The radio industry has gone through significant changes over time. Early radio was experimental but eventually commercialized in the 1920s with the rise of advertising. The Radio Corporation of America was formed as a powerful player and helped establish radio's commercial model. By the 1930s, networks and affiliates developed nationally. More recently, radio has fragmented into specialized formats to target narrow demographics as the number of stations has grown. New digital technologies like satellite radio and internet streaming now challenge traditional radio.

1. Chapter 11:
The Radio Industry

2. After this presentation you will
be able to:
Sketch the history of the radio industry.
Explain the relationship between advertising
and programming.
Detail the role of market research in the radio
industry.
Critically examine the issues surrounding the
radio industry.
Discuss ways in which new digital
technologies appear in the radio industry.

3. Timeline of Telecommunications
●1800 AD - A line of canon from Buffalo to NYC
used to announce Gov. DeWitt Clinton's
inaugural trip through the Erie Canal. It took 80
minutes.
1844 - Morse demonstrates the electric
●
telegraph.
1876 (March 7) -The first telephone patent, No.
●
174,465 was issued to Alexander Graham Bell.
1876 - Edison invents the electric motor and the
●
phonograph.
1887 - Heinrich Hertz shows that
●
electromagnetic waves exist, produces radio
waves.
● 1895 - Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio.
1906 - Lee deForest invents the vacuum tube
●

4. BILL

5. At first, radioThe seen as an advanced form
was rise of radio.
of the telegraph, allowing for coded message
to be sent without wires...
...the new medium was called
radiotelephony, or “wireless.”

6. Guglielmo Marconi (1874 –1937)
is credited with bringing together a
number of technological advances that
made radio possible (1897). He established
the Marconi Company, a powerful entity
in the development of radio.
Lee De Forest (1873 –1961)
invented the vacuum tube that made
broadcasting possible (1906).

7. Nikola Tesla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVgqKlf7ccI

8. Most of us think of Guglielmo Marconi as the
father of radio, while Tesla remains unknown
for his work in developing radio technology.
Marconi claimed all the first patents for
radio, something originally developed by
Tesla. Nikola Tesla tried to prove that he was
the creator of radio but it wasn't until
1943, when Marconi's patents were deemed
invalid.

9. Determining the use of radio.
During World War I conflicting interests fought
over the control of radio in the U.S.
The Navy saw it primarily as a military
device, but commercial interests wanted to
develop the new medium within the
marketplace.

10. The creation of RCA.
As a result of World War I, the Navy, Congress
and commercial interests forced Marconi to sell
its U.S. assets, which were reorganized as a
holding company based on the key patents of
major American corporations; the holding
company was called the Radio Corporation of
America (RCA), the most powerful player in the
early development of radio in the U.S.

11. Eventually, the courts broke up the
monopoly, and forced RCA away from the
other corporations that controlled it; as a
consequence, advertising became the basis
of radio financial support, and networks
developed on a national basis.

12. The Radio Act of 1912 authorized the Secretary
of Commerce to issue licenses...
and also regulated the use of wireless on ships.

13. Radio in the 1920s,
1930s, and 1940s.
Adrian

14. Radio and advertising.
Early radio stations operated primarily to
promote their owners’ businesses in other
industries; AT&T’s New York station introduced
advertising in 1922, and it caught on.

15. Government regulation of radio.
The Radio Act of 1927 established the Federal
Radio Commission as the bureau that would
issue licenses and regulate the emerging
industry; the Act established the concept that
the airwaves were a natural resource that
belonged to the people, and broadcasters
were expected to operate stations as a kind of
public trust.

16. Also in 1927...
Television Invented.

17. By the end of the 1920s, the industrial pattern
of commercial radio was set: it would be
regulated, commercial, and characterized by
networks that served local affiliates
throughout the country.

18. The Federal Communications Act of 1934
established the Federal Communications
Commission to regulate all electronic
communications in the U.S.

19. Rethinking radio, 1950–1970.
The rise of television and the arrival of the
baby boom generation significantly altered
radio’s programming and audience
strategies; radio gave up network
entertainment programming to TV and
concentrated on building specialized program
strategies, or formats, aimed at demographic
targets, the most important of which were the
baby boomers.

