clear-
channel stations, was Chicago’s oldest radio station and home to many icons of early radio. It
is where Amos ’n’ Andy premiered in 1928. In July 2000, WMAQ-AM signed off for the last
time, a victim of the CBS and Viacom merger and FCC regulations. It was replaced by an
all-sports station. Before its demise, however, WMAQ-AM had already gone through
numerous format changes, from easy listening to country and finally all news.
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• Radio was an intimate medium that took some getting used to. In the early 1930s, some
actors were so scared of microphones that engineers devised lamp–shade covers to make
them appear more innocuous. Actors stood very close to one another around the microphone
when rehearsing and performing, and they often found their bodies pressing close to those of
other actors. Consequently, breath fresheners became standard fare for radio performers
between the 1930s and 1950s. According to radio historian Robert L. Mott, the breath
freshener Sen-Sen was effective for disguising boozy breath during rehearsals and
performances. It became so popular that “most actors were afraid to use it for fear of being
guilty by association.” (See Mott, 1993, p. 3.) Actors usually received $6 an hour for
rehearsals and $15 for a broadcast that was usually fifteen minutes long. Some actors worked
on as many as four soap operas a day.
• Being a sound-effect artist was often nerve-wracking and uncomfortable, with artists often
standing in 2 feet of water to get the kinds of splashing sounds the director wanted. The
biggest fears were dropping anything accidentally, having an equipment failure, or making
some other kind of noticeable mistake. One artist, desperate not to let a sledgehammer hit the
floor, put his foot in its path and broke his foot. Here are some examples of how sound-effect
artists colored a radio show with sound:
• A bowl of cooked spaghetti squeezed rhythmically = a giant worm devouring people in their
sleep
• Glass wind chimes tinkling = sunlight
• Two moist rubber gloves twisted and stretched = a human body turned inside out
• A hopper that drained bird seed onto a piece of stretched waxed paper = rain on a roof
• A cork dipped in turpentine and rubbed against a bottle = a squealing rat
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• A box of cornstarch squeezed in a rhythmic fashion = footsteps in snow
• Cotton balls ripped close to the microphone = footsteps in snow
• Water from a seltzer bottle squirted into a pail = milking a cow
• Audiotape crinkled close to the microphone = fire crackling (audiotape was developed in
Germany in the 1940s and was introduced to the United States in 1945)
• Discuss the success and impact of radio drama in American culture during the Golden Age of
Radio. An early concern about broadcasting revolved around violence in radio’s popular
horror and crime stories. Some children were said to have been mimicking violent acts after
hearing about them on the radio. A few advertisers pulled back, and the radio industry altered
radio scripts with criminal themes (the FCC called these programs Goosepimple Kid Shows)
in an act of self–censorship that would repeat itself with other mass media in decades to
follow. (For more information, see McChesney, 1993.)
III. Radio Reinvents Itself
• The history of transformations of the radio industry provide an excellent opportunity to
discuss how older media forms adapt when challenged by newer media: radio and sound
recording in the 1920s; radio and television in the 1950s; radio and digital forms of radio in
the 21st century (satellite, HD, streaming, podcasts, etc.).
• Tom Lewis’s book Empire of the Air (see Further Reading), also made into a documentary by
Ken Bums, is a worthwhile chronicle of Edwin Armstrong’s patent arguments with David
Sarnoff and does much to demystify the two characters.
• Using the radio stations in your area as examples, discuss their various formats as well as
how and why over the years those formats may or may not have changed. Relate these
changes to the economics of broadcast radio and the conditions and population profile of
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your own radio market. The market size of your metro area is ranked in the annual
Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook.
• Conduct a classroom experiment to illustrate the homogeneity of radio programming and
promotion despite differences in location. Spend a few minutes asking students about the
radio stations in their hometowns. Do they remember the call letters or catchphrases (Mix 96,
Kool, Lite, etc.), the names of on-air personalities (deejays, morning show hosts, etc.), and
the songs that were played? If your classroom has computer access, look up a few of the
stations to see how many of them have overlapping ownership. Or you could ask students to
look up the ownership of their favorite hometown station prior to class and see how many
stations have overlapping ownership during class discussion.
IV. The Sounds of Commercial Radio
• Funding for nonprofit radio continues to spark debate in the U.S. In 2011, House
Republicans voted to axe federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but the
Senate rejected the House proposal. Here are some of the arguments for and against federal
funding for public radio and television used during the debate:
• “It is time for American citizens to stop funding an organization that can stand on its own
feet. . . . As a country we no longer have this luxury.”—Rep. Doug Lamborn (R–CO), one of
the sponsors of the 2011 measure, arguing that taxpayers should not have to pay for
nonessential services.
• “Why should we allow taxpayer dollars to be used to advocate one ideology?”—Majority
Leader Eric Cantor (R–VA), arguing that content on NPR and PBS has a liberal bent.
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• “The issue about taxpayers funding public broadcasting isn’t about who gets hired or fired. . .
. It’s about two simple facts: We can’t afford it and they don’t need it.”—Sen. Jim DeMint
(R–SC)
• “Their government funding is a larger share of revenue—30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent
or more. These are areas where listeners may have no other access to free over-the-air news
and information.”—Vivian Schiller, former president and CEO of NPR, on why federal
funding is important for rural stations
• “The funding restrictions put forward in this legislation strike at the heart of these great
stations. It will cripple their ability to produce local programming. Eliminating funding for
NPR would do little to rein in our national debt. It will not create jobs. In fact, 9,000 would
be in jeopardy if this passes.”—Rep. Jim Moran (D–VA)
And here are some facts about the BBC:
• In Great Britain, BBC, the national government-supported broadcasting network, began in
1924.
