Ch 7: Radio, Recording, and Popular Music Flashcards
1896:
able to send/receive telegraph code over 2 miles
1899:
sound successfully transmitted sound across the English Channel
1901:
sound successfully transmitted across the Atlantic.
1903: What is liquid barretter and who created it?
the first audio device permitting reception of wireless voice transmissions, Reginald Fessenden
1906: what is audion tube and who invented it?
a vacuum tube that improved and amplified wireless signals; Lee DeForest
Lee DeForest
- made reliable transmission of clear voices and broadcast a reality
- 1st to see radio as a means of broadcast
radio in the 1900’s
Countless “broadcasters” went on the air, from hobbyists to corporations. Havoc reigned
- WWI: US government ordered closing of all radio stations
1877:
Thomas Edison patents the “talking machine”, a device replicating sound through a hand-cranked grooved cylinder and a needle. Movement over grooves generated into electrical energy that activated a diaphragm in a loudspeaker and produced sound. DRAWBACK: Sound couldn’t be duplicated.
1860:
Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville records a song on his phonoautograph
1887:
Thomas Edison’s problem solved: German immigrant Emile Berliner’s gramophone used a flat rotating wax-coated disc that could be easily copied or pressed.
Emile Berliner’s contrubutions
The gramophone (duplicative sound), a sophisticated microphone (through his company RCA Victor Records), importing of recordings from famous European opera stars.
1905:
Columbia Phonograph Company introduces 2-sided disc.
1920:
hundreds of phonograph and gramophone companies exist, devices were standard features in US homes.
Experimental station 8XK in Pittsburgh received a license from Dept. of Commerce to operate as KDKA and produced first commercial radio broadcast.
1919:
More than 2 million machines and 107 million recordings sold in this year alone.
Who was considered the “Father of Radio”?
Guglielmo Marconi
1924:
Development of electromagnetic recording by Joseph P Maxwell at Bell Laboratory
broadcast predates the coming of radio
Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone company had a subscription music service in major cities in the late 1800’s through telephone wires
“Radio Music Box Memo”
In 1916, young Russian immigrant and employee of American Marconi David Sarnoff sent his superiors “a plan of development that would make radio a ‘household utility’ in the same sense as the piano or the phonograph”
bickering in broadcast
Patent fights and lawsuits delayed introduction of broadcasting to a mass audience.
Through the war effort, US gov improves radio patents for war use
End of the war in 1919, patents returned to owners, bickering renewed
formation of RCA
concerned that medium would be wasted and fearful that a foreign company (British Marconi) would control, US gov orders a government-sanctioned monopoly consisting of American Marconi, General Electric, American Telephone and Telegraph, and Westinghouse–forming Radio Corporation of America. (1921)
Frank Conrad
Sept 30 1920: a Westinghouse impressed with listener numbers picking up broadcasts from garage radio station of company engineer Frank Conrad asks him to move into the main factory
Wireless Ship Act
Passed 1910, required all ships using US ports and carrying more than 50 passengers to have working wireless and operator
Radio Act of 1912
Spurred by the Titanic, req. wireless operators to be licensed by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
-est. spheres of authority on federal/state levels that allocated/revoked licenses, administered fines, and assigned frequencies.
response to the Radio Act of 1912
anger at the regulations by radio operators caused them to be revoked in court.
No-rules medium
Fighting for frequencies, deliberate & frequent interference
- fed up listeners and radio sales dropped
The Radio Act of 1927
allowed broadcasters to use channels, under the condition that they were to be caretakers, not owners; airwaves belonged to the public.
Federal Radio Commission (FRC)
established to administer the Radio Act of 1927.
Evaluation of licenses: public interest, convenience, or necessity.
Trustee model
Model of regulation - based on two premises
- Spectrum scarcity : those who are granted licenses to serve a local area must accept regulation
- influence and power of broadcasting on the population
The Communication Act of 1934
replaced the FRC with the FCC
What led to the establishment of national radio networks?
The sale of advertising
Affiliates
groups of stations:
- delivered larger audiences
- realized greater ad revenues
- hired bigger stars
- produced better programming
1938:
NBC Red, NBC blue, (both started by RCA), CBS, and Mutual affiliated all the large US stations
O&O’s
owned and operated flagship stations
government regulation based on _______
public interest
What were the basic broadcast content?
Entertainment and information
What was the basis of financial support?
Advertising
The Golden Age
Great Depression damaged the phonograph industry but helped boost radio. Once a family bought a radio, a whole world of entertainment and information was at its disposal for free.
1930s/40s
12 million radio homes in 1930 to 30 million in 1940.
War increased the desire for news.
33 1/2 rpm and 45 rpm became industry standards
rpm
Rotations per minute
How many broadcast stations operate in the US today?
15,000
What is people’s primary means of consuming audio content?
Radio
FM VS AM
FM commercial stations attract 75% of listeners - people who gravitate towards music.
1945:
FCC set aside all FM frequencies between 88.1 and 91.9 as no commercial radio after critics contended that the commercial broadcasters were not making time available for educational programming.
format
A radio stations particular sound or programming content
secondary services
A radio stations second, or nonprimary format that appeals to advertisers
BILLINGS
Income earned from the sale of airtime
RATINGS
Percentage of total available audience reached
The Telecommunications Act of 1996
Deregulation. There are no national ownership limits.
➢One person or company can own as many as eight stations in single market
➢Duopoly – one person or group owning or managing multiple radio stations in a single market.
Since Telecommunications Act of 1996:
More than 10,000 radio stations have been sold.
➢1,100 fewer station owners, a 30% decline.
➢Most sales to large radio groups such as Clear Channel and Cumulus.
Effects of deregulation
➢Local public affairs shows now make up less than one-half of 1 percent of all commercial broadcast time.
➢Commercial broadcasters offer little to no news to their communities of license and news and information resources keep shrinking.
➢DJs laid off as stations shift to more automated or national syndicated programming.
Local Community Radio Act of 2005
➢As a result of the Local Community Radio Act of 2005, 838 Low Power FM stations, serving all 50 states, now offer opportunities for additional radio voices to serve their local listenerships.
Top 3 recording companies
Sony, Warner and Universal - control nearly 75% of the global market; two are foreign-owned.
Catalogue albums
albums more than three years old – represent more than 30% of all discs sold. Sales of recent catalogue albums – those out for 15 months to three years – have fallen dramatically.
