Radio and Society

1. Radio and Society

2. Society before radio

3. Mostly local for thousands of years • Print opened up the world, but not to a lot of people • People made their own entertainment: • Reading • Conversation • Parlor games • musicales

5. Sheet music a big seller

6. If you left home • Live theatre • Vaudeville • Lectures • Concerts in the park • Fairs and festivals • The beach

7. End of the quiet life

8. The world became a noisy place • Radios in homes • Radios in restaurants and bars • Radios in cars • Radio played outside businesses

9. Prior to radio, communication was point to point • It was one voice reaching one person at a time • Books • Letters • Telegrams • Movies could reach tens or hundreds at a time, but it required affirmative action on the part of the audience

10. 1932 Democratic Convention

11. One voice, many ears • For the first time, one voice could be heard by millions of people at a time

14. Father Charles Coughlin

15. Demagoguery in Action • One of the most popular radio speakers of the 1930s • Up to a third of the nation listened to him • Delivered a populist message • Supported Hitler’s campaign against communism and Jews • Coughlin’s message resulted in --

16. Restrictions on radio • U.S. government decided that the First Amendment didn’t apply to radio broadcasts • The airwaves are a “limited natural resource” and should be regulated • Radio stations now needed to have operating permits (Coughlin was denied a permit) • National Association of Broadcasters ruled that there should be "rigid limitations on the sale of radio time to spokesmen of controversial public issues"

17. John R. Brinkley, MD (?)

18. Sold the cure for many medical problems, especially sexual problems – Goat Glands Quickly realized the value of radio as an advertising medium

19. Opened a 1000 watt station in Kansas to promote his “cures” • Was denied a license in 1930 because he didn’t broadcast in the public interest but only for private gain • Appealed on grounds of censorship • Lost the appeal: past programming could be considered without it being considered censorship

20. Brinkley opened new station • Across the border in Mexico • Programming sent across from the US on phone lines • Pumped out 500,000 watts – could be heard in Russia

21. Led to new regulations – the Brinkley Act: • Any station broadcasting from Mexico but originating in the US had to be licensed by the US • Put Brinkley out of business

22. Radio was mostly entertainment • New forms of music became popular • Blues • Jazz • Country

23. Bessie Smith

24. Fiddlin’ John Carson • 1923 • “little Old Log Cabin in the Lane” became first country hit

25. For 20 years the country was bound together by a common source of information and social norms – the radio

26. Advent of Television

27. Early TV show

28. The Lone Ranger

29. Roy Brown

30. Todd Storz

31. Alan Freed