The Beginning
The Radio was introduced to society because of the telegraph and the telephone. These inventions don’t do the same things but their similar branch of technology. “Radio technology began as “wireless telegraphy”. “It all started with the discovery of radio waves, electromagnetic waves that have the capacity to transmit music, speech, pictures and other data invisibly through air.” [Bellis] Majority of technology uses electromagnetic waves to send data information or TV broadcasts. During the 1860’s, Scottish physicist, James Clerk Maxwell predicted the existence of radio waves; and in 1886, German physicist, Heinrich Rudolph Hertz showed how fast the variation of electric current could be placed into space in the form of radio waves similar to light and heat. “Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor, proved the feasibility of radio communication”. [Bellis]1 He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895. "By 1899 he flashed the wireless signal across the English Channel and two years later received the letter “S” telegraphed from England to Newfoundland.” This was just the beginning of something so popular that Marconi himself just wouldn’t believe. “Lee Deforest invented space telegraphy, the triode amplifier and the Audion.” In the early 1900’s, the great requirement for further development of radio was and efficient and delicate detector. This made it possible to amplify the radio frequency signal picked up by the antenna before application to the receiver detector; thus, much weaker signals could be utilized than had previously been possible. Deforest was also the person who first used the word “radio”. The result of Deforest’s work was the invention of amplitude-modulated or AM radio tha...
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The Result
From the beginning of the radio’s time it has significantly change slowly but surely. In reality, the radio owes its success to the Great Depression. Why? Well before it became as popular as it is today, only the “rich” were able to afford what they called a “wireless set”. Once they became more convenient everyone and their cousin owned one of these fantastic devices. Some can say this device may have created something so great for the future to come. In a time when the “average salary was $1,368 and a round steak ran about 42 cents a pound” [Sutton] , a radio was just a simple treasure, that graced the homes of so many. Whether it be for a great story or just to catch up on the day to day news, the radio played a very important role in the lives of so many who came to know just how depressing the Great Depression truly was.
The man that envisioned a device like this was David Sarnoff. David Sarnoff was known as the father of entertainment broadcasting. He was the president of the Radio Corporation of America. He wrote to his superior, Edward J. Nally at the American division of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, “‘I have in mind a plan of development which would make radio a household utility in the same sense as the piano or phonograph. The receiver can be designed in the form of a simple music box and arranged for several wavelengths’” (Hilliard & Keith, 2001, p. 17). Back then in the early 1900s, Sarnoff claimed, and accurately predicted radio’s role as an entertainment device.
...e radio was invented during the era and found its way into broadcasting to every home in America. The era introduced the first movie made with sound, The Jazz Singer, which later makes movies more popular in demanding.
The radio has had a huge impact on bringing information to the public about war and other government issues. Advertising and broadcasting on the airwaves was a major step in bringing war propaganda to a level where people could be easily touched nationally. Broadcasting around the clock was being offered everywhere. Before there was television people relied on the radio as a way to be entertained, the means of finding out what was going on in the world, and much more. During the World War II time period, 90 percent of American families owned a radio, and it was a part of daily life. So it was an obvious means of spreading war propaganda. During this time period, propaganda was spread throughout the radio by means of news programs, public affairs broadcasts, as well as through Hollywood and the mainstream. The average person had not even graduated high school at the time, and the average reading level of the American was somewhat low. The radio made it possible for stories and news to be delivered to everyone in plain simple English. The radio served as a medium that provided a sense of national community. Although it took time, the radio eventually rallied people together to back up the American war effort.
In the 1930s, the United States was recovering from the Great Depression, and the urban audience needed products that would bring comfort and get-away opportunities. At the same time, radio broadcasting became more common in the country, bringing affordable entertainment to the public. In one account, ordinary southerners would listen to the radio on Saturday night as “there wasn’t nothing else doing.” Producers travelled in the South, including the Appalachian region, to record the rich, local, and traditional mus...
The economy was booming during this time. There were more job opportunities than ever before because of new technologies and new industries, such as aluminum. The radio was develo...
The Robin Hoods of the nineteen thirties were barely even heroic at all. First marked as rebellious people, they showed that even in loss there is still a spark of hope. Then things twisted for the worse, killing machines were made and all hope was lost.
In “Wires and Lights in a Box,” the author, Edward R. Murrow, is delivering a speech on October 15, 1958, to attendees of the Radio-Television News Directors Association. In his speech, Murrow addresses how it is his desire and duty to tell his audience what is happening to radio and television. Murrow talks about how television insulates people from the realities in the world, how the television industry is focused on profits rather than delivering the news to the public, and how television and radio can teach, illuminate, and inspire.
