Radio

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Background/Overview of Radio

At the start of the 1800's, the speed of communication was limited to how fast you could physically transport the information. Personal communication could take days or even weeks from country to country, and mass communication would take longer with the time it took to physically print out copies and distribute them. The American people had been figuring out how to transport electricity over wires since Benjamin Franklin created the lightning rod in the 1750's, but Samuel Morse had figured out a way to turn this electricity into information.

Painter turned inventor, Samuel Morse, (pictured below in his self portrait) was likely inspired by the death of his wife, Lucretia (Bullard, 2016). He had heard about people sending electricity across wires and had wondered if that could be turned into information, the kind that may save lives of others. And so, in the 1830s Morse made the telegraph, a machine you could tap on to create a series of electrical sounds, and Morse Code, a way to convert those short pulses and longer holds into letters, thus inventing electronic communication.

This inspired more research into this instantaneous communication that you could achieve with electricity. More importantly, how could you achieve mass communication with this. After decades of research with the concept of electromagnetic waves, Guglielmo Marconi had finally invented what is now known as the radio in 1895. He had made a breakthrough in science thought impossible. "In 1901, he succeeded in signalling across the Atlantic, from Cornwall to Newfoundland, despite the claims of science that it could not be done." (Raboy, 2016) Marconi had finally communicated wirelessly across distances unheard of, this was the moment the floodgates opened up to show the sheer variety of information radio could transmit.

This communication proved vital in the works of those aboard ships. To the point where congress passed the Wireless Ship Act in 1910, forcing boats with large crews to have a wireless radio receiver. Canadian engineer, Reginald Fessenden, had the first ever radio broadcast. In which violin was played over his reading of Bible passages. This program was meant for ships out at sea that had the technology to receive said broadcast. What once began as a mission to create faster communications for the government and other important services, proved to be the biggest leap forward in home entertainment. Like all technology, the radio began to shrink in size and in price, allowing families to have radios in their homes.

People realized that every single form of non visual media could be translated to radio, and broadcast to an audience at speeds unthinkable by its physical counterparts. Politicians, comedians, and especially musicians all revolutionized their industries come the 1920s ushering in radio's golden era. This propelled radio into becoming so massive that the government had to step in and create commissions to regulate these airwaves such as the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) in 1927 and eventually the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1933.

FDR's Fireside Chats

Radio is mostly associated with the music industry today, however, the early days of radio proved an invaluable tool for politicians. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had perhaps the most famous example of this with his fireside chats.

FDR had the challenge of navigating the lowest point in America's financial history, that being The Great Depression. Unemployment was being brought to levels never seen before according to papers like The Dayton Herald's 1931 issue (pictured right) FDR had a challenge on his hands. He had to not just calm the American working class, but inspire them. He had to connect with them so that they would believe in his plan to get America back on track and have them stimulate the economy. Paul Sparrow, the former director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum summarized it on the first episode of The History Chanel's show, "Nothing to Fear." He described FDR's strategy as saying "...you have to help me. If you wanna get through this problem, I can do some things, but you have to do other things." (Sparrow, 2023).

FDR had to tell the public, at a time when many feared government assistance corrupting capitalism and leading them into communism, that he could save them with government assistance. He managed this through the medium of radio, one where his message was more than just text, it was tone. His honest and understanding nature to the working class helped him secure their trust. He talked in a way that was both reassuring as a leader, and comforting as a friend. He didn't fear responding to his critics, in fact, his fifth chat was dedicated to exactly that. Amazingly, he kept this demeanor without giving in to the chaotic retorts of his opponents, grounding his stance firmly with moments such as him saying "A few timid people, who fear progress, will try to give you new and strange names for what we are doing. Sometimes they will call it " Fascism", sometimes "Communism", sometimes "Regimentation", sometimes "Socialism". But, in so doing, they are trying to make very complex and theoretical something that is really very simple and very practical." (Roosevelt, 1934).

This connection to the American people was a necessary step in gaining their support of the New Deal, a large reason for our eventual escape from the great depression. (Lipset and Marks, 2001)

Pop Culture Through the Radio

The radio becoming easily accessible throughout the 20s-40s led to mass communication. As Baran (2024) defines it in the reader created by Prof. McGowan-Kirsch "process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences." He provides a figure below demonstrating the concept. Musicians, comedians, and all new professions such as radio hosts had a way to reach the masses instantly and become celebrities in a sense that had truly never been seen before.

