This chapter summarizes the history of radio, beginning with early developments in the late 19th century through its growth in popularity in the 20th century. It discusses key inventors and innovations like AM/FM technology. It describes the rise of radio networks and the golden age of radio in the 1930s-40s. The chapter also discusses how radio adapted to competition from television through the transistor radio and format-based programming. It concludes with current trends like concentration of ownership and the transition to digital radio.

1. Chapter 8
Radio: The Hits Keep Coming
Chapter Outline
• History
• Industry
• Controversies

2. Context
Pervasive
• 675 million radio receivers in use in the United
States. 310 million people.
Influential
• Americans spend, on average, three hours every
weekday and five hours every weekend listening to
radio.

3. A Brief History of Radio
Early Development
• 1887: Heinrich Hertz experiments with wireless
transmission of electricity.
• 1880s: Thomas Edison’s company, Consolidated
Edison, wire the streets of New York while his The
Edison Electric Light Company (which would later
become General Electric) manufactured light bulbs
for people to use with their new household current.
• Direct Current (DC) vs. Alternating Current (AC)
• Scientists determined that radio waves were
transmitted across an electromagnetic spectrum.

4. A Brief History of Radio

5. Who is the Real Father of Radio?
• 1895: Nikola Tesla uses his Tesla coil to transmit radio
signals. Right before he attempts to send a signal 50
miles, a fire destroys his lab.
• 1896: 20-year-old Italian Guglielmo Marconi combines
other people’s parts to create primitive two-circuit
radio system to transmit telegraph signals. He files for
and receives a patent in England. In America, receives
financial backing of Edison and Carnegie.
• 1897: Tesla files for patent on a superior machine, and
receives it in 1900.
• Marconi keeps trying to take the patent right through
revised applications but Tesla prevails.
• Then, in 1904, the U.S. Patent Office overturns Tesla’s
patent without explanation.

6. A Brief History of Radio
• 1906: Reginald Fessenden makes the first voice
transmission with a frequency generator of his
own design.
• 1907: Lee DeForest invents the Audion
(vacuum tube) to pick up and amplify radio
signals
• 1917:U. S. enters WW I; Navy takes over radio
industry for strictly military purposes.
• Navy trains 10,000 service personnel in the new
technology.

7. A Brief History of Radio

8. A Brief History of Radio
The Radio Consortium
• Navy begins to worry about foreign influence over
American airwaves. A law is passed limiting any foreign
company to no more than 25 percent of an American
broadcasting system.
• Two years after the war AT&T, Westinghouse, General
Electric, and GE subsidiary RCA formed a consortium to
take over the radio business in America by manufacturing
radio receivers and setting up stations.
• The companies started out cooperating but soon became
fierce competitors.

9. A Brief History of Radio
The First Broadcasters
• Nov. 2, 1920: engineer and radio enthusiast Frank
Conrad announces over Pittsburgh’s KDKA that
Warren G. Harding had won the U.S. presidential
election.
• Toll broadcasting (AT&T)
• Aimee Semple McPherson

10. Dr. John R. Brinkley

11. A Brief History of Radio
John R. Brinkley and his “medical” career
• In 1918, after piecing together an MD from a string of
unaccredited medical schools, Brinkley began his infamous
“goat gland” operations, in which he inserted goat testicular
glands into human patients willing to pay $750 ($10,500) for the
privilege.
• Upon a trip to LA, he toured a radio station and decided radio
would be a great marketing tool for his operations. He returned
to Kansas, opened KFKB and broadcast local singers in
between his medical talks. He recommended listeners with
medical problems go to specific pharmacies, who paid him a
fee.
• In 1930, after 43 deaths were attributed to his “cures,” the
Kansas State Medical Board pulled his medical license. The
FRC (FCC) pulls his broadcasting license.

