Mass Communication: The Radio Phenomenon

As we journey through the evolution of media, we recognize drastic changes seen within it. For thousands of years, print media ruled the masses. Whether it meant by way of stone carved signs of the Babylonians, the manuscript culture of the Middle Ages, or the arrival of the penny press in the early 1800's, print media was king of communication. Stepping out of a print era, we tumble into the age of digital and electronic media with the discovery of electromagnetic waves by Heinrich Hertz. Many were skeptical about this form of media on the rise in the early 1840's, yet none realized how great of an effect it would take on developing society. As we journey through the phenomenon of radio, we must consider the following:

1. What is the history of radio?

2. How does the evolution of radio affect listeners today?

3. How is radio organized?

By carefully examining these three questions, our definition of radio's phenomenon in a media driven world will be clarified.

In the early 1840's, a young entrepreneur by the name of Heinrich Hertz discovered electromagnetic waves and their capabilities. Little did this twenty-year-old young man know the impact that his discovery would have on society. With this discovery of electromagnetic waves, the door opened for a new form of media to arrive. Around the year 1844, Samuel Morse realized that message could be sent through distinct wiring systems using these electromagnetic waves.

With the inception of Morse code, the opportunity to spread messages quicker than ever had arrived. Now, those in war could send messages to the homeland and to loved ones that could reach them almost instantly rather than forcing them to wait months to hear much desired information of loved ones' statuses as well as the progression of war. For the first time in history, communication could exceed the speed of land transportation.

While the wiring service of the telegraph proved to be much more successful than land transportation, not all areas were covered. In 1894, a twenty-year-old Italian engineer by the name of Guglielmo Marconi was trying to solve this problem. He had studied the works of Heinrich Hertz and felt that if he could create a wireless technology, great advances could be made for communication as well as the military and commercial shipping . Marconi's invention had an attached Morse telegraph key to send out dot-dash signals to a Morse inker that would display these dashes and dots on paper, and since the invention was grounded in Earth, the signals could be sent over greater distances. Since the Italian government refused to patent Marconi's idea, he took it to England where it became known as wireless telegraphy, used mostly for military and commercial purposes in a form of point-to-point communication. The wireless telegraph, however, did not offer the option of transmitting voice or music, which is when Lee DeForest decided to create a medium for this to occur.

In 1899, twenty-three-year-old Lee DeForest wrote the first dissertation on wireless technology. Upon studying the works of Hertz, Morse, and Marconi, DeForest believed that there had to be a way to surpass Marconi's invention of voiceless wireless technology. He eventually found a way to transmit sound over electromagnetic waves, calling it "wireless telephony." For this, DeForest is credited as the "father of radio."

This creation allowed just about anyone to transmit sound and voice over the electromagnetic waves, leading to the inception of broadcasting. However, the fact that anyone could broadcast anything over the airwaves led to a problem; the airwaves experienced extreme interference. In 1912, Congress passed the Radio Act of 1912, which helped solve the problem of airwave interference by amateur radio operators. This act forced all radio operators to obtain a radio license from the Commerce Department and governed the development of radio until 1927.

As soon as Congress passed the Radio Act of 1912, radio broadcast was much more regulated than it had been previously. With the arrival of the 1920's came the arrival of the first actual radio station, KDKA. Radio stations were named by way of call letters, taken from the military standard of communication that made messages clearer to receive. With call letters, one did not have to type the entire message, just the call letters to be determined upon arrival. Commercial radio stations, such as KDKA, a station owned by NBC (David Sarnoff), and WEAF, the first station with advertising (Owned by CBS, William Paley), were ultimately networks under the jurisdiction of RCA, the Recording Corporation of America. Sarnoff and Paley competed with their radio companies, NBC and CBS, both branches of RCA. By the end of the 1920's, radio would take an entirely new route, far from merely telling the latest news stories.

The 1930's and 1940's brought what is known today as the Golden Age of Radio. During this period in time, radio had taken its crown as king of all media. Radio became the greatest form of popular entertainment for families. With dramatic and compelling programming such as sitcoms, dramas, game shows, and soap operas, there was something for everyone to enjoy.

With such radio shows as Mercury Theatre's War of the Worlds, Americans went into terror, believing that aliens were attacking the Earth. Though there was a disclaimer before every show, many listeners often switched back and forth between programming, sometimes missing the disclaimer. This led to extreme panic throughout the country. People drove on highways with wet towels around their heads to prevent themselves from alien waves, backed up huge bridges trying to escape areas supposedly under attack, and even committed suicide to avoid the terror all together. Needless to say, radio's power over the nation was phenomenal. But its reign as king would not be eternal.

With the mass release of television in the 1950's and 1960's, radio began to lose its once booming audience. Television stations had stolen all of the programming from radio shows and put visuals to them. Thousands of radio actors lost their jobs to the so-called pretty people of television. How could radio ever hope to survive under such drastic circumstances? In the 1960's, a twenty-three-year-old man by the name of Armstrong discovered a new medium of transmitting radio sound waves. By use of FM radio waves, music could be formatted much easier on broadcast radio. With this innovation, radio had regained its popularity, providing entertainment to a wider, more specified audience.

Top 40 radio was popular among the youth. Radio disc-jockeys such as Alan Freed would solely play the forty biggest hits of the time on their music shows. If an artist's record was not in the Top 40, it would not get played. When new records hit the airwaves, speculation and suspicion raged through the music industry, leading to the payola trials.

Payola meant that radio show hosts were accepting gifts or money from record companies in return for a specific record getting played in the Top 40. The trials cost Alan Freed, the radio host who coined the name for rock n' roll, his career as a radio host, but did not stop the success of music on the radio. In the 1960's, as well, came the invention of National Public Radio and Public Radio International, public radio stations that were publicly funded. Due to this, unlike commercial stations, radio programming could be more in depth and not hassled or interrupted by advertisements, and broadcast journalists had more of an opportunity to say whatever they felt or play what they felt merited coverage.

Today, radio has been challenged by the innovation of mp3 players and online media swapping sources such as Napster, KaZaa, and Limewire. Due to this atrocity to the music industry, radio is constantly losing its music programming and turning to talk radio once again. Since music programming on the radio airwaves has become exceedingly corporate and commercially funded, there is less diversity available. Music listeners are growing tired of this predictable programming and turn to digital music instead of radio, leaving it no other choice other than to provide diversified talk programs that vary every hour.

In the present day, on commercial radio stations, we can find two forms of organization: formats of programming and ownership. The formats of programming have been exceedingly decreased since the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Today, programming consists of mostly talk radio and generic music choices such as pop/rock, country, rap and R&B, and classical. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 caused this lack of diversity on the airwaves when it allowed huge commercial conglomerates to take control over multiple forms of media instead of just one. Clear Channel, one of the biggest media conglomerates today, took control of just about every media it could, controlling most of the airwaves in the nation.

Clear Channel's ownership of numerous stations poses not only a problem of less diverse programming, but solely syndicated programming, that can be dangerous for communities that only have one station. Due to the fact that Clear Channel syndicates its programming to some stations around the nation, they are unable to obtain current news in their area, which could lead to vast problems in that particular area.

Upon taking a closer look at the evolution of radio, we can clearly see that this is no overnight inception. Its creation and development have taken over a century to settle into what we now know as radio today. But we must never forget that in such a media-driven world, this cannot be considered the end of radio's evolution and development in time.