The Marx brothers Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel radio program (debuting in 1932) became so culturally impactful that it was remade into a televised series by the BBC in 1990. Abbot and Costello's famous bits were broadcast on both television and radio, and we can see comedians of the modern era parodying them to this day (as seen here with Chris and Jack's take). Jazz was blowing up, voices like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole left a stamp on America's culture that gets revisited every single Christmas. Bing himself, went so far as to host Christmas programs to further cement this.

Pop culture does more than just create celebrities, it breaks barriers into the industry for minority communities to become more mainstream. A big example of this is how black musicians fame gradually led to more acceptance in white cultures. "Moreover, the emergence of radio DJs in the 1960s and 1970s meant that popular rock, blues, and jazz music, which often featured African American musicians, were heard by a wider audience—both black and white—in a way never possible before." According to the Digital Public Library of America. The radio was full of groundbreaking black artists from all eras, from the aforementioned jazz musicians to the beginnings of rock with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Jimmy Hendrix, and with Michael Jackson who broke all sorts of records, including the most wins by a male artist at the American Music Awards with 26 wins.

Hot/Cool Media, and the Decline of Radio

Radio used to be king of mass communication, as it was the only form of mass communication in the house for most Americans. Then in the 40's, the television began to encroach onto that market. "Due to drops in pricing, Americans were buying 100,000 TVs a week in 1949." says Silvia (2021). On top of this the televisions began offering adaptations with "TV shows based on their radio serials." It was clear that while radio and television could coexist, one was a far superior form of entertainment, news, and the very cultural icons radio helped to create. The advent of color tv only went on to exacerbate this problem into the 60s and 70s.

In 1964, Canadian Philosopher Marshall McLuhan (pictured below) began to create some terminology to describe the key difference between these two mediums, and what exactly was slowly ending radio's reign on society. Marshall Coined the terms "Hot media" and "Cool media" in his McGraw Hill textbook, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. The book also coined the well known phrase "The Medium is the Message" in the title of chapter 1. McLuhan wrote, "Any hot medium allows of less participation than a cool one, as a lecture makes for less participation than a seminar, and a book for less than a dialogue." (pp. 25). Essentially, hot mediums such as TV, require more attention from our senses, as they have us participate visually, and audibly, while radio is a cooler medium due to it lacking visual participation on our behalf.

Radio managed to cling on until the end of the 20th century due to being more compact, in almost every car, and cheaper than television. Even so, people knew that radio was simply playing second fiddle to television in the entertainment industry. This was poetically beaten into pop culture itself when The Buggles topped the charts in the U.S. with their song, Video Killed the Radio Star, in 1979. Poetically also being the first ever music video to premier on MTV. While the industry never died, the advent of streaming has finally toppled it's last upper hand on television, convenience. Even being built into car infotainment systems. The medium of radio once had what seemed to be an invincible monopoly over mass communication, and while far from dead, it's taken quite the beating in the last 50 years.

Click on the down arrows to expand the text box so you can see information about the author and references.

About the Author

I am an Acting/Audio Production major in SUNY Fredonia's class of 2027. I joined Fredonia Radio Systems in 2023 and became the Productions Director in 2024. Currently I am a finalist to receive the award of Best Productions Director from the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS). I hope to use both of my majors to work in the industry as both a voice actor/voice over artist, and as an audio producer.

References: Sources

Website Article: Gabe Bullard, (April 26, 2016). The Heartbreak That May Have Inspired the Telegraph. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/160426-samuel-morse-wife-lucretia-telegraph-invention

Book: Raboy, M. (2016). Marconi: the man who networked the world. (pp. 4-5) New York, New York : Oxford University Press

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/fredonia-ebooks/reader.action?docID=4706005&ppg=843

Television: Sparrow, P. (2023). Nothing to Fear, S1E1, The History Chanel https://youtu.be/jDVpsggkkHU?feature=shared&t=123

Radio: Roosevelt, F. (1934). Fireside Chat 5: On Addressing the Critics https://youtu.be/P-os2Q1EDAM?feature=shared&t=131

Website Article: Lipset, S. and Marks, G. (2001). How FDR Saved Capitalism https://www.hoover.org/research/how-fdr-saved-capitalism

Website: Golden Age of Radio in the US https://dp.la/exhibitions/radio-golden-age/radio-homefront/radio-home-race?item=708

Website Article: Pam Silvia, (September 29th, 2021). Through the Decades: The Evolution of Television Sets https://www.shopac.com/blog/evolution-of-television-sets

Book: McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw Hill ISBN 81-14-67535-7

Website: Official Charts https://www.officialcharts.com/songs/buggles-video-killed-the-radio-star/