12. A Brief History of Radio
John R. Brinkley and Mexican Radio
• After an unsuccessful campaign for Gov. of Kansas, Brinkley
moves to Del Rio, Texas, a border town.
• In 1931, Brinkley obtains a radio license from the government
of Mexico and starts XER on the AM band. The station is so
powerful it can be heard in Canada.
• Brinkley later used his growing profits to launch XERA. The
signal was so strong it sent a signal over the North Pole and
into Russia.
• The U.S. later banned cross-border links between U.S. radio
stations and Mexican transmitters in what became known as
the Brinkley Act.
• Brinkley died penniless in 1942.

13. Brinkley Mansion in Del Rio

14. A Brief History of Radio
The Rise of the Networks
• Broadcast network: a group of interconnected
stations that share programming and a parent
company that supplies programming to
stations.
• When networks own and operate some of the
local stations that they provide programming to,
they are called owned and operated stations
(O&Os).
• Most stations in a network are network
affiliates, local stations that are not owned by,
but have a contractual relationship with the
network.

15. A Brief History of Radio
• The first radio network was born in 1923 when AT&T
connected its New York and Boston stations.
• In 1926, RCA’s David Sarnoff formed the first two national
radio networks, NBC Red and NBC Blue, and dominated
the industry.
• Network radio helped unify the country by providing an
experience in which people coast-to-coast were listening to
the same programs at the same time.
• In 1927 William Paley bought the money losing Columbia
Broadcasting System (CBS) from the Columbia Record
Company. By the end of WW II CBS was the
acknowledged leader of radio news.

16. A Brief History of Radio
• In 1934 a coalition of independent stations that were
not affiliated with the major networks formed The
Mutual Broadcasting System.
• ABC was created in the mid-1940s, when the
government forced RCA to sell one of its networks.
RCA sold NBC Blue to a group of people led by
Edward Noble, the owner of Lifesavers Candy
Company.
• Network affiliates were originally linked to network
headquarters through telephone lines but since the
1970s have been linked by satellite.

17. A Brief History of Radio
Early Programming
• Radio networks invented formula dramas, situation
comedies, soap operas, game shows, musical variety, talk
shows, broadcast news and sports.
• Because of spectrum scarcity radios were a jumble of
static as broadcasters interfered with one another.

18. A Brief History of Radio

19. Regulation of radio
• Radio Act of 1912 required ships at sea to leave their radio
on 24 hours a day and required federal licensing of all radio
transmitters.

20. Regulation of radio
• The Radio Act of 1927 established the Federal Radio
Commission (FRC), limited number of broadcasters,
assigned frequencies, revoked licenses of broadcasters who
did not in comply.
• Also required the broadcaster to operate in the public
interest, convenience, and necessity.
• Call letters would begin with W east of the Mississippi
River, K to the west.
• Communications Act of 1934 FRC became Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) with authority over
interstate telephone, telegraph and radio communication.

21. A Brief History of Radio
Edwin Armstrong And The Birth of FM
• AM, or amplitude modulation, created its signal by
changing (modulating) the power (amplitude) of the
carrier wave. AM radio tended to have static and a
poor sound quality for music.
• Scientist Edwin Armstrong believed that FM, or
frequency modulation waves that created their signal
by modulating the speed (frequency) at which the
wave traveled, would be of higher quality. He first
demonstrated FM in 1936.

23. A Brief History of Radio
The Golden Age of Radio
• Radio’s golden age lasted from the 1930s until just
after WW II.
• Talk shows were broadcast in the morning and soap
operas in the afternoon. Musical shows featured big
bands with singers like Bing Crosby and Frank
Sinatra.
• Comedy shows featured Jack Benny, George Burns
and Gracie Allen, Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope
and a fictional team named Amos and Andy.
• Radio dramas included, The Shadow, The Lone
Ranger, and The Green Hornet.

25. A Brief History of Radio
• Original plays like “War of the Worlds” were
regularly broadcast and popular game shows
included Truth or Consequences.

27. A Brief History of Radio
• After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
in 1941, 60 million people tuned in to hear
President Roosevelt’s address to
Congress.
• FDR used frequent “fireside chats” to
broadcast encouragement during the war.
Americans felt as if he were in the room
with them, like a friend or neighbor.

