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- History of Broadcasting: Radio as Industry, 1926-1940
- Improvements in Sound Technology
- radio transmitters improved
- stay on their assigned frequency
- directional antennae
- earlier standard of telephone was unacceptable
- newly designed studios for improved acoustics
- replaced carbon microphones with condenser microphones
- better frequency response
- Improvements to Music
- broadcast live music
- played 78-rpm records with poor frequency response
- introduction of microgrove LPs for transcription
- 16 inches in diameter
- 33-⅓ rpm records
- played 15 minutes on each size
- similar to those used for sound motion pictures
- made programming more flexible
- Transmission
- typical audio frequency bandwidth of 3,750 Hz
- necessary frequency bandwidth is 7,500 Hz
- the best transmitters could achieve only 5,000 Hz
- FCC permitted some “high-fidelity” stations to use as much as 10,000 Hz
- Network Interconnection
- AM network connections were poor
- the main limitation was AT&T’s telephone lines
- telephone networks bandwidth of only 2,500 Hz
- expensive dedicated lines were available to improve fidelity but were seldom used
- Reception
- typically lagged behind studio and transmission facilities
- “tinny” sound
- rarely reproduced the higher and lower frequencies
- the public was used to this “radio sound”
- Decline in Broadcast Radio Stations
- high: 681 in 1927, low: 599 in 1933
- Depression slowed growth of radio business
- educational stations went off-the-air as schools could no longer afford them
- stations increased power to improve reception
- higher operating costs
- fewer stations could operate without interference
- commercial stations dominated over educational, hobbyist, and “sideline” stations
- Federal Radio Commission
- established 1927
- classified stations
- type and service
- reassigned stations
- eliminated portable, low-power operations
- set operating hours and low-power operations at night
- rules were enforceable by law
- Creation of NBC
- AT&T’s Telephone Group station, WEAF in New York
- May 1926: AT&T made radio stations semi-independent subsidiary to be acquired by RCA
- September 1926: RCA formed the National Broadcasting Company
- RCA: 50%
- GE: 30%
- Westinghouse: 20%
- November 1926: NBC bought Telephone Group stations
- November 15, 1926: NBC debuted originating from WEAF across 25 stations of the new networks
- Second NBC Network
- NBC took over RCA’s WJZ in New York
- second radio network, consisting of the old Radio Group stations
- December 1926: second network was announced
- January 1927: broadcast Rose Bowl game with the WEAF chain
- NBC Red: WEAF network/telephone group stations
- NBC Blue: WJZ network/radio group stations
- Third NBC Network
- April 1927: NBC stated the Pacific Coast Network
- KPO and KGO in San Francisco
- coordinated ad sales
- did not originate programming
- late 1928: Pacific Coast Network closed
- replaced by NBC coast-to-coast broadcasts on Red and Blue
- Owned and Operated stations
- RCA took full control of NBC, from manufacturers, per anti-trust consent decree
- By 1933, NBC owned and operation 10 stations
- WEAF and WJZ, New York
- WMAQ and WENR, Chicago
- WRC and WMAL, Washington
- KOA, Denver
- WTAM, Cleveland
- in cities with two O&O stations, one would be a Red and one would be a Blue
- Affiliated stations
- independent stations
- not owned by the network
- By 1933, there were…
- Red: 28 stations
- Blue: 24 stations
- supplemental stations: 36
- these 88 stations constituted 15% of all radio stations at the time
- Development of CBS
- Fall 1926: Judson Radio Programming Bureau, to compete with ASCAP
- NBC turned down his offer to book Judson’s performers on the air
- January 1927: United Independent Broadcasters, Inc. formed
- April 1927: Columbia Phonograph merged with UIB to compete with impending RCA-Victor merger
- September 1927: Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System went on the air
- November 1927: renamed Columbia Broadcasting System
- September 1928: William Paley, of Congress Cigar Company of Philadelphia, buys controlling interest of CBS
- March 1929: Paley paid stations to carry CBS programming
- CBS Owned and Operated
- By 1933, CBS owned seven stations
- WABC, renamed WCBS, New York
- WJSV, Washington
- WKRC, Cincinnati
- WBBM, Chicago
- WBT, Charlotte
- WCCO, Minneapolis
- KMOX, St. Louis
- stations operated with unlimited time and transmitted at 50,000 watts of power
- Decline of Educational AM Radio