20. FM radio and the fragmentation
of rock music.
AM radio interests kept FM from emerging as
a competitor for several years, but FM finally
succeeded in dominating music formats; the
FCC’s nonduplication rule of 1965 helped
encourage unique FM programming.
Harold

21. Challenges of fragmentation and
digitalization, 1970 to the present.
Both AM and FM stations were forced to
target ever more narrowly as the number of
stations grew and as the nature of popular
music genres changed and became more
diverse.

22. The concept of networking changed, and old
networks developed specialized services
geared to the specialized formats that had been
established for different kinds of music.
Fragmentation encouraged the consolidation of
ownership in conglomerates, raising conflicts
over the kind of programming the industry
provides.

23. An overview of the terrestrial
radio industry.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996
increased the number of stations that any
single company can own in a market; this
encouraged the consolidation of ownership.
The industry can be divided into AM and FM
stations and into commercial and non-
commercial stations, all of them with
characteristic formats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1jr7vDqaDQ

24. Production in the radio industry.
The general manager is in charge of the
station’s entire operation, and the program
director is in charge of maintaining the
station’s format or sound; on-air talents work
within the format and have several
responsibilities during a typical on-air shift.
In order to maintain the integrity of the station
format, DJs pull music from the station’s
established playlist, formulated from
audience research involving call-outs and
focus groups

25. Advertisers rely on audience research
companies for information about radio station
audiences; research is based on the keeping
of listening diaries, portable people
meters, and telephone surveys.
Poor ratings often lead to changes in
personnel, and sometimes result in format
changes, even though that is a risky move.

26. Morning and afternoon drive-times are the
periods of the day when most stations have
their largest audiences and when the
advertising rates are highest.
Radio programmers try to determine listening
patterns of their targets in order to reach
them; stations try to develop personalities
that listeners can readily recognize by means
of so-called interstitials (jingles, speech
patterns, etc.).

27. homeless man with golden voice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoXS2MSPFwI

28. Arbitron, the company that measures radio
audiences, says that total listening time is in
decline, because of other media alternatives;
on the other hand, radio is increasingly
portable and easy to access.

29. Vikki

30. Distribution in the broadcast
radio industry.
Format networks provide a subscribing
station with all of its programming while
automatic technology keeps the station on
the air and running; such stations have little
or no local programming.

31. Advertising in the broadcast
radio industry.
There are two kinds of advertising in radio:
local advertising spots that advertise local
businesses and services and national spots
that advertise national businesses and
services.
The placement and scheduling of spots help
determine their cost to advertisers.

32. Radio market size.
Market size tends to determine the number of
stations available to consumers.

33. Radio and the new digital world.
Satellite radio and internet radio (audio
streaming) are two digital developments that
may challenge the terrestrial-based industry.
Traditional radio is responding to the digital
development by developing HD radio (a
system that sends digital signals of AM and
FM stations along with the analog
signals), and by participating in internet
streaming (many stations can now be heard
via the internet).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUM1NBDHH6E

34. Broadcast radio and social
controversy.
Consolidation of ownership, and radio’s
increasing influence over the political
process are sources of heated debate.
The lobbying activities of the National
Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is also a
source of debate and concern.
Consolidation has encouraged a decrease in
network affiliations because the large radio
conglomerates feel they own enough outlets
so that they can make their own deals with
national advertisers.

36. Media literacy and the radio
industry.
Media literate persons should
consider the future of radio as
more and more stations are
consolidated and the digital
options (especially streaming
audio) begin to develop and
mature.
The regulatory environment
encourages greater
consolidation, but increasing
competition from newer media
makes the current conditions
in the radio industry
unsettling and challenging.

37. Media Literacy Tools
Identify the creative techniques, consider
●
authorship, evaluate the audience, analyze
the content, determine the institutional
purpose.
Media Literacy Principles
●The media constructs our individual
realities, The media are influenced by
industrial pressures, The media are
influenced by political pressures, the media
are constrained by format. The media tells us
about who we are as a society.

38. Audiences are active reciepients
of the media.