28. A Brief History of Radio
• When the drama, comedy and game
shows moved to television, however,
radio needed help in order to survive.
• By 1958 the radio industry was using the
superior sound of FM to compete with
television.

30. A Brief History of Radio
The Transistor Portable
• A second development that helped radio compete
with television was the transistor, a miniature version
of the vacuum tube, which made radio portable.
• The first transistor portable radios were introduced in
1954, and by the 1960s they were cheaper than
conventional vacuum tube radios.
• The portable radio became a virtual outgrowth of the
American teenager’s ear as radios were taken to the
beach, the corner hangout, or to the park.

31. A Brief History of Radio
Format Radio
• Format radio, a consistent programming formula that
creates a recognizable sound and personality for a station,
was the third development that allowed radio to survive
television’s popularity.
• Station owners like formats because they encourage listener
loyalty. Advertisers like them because they enable ads to
target audiences with specific needs and buying habits.
• Top 40 was one of the most popular formats.
• Format programming led to the payola scandals of the
1950s when record promoters paid disc jockeys to play
certain records.

32. A Brief History of Radio
Concentration and Fragmentation
• Today’s 13,750 stations define themselves with increasingly
narrower formats.
• Clear Channel Communications owns 1,200 of the largest
and most profitable radio stations in the U.S. Several other
companies own hundreds of stations.
Digital Radio
• In digital radio, transmitted sounds are assigned numbers
that take up less air space than analog waves. This results
in a crisp clear signal and means that more format choices
can be offered.
• Digital signals radiate from satellites, the Internet, and
from local stations.

35. A Brief History of Radio
Webcasting
• As of 2007, around 10,000 radio stations had broadcast
Web sites, enabling web surfers to tune into radio
anywhere in the world. There were also dozens of Web-
only broadcasters, which had no over-the-air operations.
Local Digital: HD Radio
• Local stations are also adopting digital radio which
prepares them for the day when high definition or HD
radio becomes popular.
• According to equipment manufacturers, HD radio, which
requires an HD receiver, brings FM-quality sound to AM
stations and CD-quality sound to FM broadcasts.

36. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry
Top Formats by Audience Listening Preference

37. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry

38. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry
Dayparts
• Dayparts are how radio divides the day.
• Morning Drive time: 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.
• Midday: 10a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Afternoon Drive time: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
• Evening: 7 p.m. to midnight.
• Overnight: midnight to 6 a.m.
• A station’s top on-air personalities such as Howard Stern or
Don Imus are programmed during drive times, which are
the prime time of radio programming. This audience might
also be given more traffic, weather, and news reports.

39. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry
Talk/News Formats
• Talk radio, had around 170 stations in 1987. By
2007 that number had grown to more than 1,300
stations. The format appeals especially to
working and middle-class adults who are over
35, and appreciate outspoken opinions of the
show’s hosts.
• News formats attract a somewhat more upscale
audience by providing a formula that listeners
can rely on for information.

40. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry
• The formula never varies at WINS, a popular
New York City all-news station:
• Complete news update every 22 minutes.
• Time every 3 minutes.
• Weather every 5 minutes.
• Traffic every 10 minutes.
• Sports at 15 minutes before and after every
hour.

41. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry
The Format Clock listeners listening is foremost in the
mind of radio programmers.
• The FCC requires station identification at the top of
every hour, and the station’s business office will
require that a certain number of commercials air.
• Contests and other types of promotions designed to get
audiences to listen at key ratings times of day have also
become staples of most format clocks.
• Each segment of the programming hour is part of an
overall strategy because keeping

42. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry

43. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry
Ratings
• Print media can actually count the number of newspapers
and magazines sold, but broadcast media have to rely on
sampling, by which a small percentage of the audience is
chosen to represent the behavior of the rest of the audience.
• Stations use the results to prove to advertisers the number
and types of people listening.
• Out of the $13 billion in radio advertising spent in a typical
year, $9 billion will be for local spots.

44. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry
Groups
• Group owners have two or more stations.
• The Telecommunications Act of 1996 allows a group to
own eight stations in larger cities and up to five in
smaller markets, with no limit on the total number.
Program Providers
• Today, most program providers call themselves radio
networks.
• Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of the Clear
Channel Radio Group, is a large program provider.

45. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry

46. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry
Public Radio
• Congress set up National Public Radio in 1970 in order to
interconnect public, or noncommercial stations and
produce programs for them to use. Stations derive their
income from listener memberships and corporate
underwriting.
• Government funding was reduced drastically during the
1980s. Critics fear that stations will not offer programs that
critically examine donor corporations.
• In most other countries, public radio stations are owned
and operated by the government and are more dominant
than commercial stations. Public stations in England and
Japan are supported through mandatory use fees.

47. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry
Station Personnel
• On-air talent includes talk show hosts, news, feature and
sports reporters and disc jockeys.
• The program director, sometimes called the music
director, determines the station’s playlist, which typically
includes three dozen new singles, or “currents.” A hot
current will be placed in “heavy rotation” airing four or
five times a day.
Audience
• Most listeners want a station to be dependable and are
loyal to just two or three stations.
• Radio has also introduced listeners to music outside their
own ethnic and regional origins.

48. Understanding Today’s Radio
Industry

49. Controversies
The Effects of Concentration
• Critics are concerned that concentration of ownership
may cut down on the number of different voices that are
heard on the important debates of the day.
• When government rules limited the number of stations a
network could own, listening choices multiplied. The
Telecommunications Act of 1996 essentially did away with
such restrictions and now more radio outlets are being
placed into fewer hands creating potential conflicts of
interest.
• Disney was once criticized for refusing allowing its
Disney-owned ABC radio networks to air news reports
critical of its Disney-owned theme parks.

50. Controversies
Homogenized Programming
• There are more formats than ever, but many of them
sound the same. Because successful formats tend to
be copied, slogans such as “More music, less talk” or
“10 in a row” are heard on country, rock and hip-hop
stations across the U.S. and increasingly, the world.
• Program directors must deliver high ratings and
advertising dollars to quickly pay off heavy debts
incurred when broadcasting chains spent huge sums
to buy new stations.
• College stations have strong reputations for being
experimental, forward thinking alternatives.

51. Controversies
Shock Radio
• Shock Jocks like Howard Stern derive humor and ratings by
using vulgarity, racism, sexism, cynicism, and anything else
that will attract amazed listeners. The FCC has levied fines
against several stations that air shock radio.
• The fines became so heavy by 2007 that shock radio moved
mostly to satellite radio.
Hate Radio
• In the 1930s, Father Charles Coughlin told millions of
listeners to hate socialists, Communists, international
bankers, and Jews.
• During 1994’s ethnic massacre of 800,000 in Rwanda, the
Hutu pop music station encouraged listeners to “finish off
the Tutsi cockroaches.”

52. Controversies
Diversity and Censorship
• Some radical groups avoid censorship by creating
pirate radio stations, which are unlicensed, illegal,
low power outlets. Some pirates regularly move
locations to avoid being closed down by the FCC.
• The FCC debated whether to license low-power FM
stations to increase diversity of broadcast voices. It
would later license 590 low-power stations between
2000 and 2007.
• Existing stations and their trade group, the National
Association of Broadcasters, fought and won against
the proposal and managed to block any more
stations.

53. Controversies
Diversity and Censorship
• Payola didn’t end in the 1950s – its target merely changed
from DJs to program directors.
• Some program directors began to use a legal form of
payola called pay for play, which is done in the open.
• With consolidation in the music and radio industries, it
became easier for early-era payola deals to occur behind
closed doors.
• By 2006 the practice was so common that NY State
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer uncovered clear-cut
evidence against high-ranking executives in pay for play
deals, which led to music companies paying fines of $10
million each.

54. Chapter 8
Radio: The Hits Keep Coming
Chapter Outline
• History
• Industry
• Controversies