- financial pressures on schools, exacerbated during the Depression
- cost of providing programming
- major technical improvements necessitated by FRC requirements
- reallocations gave channels to commercial operators at the expense of educational institutions
- conflicts between two educational advocacy organizations
- National Advisory Council on Radio in Education
- National Committee on Education by Radio
- educational radio programs
- Ohio School of the Air, first on WLW and then on WOSU
- Wisconsin School of the Air and College of the Air, WHA
- some educational programming on commercial radio
- Ascendance of Radio Advertising
- coast-to-coast broadcasting
- FRC actions made for better radio listening
- better and less expensive receivers for audience
- scientific radio audience measurements
- advertisers realized successful radio commercial campaigns
- advertising agencies increasingly interested in radio
- public accepted advertising on networks, by 1927–1928
- Advertising Agencies and Radio
- during Depression, stations began to accept longer and more direct advertisements
- advertising spread to all hours of the day
- advertising agencies: “he who pays the piper calls the tune”
- agencies would select, cast, direct and produce radio programs
- 36% of air time had commercial sponsorship
- Radio Station Economics
- 1927: NBC turns a profit, one year after forming
- 1932: CBS surpasses NBC in terms of stations and in profit
- the public saw radio as “free” after purchasing the receiver set, created a large audience
- advertisers reached the audience at a small cost-per-thousand
- radio thrived during the Depression
- 1927: $5 million
- 1933: $56 million
- New Radio Receivers
- large, heavy, expensive-to-operated, battery-powered receivers became obsolete
- alternating current (AC) plug-in models
- loudspeakers, instead of headphones
- receivers became furniture
- Depression put downward pressure on sales and prices
- cheaper radio tubes from Philco
- cheaper radio sets from Crosley and Emerson
- sales of table-top radio sets outpaced consoles
- Audience Research
- Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting (CAB), 1929
- telephone recall method
- percentage of set-using families
- discovered that half of all sets were in use in the evening, “prime time.”
- larger stations used personal interviews
- avoided telephone sampling bias
- telephone recall and coincidental methods
- Federal Radio Commission
- Radio Act ratified February 1927
- five commissioners, representing five geographic regions of the country
- FRC authority
- classify stations
- assign frequencies
- determine power and location of transmitters
- prevent interference
- establish coverage areas
- regulate chain broadcasting, when necessary
- no power to censor broadcasters
- chose broadcasters who served “public interest, convenience and/or necessity”
- Improving Content
- FRC regulated programming by rejecting broadcasting application
- Dr. John F. Brinkley, Milford, Kansas, who prescribed patent medicines (goat gland extract) through his own pharmacies
- Norman Baker, Muscatine, Iowa, made bitter attacks against persons and promoted his own cancer hospital
- Willam Schaeffer, Portland, Oregon, allowed Robert Duncan to attack his political rivals with “obscene and indecent” langauge
- Robert Schuler, Los Angeles, attacked religious organizations, public officials, the courts, institutions and individuals “in violent language”
- National Association of Broadcasters
- radio trade group, established 1922
- fought ASCAP
- sought technical regulation
- information exchange and trade organization to promote radio
- NAB Code of Ethics
- self-regulation code, 1929
- dos and don’ts
- programming and advertising
- prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and indecent programming that might offend the audience
- Radio and Other Media
- Depression and radio nearly killed off phonograph companies
- RCA-Victor: Victor Talking Machine merged with RCA
- CBS: Columbia Phonograph merged with American Recording Company, folding into CBS
- musicians were paid less because of broadcast music
- radio took advertising revenue from newspapers
- film and radio complemented each other as sound movies became the norm
This outline is based on material from Michele Hilmes, Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States. 4th ed. Boston: Cengage, 2014; and Christopher H. Sterling and John M. Kittross, Stay Tuned: A History of American Broadcasting, 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaun Associates, 2002.