• The BBC gets its funding from the £145.50 (approximately $200) television license fee that
TV-owning Brits must pay annually (under penalty of law). (There is no radio license fee.)
The television license fee finances nine BBC television channels and ten radio networks as
well as BBC Online and the BBC Red Button interactive service. The terms of the BBC’s
funding are determined in a royal charter. The current charter began on January 1, 2017. In
2015, the BBC announced that it would support a move to a levy (tax) on all households.
• The BBC received approximately £3.8 billion (approximately $5.3 billion) in 2015 from
television license fees.
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• In 2015, the BBC also generated just under $1.5 billion more from commercial services (e.g.,
use of the BBC television studios and postproduction facilities by BBC Worldwide and
others).
• The BBC successfully competes against five national radio networks and forty local radio
services, plus cable and twenty-four-hour news offerings. Most Brits watch or listen to the
BBC for at least two hours a week.
• The BBC’s broadcast entertainment and news audience has remained stable for several years,
after having sagged when its sports broadcasting declined. For forty years, the BBC had
brought domestic cricket matches, Formula One racing, England rugby, and the FA Cup
soccer championship to its viewers. That tradition ended when commercial TV and satellite
services began to outbid the BBC on all these events.
• The BBC has been successful in expanding its network’s reach around the world, however.
Doctor Who is seen in seventy countries, including on BBC America in the United States,
and Sherlock surpassed 90 million views on a Chinese video-on-demand platform.
• Commercial radio broadcasters once had automobile drivers’ ears all to themselves. Now,
however, SiriusXM (satellite) radio has stolen listeners away with the lure of ad–free stations.
In addition, new vehicles are increasingly being equipped to play iPods and other devices via
Bluetooth, and Internet streaming is available. One Clear Channel radio station in Texas has
responded by dropping its spot ads and implementing sponsored programs in a throwback to
the early days of radio and television broadcasting. With sponsored programs, a radio hour
begins with product-themed chitchat, after which the programming is free.
• Threatened by the competition from SiriusXM, radio stations are increasingly supportive of
high–definition digital radio. It makes AM sound as good as FM and FM sound as good as a
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CD. Moreover, it allows for song identification on the radio dial, instant weather reports, and
location advertising (e.g., drive by a McDonald’s and you immediately hear a McDonald’s
ad).
• Explore the influence of online radio stations that allow users to create tailor–made stations
(e.g., Pandora, Last.fm, Slacker) based on their musical tastes and listening habits. Ask
students if they use these services. If so, have they discovered new artists or listened to more
diverse radio content because of Internet radio stations? Also discuss Internet-streaming
radio in conjunction with your students’ music-purchasing habits. Have students downloaded
songs they heard and liked on an Internet radio site?
• It might be helpful to visit a digital radio website like Pandora.com or Live365.com (or have
your students visit these sites if they haven’t already) to demonstrate how users access digital
radio. Pandora allows users to create their own customized radio stations: users enter songs
they like, and Pandora adds other music that is categorized similarly. In 2009, Pandora and
other web-streaming radio ventures narrowly avoided a big financial hit that would have
made it too expensive for many of them to survive. Earlier, the U.S. Copyright Royalty
Board had decided that it would no longer allow these sites to pay a percentage of revenue in
performance royalties. Instead, the board proposed that webcasters would be charged each
time a user listened to a song, representing a rate increase of 300 to 1200 percent, and that
there would also be a minimum charge of $500 per radio station. These changes would have
been disastrous for Pandora because it allows users to create their own “radio stations.”
Thankfully, in June 2009, Congress passed the Webcaster Settlement Act. The act enabled
Internet stations to negotiate royalty fees directly with the music industry, presumably at
rates webcasters could more easily afford. In 2016, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board created
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a new rate structure for sound recording royalties through 2020. The hundreds of million of
dollars in royalties are now based on a rate of $0.0017 for nonsubscription streams. That’s
more than the $0.0014 that Pandora had been paying for most of its streaming business (they
will pay $0.0022 for their subscription-based service) but less than the $0.0025 that big radio
(like iHeart Radio) had been paying to artists and owners of the rights to the music. These
rates will rise with inflation. Big radio companies still don’t have to pay performers for
AM/FM radio broadcasts, which are (controversially) considered by the radio companies to
be promoting the artists’ work for free.
• Discuss the emergence of podcasting. Explore the many uses of podcasts, and discuss how
they are changing radio.
V. The Economics of Broadcast Radio
• Discuss radio’s business model. Explain how radio in the United States ended up being
financed by advertising and not, for example, by license fees. Explore the advantages and
limitations of commercial radio versus public-owned radio and the impact of a radio
program’s funding on its content. Discuss under which model (if any) listeners are better
served and why.
• The radio industry is tremendously healthy, but that doesn’t mean that radio jobs pay well.
Most deejay salaries are low, and deejays no longer have artistic control over the music they
play.
• Many radio stations are now automated. With automated computer systems, deejays can
record their breaks between songs ahead of time and sound live when their shows play long
after they’ve left the station. Although this strategy means lower costs (a deejay might work