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KDKA in the early 1920s

KDKA in the early 1920s. Ways to finance radio?. The government just creates a service and gives it money (Canada, Mexico) Finance radio by a license tax on receivers (Britain, BBC) Non-profits fund radio Listener subscriber radio Commercials. Science break!. Remember Cartesian geometry?.

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KDKA in the early 1920s

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  1. KDKA in the early 1920s

  2. Ways to finance radio? • The government just creates a service and gives it money (Canada, Mexico) • Finance radio by a license tax on receivers (Britain, BBC) • Non-profits fund radio • Listener subscriber radio • Commercials

  3. Science break!

  4. Remember Cartesian geometry? Y = x + 1, etc

  5. . . . which got progressively nastier . . .

  6. Can I run away and join the circus now?

  7. . . . Then came sine waves

  8. All radio energy moves in sine waves • Hertz: How many cycles the wave travels in a second. • 1,000 times = 1 kilohertz • 1,000,000 times = 1 megahertz

  9. Waves can modulate by amplitude Amplitude Modulation: The sound changes because the size of the wave gets bigger and smaller; the length of the wave stays the same

  10. Waves can modulate by frequency Frequency modulation: The size stays the same, but the frequency constantly changes.

  11. Problem: AM waves cause static when they reach the receiver ouch! ooph!

  12. But FM waves don’t modulate by amplitude, so they stay smooth all the way home! Thank you FM wave!

  13. Broadcasting signals get allocated by hertz • AM radio - 535 kilohertz to 1.7 megahertz • Short wave radio - bands from 5.9 megahertz to 26.1 megahertz • Citizens band (CB) radio - 26.96 megahertz to 27.41 megahertz • Television stations - 54 to 88 megahertz for channels 2 through 6 • FM radio - 88 megahertz to 108 megahertz • Television stations - 174 to 220 megahertz for channels 7 through 13

  14. How to convert meters into kilohertz • Radio stations used to say “This station broadcasts at 240 meters” • That is, the length of the wave was 240 meters (meter x .91 = yard) • Now they define the frequency by hertz (How many cycles the wave travels in a second) • To convert to kilohertz (AM radio): • Divide your meter measurement into 300,000 • Eg., a station broadcasting at 240 meters, broadcasts at • 300,000/240 = 1,250 kHz • To convert to megahertz (FM radio): • 300/240 = 1.25 mHz

  15. In early 1920s . . . • Most stations broadcast at 360 meters . . . • 833.33 kHz • Government/weather stations broadcast at 485 meters . . . • 645 kHz

  16. Hertz is the frequency rate at which a station broadcasts Wattage is how much electrical power the transmitter uses (one watt = one joule per second) Please, don’t ask me what a joule is, basically it’s a unit of electrical energy . . . Don’t confuse hertz with watts!

  17. . . . Now, back to our story!

  18. The Hoover radio conferences, 1921-1926 • Conferences allow Secretary of Commerce Hoover to establish license requirements, different wattage levels for different stations • Stations start naming themselves with four letters • 1923: ASCAP negotiates license fees for radio stations using music, most of it live

  19. National Broadcasting Company created, 1926 • AT&T agrees to stop suing companies it claims are illegally using its hookup lines • AT&T, GE and Westinghouse will equip RCA spinoff (NBC) which produces programming for radio • Sets up initial network of 19 radio stations

  20. 1926, Zenith v. United States • Zenith challenges Hoover’s authority to allocate licenses up to the Supreme Court • Supreme Court says that Congress did not give government authority to assign licenses, power, frequencies • The “period of chaos” begins

  21. Speaking of chaos . . . Dr. John Romulus Brinkley Welcome to the Brinkley hospital

  22. 1927, The Federal Radio Commission • Five commissioners supervise the airwaves • Could allocate licenses and create different classes of radio stations • Radio stations must operate at the “public interest, convenience, or necessity.”

  23. 1928, FRC license allocation • NBC affiliate stations get big “clear channel” licenses • Educational stations get weaker licenses or are forced to share licenses with each other • Commercial stations defined as “general interest” stations, deserving of better licenses • Non-commercial stations as “propaganda” stations, deserving of lesser signals

  24. The National Association of Broadcasters (1922) • Creating to lobby for the interest of radio station owners • Negotiated with groups like ASCAP for artist royalty rates • Lobbied Secretary of Commerce and Congress over spectrum allocations

  25. Push “indirect advertising” Call it the “American system” Emphasize sincerity Radio is like the camera, photograph It is a uniquely sincere form of communication Advertising agencies push radio commercials Thanks to Jerry Berg http://www181.pair.com/otsw/AppCards.html

  26. Betty Crocker evolution, 1936-1986 http://chnm.gmu.edu/features/sidelights/crocker.html

  27. Ladies Home Journal ad, 1920

  28. Country music on the radio Jimmy Rodgers, the Carter Family, and Patsy Montana (“America’s number 1 singing cowgirl”)

  29. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) • British Broadcasting company owned by radio manufacturers, 1922 • Licensed by Post Office • Financed by a tax on radio receivers • Nationalized in 1927 Sir John Reith

  30. Amos ‘n Andy, 1929 • First national hit comedy radio show • 1931, black newspaper Pittsburgh Courier gets 700,000 signers to demand show be cancelled Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll

  31. Comedy show about a Jewish immigrant family’s acculturation to the United States • Nationally syndicated on NBC in 1929

  32. National Committee for Education by Radio (NCER), 1930 • Journalists and educators who advocate for non-commercial, educational radio • Backed by the Payne fund Joy Elmer Morgan, educational radio advocate

  33. Three arguments against commercial broadasting • Commercial radio will always suppress criticism of big business • Radio programming should be broadcast for its own sake, not for the sake of selling commercials • Corporate radio fundamentally undemocratic

  34. Problems with media reformers of 1930s • Scattered into a wide variety of non-profit groups and fiefdoms • Lots of generals, not enough soldiers • Elitist, highbrow, and condescending of most radio listeners, who enjoyed the popular programming provided by NBC

  35. Canadian broadcasting system • Begun in 1932 with BBC-style receiver license system • Established as Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1936 • Private commercial broadcasters limited to low power local stations • Allowed partial advertising to supplement station income Graham Spry: “It’s the state or the United States.”

  36. National Advisory Council on Radio in Education (NACRE, 1930) • Non-profit created to work with NBC to produce educational radio for the networks • Argued that commercialism and educational radio could cooperate with one another • Designed to co-opt the 1930s media reform movement Robert Hutchins (left) of NACRE

  37. The Communications Act of 1934 • Creates permanent regulatory entity: the Federal Communications Commission • Wagner/Hatfield amendment would have allotted 25 percent of broadcast channels to "educational, religious, agricultural, labor, cooperative, and similar non-profit-making associations." • Defeated by radio industry lobby

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