The ‘Golden Age of Television’ is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to establish itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a new innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was finally completed in the late twenties. The three main innovators were Niplow - who first developed a rotating disk with small holes arranged in a spiral pattern in 1884, Zworykin - who developed the Iconoscope which could scan pictures and break them into electronic signals (a primitive form of the Cathode Ray Tube) in 1923, and lastly Fansworth - who demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to transmit an electrical image in 1927. (Rollo, 2011) However, one of the many reasons why this medium was successful in the 50s was due to the fact that it became more accessible to the public. Television sets were more affordable to middle class citizens which created further interest in the new technology. Through an historical account of the medium, the spread of television across America throughout this particular decade will be examined.
Back in the day, music is not readily available online at the tip of your fingertips. Fifty years ago, you would listen to the radio and that’s how you knew what records to buy. Radio stations in large music cities such as Los Angeles, New York or Nashville normally set the standard for the most popular music. New music emerges in their city, than gets released on their local radio stations, and the music becomes a smash hit. This is not the case for the small town radio station of CKLW in Windsor, Ontario. As television was drastically changing the radio industry, CKLW had to change to keep up. This change is what resulted into CKLW- The Big 8, a radio station that created new standards of radio hosting as well as rock and roll music. CKLW influenced not only music throughout North America but the entire music industry such as Bill Drake's "Boss Radio” technique, and how this station influenced its home city of Windsor, Ontario. CKLW evolved from a small city radio station to become “The Big 8” a huge nationwide music icon that was responsible for not only changing the music industry but changing the face of radio forever.
When the United States entered the First World War, the government took over all radio operations and shut down both professional and amateur radio broadcasters. The use of radio was reserved exclusively for the war effort. In the air, radio was used for the first time between multiple planes and the ground to keep formations and lead the pilots to their targets. This was the beginning of air traffic control and walkie-talkies. In addition, soldiers who had been wounded were entertained in the hospital by news and music played over the radio. Although radio was not allowed back into public until 1919, it continued to be used by troops coming home to entertain each other and was even used for dances. All of radio’s uses from the war soon became prevalent in everyday life and radio has been used in these ways ever since. Our lives are filled with constant sound most of it coming from the radio being on all the time; whether in the car or at home, music, news, weather, and traffic are provided through radio. There is a station for everyone. Moreover, when we travel by plane, airports would be chaotic and have no way to tell who is taking off and landing if not for radio use to control the traffic and make everything run smoothly. Many jobs also have much use of radio needed to communicate with other workers in careers such as law enforcement and trucking.
The 1920's brought many advancements in technology which allowed Americans to entertain themselves at home; the radio was one of them. The radio was actually developed before the 1920's; however, it was banned during World War I and allowed to reappear after the Prohibition ended in 1919 (Events 72). After the Prohibition ended, and radio broadcasting was being brought back to life, many people started up their first stations, like Frank Conrad (Events 72). Frank Conrad's first broadcast consisted of the Presidential Election results (Events 72). As Conrad was one of the first people to broadcast, KDKA was one of the first radio stations to appear in the Unite...
Many inventions have impacted the world throughout history but in my opinion one of the most impactful one’s was the invention of the radio . This invention provided society with many things which include entertainment, communication, and easier access to information. Radio is still a central part of the society today but just like any other invention radio has an interesting history of how it progressed through time.
By the time the 20th century arrived, vacuum tubes were invented that could transmit weak electrical signals which led to the formation of electromagnetic waves that led to the invention of the radio broadcast system (750). These vacuum tubes were discovered to be able to transmit currents through solid material, which led to the creation of transistors in the 1960’s (750).
Before beginning our research on radio waves, to us, radio waves were just waves going through the atmosphere, carrying sound from one place to another. Those were our ignorant days! We did not realize the complicated terms and theories involved. In the following report you will see how we advanced in our knowledge of radio waves, and we hope it will do the same for you. Radio waves are a combination of two kinds of electric vibrations.
middle of paper ... ... In 1933, the Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, Josef Goebbels, said, “The radio will be to the twentieth century what the press was to the nineteenth.” The radio not only sped up communication, but also the words took on more personality as they were spoken with declamatory, fully animated voices. Issues with anonymity arose, as listeners over the radio can never truly be aware who speaks to them.