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- History of Broadcasting
- History of Broadcasting: Radio, 1919-1926
- Nativism
- postwar Americanism
- National Origins Act, 1924
- Arayanizing America: preference to northern and western Europeans
- Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882
- revival of Ku Klux Klan, 1915
- lynching and cross burning
- African-American Culture
- NAACP
- Harlem Renaissance
- literature
- art
- music
- political theorizing
- Jazz Age
- Women
- gained suffrage in 1920
- remained barred from most of society
- rise of the flapper
- political power in passing Prohibition
- Fear of Fragmentation in America
- political disputes
- labor unrest
- foreigners and difference
- bonded together during World War I
- Alliance between Government and Corporations
- Federal Trade Commission
- Interstate Commerce Commission
- Federal Reserve System
- favored: private corporations with guidance
- opposed: state intervention or ownership
- Postwar Control of Radio
- British Marconi controlled radio transmission technology
- US was skeptical of foreign control over a vital communications technology
- conflicting proposals
- take over by Navy?
- put it in private hands?
- leave it as a public resource?
- US encouraged General Electric to purchase American Marconi
- Radio Corporation of America
- division of GE
- patent pool
- Westinghouse: partner with GE for receivers
- American Telephone and Telegraph: transmitters
- United Fruit: fruit shipping business
- Early Regulation
- Interstate Commerce Commission
- “This station is not licensed to broadcast weather reports, market reports, music, concerts, speeches, news, or similar information or entertainment.”
- amateurs
- predecessors to citizens band
- <200 meter-band
- Class A stations
- entertainment and information broadcasters
- 360-meter band
- interference ensued
- Westinghouse Radio Stations
- KDKA, Pittsburgh
- WBZ Springfield, Massachusetts
- WJZ, Newark, New Jersey
- stations were subject to interference
- proposed to ICC to create a Class B license at 400 meters
- Class B Stations
- subject to higher standards than Class A
- higher power: 500–1000 watts
- forbidden to play records
- emerged in 1922
- Quality Class B Stations
- RCA took over WJZ and WJY, moving them to New York, 1923
- AT&T opened WEAF, New York, August 1922
- GE launched WGY, Schenectady, February 1922
- February 1922 Conference
- convened by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover
- delegated control of radio to Commerce Department
- empowered Commerce Department to assign frequencies, power, and hours of operation
- affirmed that radio should operate in the public interest, rather than in the interest of the owner
- smaller conference convened in March 1923
- enable formation of National Association of Broadcasters
- Conference Resolutions
- principle of open access was rejected
- few quality broadcasters were considered better than many mediocre ones
- notion of a public interest
- radio would be a regulated medium
- radio would be a commercial medium in private hands
- Early Radio Entertainment Programming
- ad-hoc performances…
- popular music performers
- entertainers performed their acts
- magazine writers read their stories
- newspapers provided news reports
- hotels and nightclubs provided live broadcasts of their orchestras
- movie theaters broadcast stage shows
- vaudeville theaters previews shows
- businesses sponsored various programs
- Bertha Brainard at NBC
- formalized entertainment
- drawing on live talent in New York City
- programmed a weekly dramatic review on WJZ
- Radio Network
- interconnection of radio stations using wires
- program produced in one location
- sent over land lines across the country
- centralized control
- maintained standards of quality
- advertisers ensured large audiences
- AT&T and Toll Broadcasting
- sold blocks of time on the air
- named “toll broadcasting” at WEAF, 1923
- N.W. Ayer and National Carbon Company
- variety program: Eveready Hour, December 4, 1923
- AT&T and Network Broadcasting
- connected 12 stations, 1924, for Republican National Convention
- offered daily three-hour block of programming, October 1924
- network expanded to 13 stations, spring 1925
- AT&T was forced out of broadcasting by other RCA companies, 1926
- RCA acquired WEAF and the Telephone Group stations, leading the way for an RCA-owned network
- Radio Offered National Unity
- Hilmes concluding argument
- US was fragmented in the years following Great War
- radio offered a national unity
- physical unity
- cultural unity
- linguistic unity
- institutional unity
- Physical Unity
- wireless transmission could link together vast distances
- distant regions could listen-in to each other
- racial and class barriers could be torn down
- threat to segregated society in the US
- Cultural Unity
- exposed culture on a national scale
- national radio network would unify through programming
- preference for quality over diversity
- Linguistic Unity
- radio spoke English
- instrument for spreading fluency
- proper, grammatical, unaccented
- however, radio showcased “colorful slang”
- Institutional Unity
- this medium called for centralized control
- economies of scale realized through network broadcasting
- squeezed out radio’s early localism and diversity
- Public Service
- spectrum is a scarce resource
- broadcasting as commerce
- government-protected
- government-regulated
- Public Interest
- codified Radio Act 1927
- “public interest, convenience, and necessity"
- quid pro quo of the American broadcasting system
- forever enshrined in US broadcast policy
- never explicitly defined
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.