History of Radio Essay

In the short story by John Cheever called "The Enormous Radio" it begins with Jim and Irene Westcotts appearing like the perfect American family. Cheever describes them as "the kind of people who seem to strike that satisfactory average of income, endeavor, and respectability" (Cheever 1). What is ironic about this story is the Westcotts are far from being the perfect family and the community they try to conform to is just as imperfect as the Westcotts themselves. A way the Westcotts try to live up to their society is by keeping secret the fact that they listen to the radio and attend musical events. This is because these activities were not something members of their community did. For example, Cheever says the "Westcotts differed

take off, evolving into what it is today. Most people soon forgot about listening to the radio, as

Newspapers had once been the only mass communication & entertainment. The demand for new products that emerged in the 1920s created a new industry, advertising, which enticed buyers to purchase new products, and now that the radio had emerged, advertising was integrated into this media outlet . Radio shows like Amos n' Andy, became a nationwide hit. The advertising industry grew with the emerging industries of mass culture, especially radio and cinema. For the first time, from coast to coast, Americans experienced the same shows and used the same advertised products due to mass culture. The first commercial radio station aired in 1920 and broadcast music to a few thousand listeners. By the end of the decade, thirty-three

Henry Ford showed America and the world his Model T and the Ford assembly line production in 1927. The radio had become a commodity for almost every American home and national pastime for almost every American. Thousands would sit by the radio, as the first public station, KDKA, in Pittsburgh would air. 1927 would find Charles A. Lindbergh thrilling the heart of Americans as he made his pioneer flight across the Atlantic Ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis.

The radio is the most interesting because it has changed the way entertainment works. The inventor of the radio is still unknown however there are many great people that contributed to the creation of the radio. Heinrich Hertz, a German scientist has proven that radio waves occur in nature. In 1896 Guglielmo Marconi had sent a Morse code radio signal and had also received it. This was the spark of the radio. He had applied for a patent in wireless telegraphy and was granted.

Nevertheless, people were able to recover quickly and still enjoy the positive side of the radio for entertainment purposes. The radio was very successful and very popular during the 1920’s because it was able to provide people with a new entertainment experience.

Also radio stations caused a bunch of people to do crazy things, like flying a airplane nonstop across the atlantic ocean.

The radio was used as a distancing agent from others as he listened to it alone, but at the same time it encouraged interaction as he regularly called in to radio stations to win prizes and talk with the hosts. Television brought him closer to his immediate family but pulled him away from the larger world around him, almost the exact opposite of radio. Also, did the fact that radio led to the creation of television impact in any way the amount of jingles and little tunes commercials and shows insisted on? Would there had been less if radio and television were created at more separate times? It is difficult to say. I do know that from the interview I performed it seemed that television had not taken every listener of radio away with its development, not quite like how it sounded when we went over it in class. Concerning what we learned in class I was left surprised that radio had survived at all in today’s television-focused environment. The fact that all three aspects of media, records, radio, and television, were able to coexist relatively easily was definitely interesting and a bit reassuring. There are some forms of media today, like current radio shows, that I would not like seeing disappear under television’s

At the beginning of the decade the nation was still groggy from waking up to a new decade after fighting in World War I. In 1921 President Harding took office and set the course for economic prosperity and a self-propelling nation. The decade of 1920 presented many national shifts of aspects in economy and culture that would include outrageous activity in the stock markets, the use of the radio as a mass media tool, the artistic movement known as the Harlem Renaissance and the age of prohibition. With such changes occurring on a national level the decade became known as the Roaring 20’s.

In 1926 the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) began the National Broadcasting Network (NBC). These were groups of stations that worked with local stations to syndicate radio shows. These shows focused mostly on music and featured several different live performers. The types of music were diverse and could vary from country to jazz.

Radio was a very important transmission mode. The radio’s main function was to deliver citizens the necessary information in a way that was easy to understand, while at the same time making sure the news agencies earned sufficient ratings and to profit. The radio companies had to make the radio programming easy to understand to the average citizen, because “[t]he education of many Americans had ended after freshman year in high school. (Horten, p.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began broadcasting his speeches over the radio in 1933. These speeches gave hope to Americans that were suffering during The Great Depression. Americans found comfort in the speeches that Franklin gave and it was eventually given the nickname, Fireside Chats.(History chats). The radio was also used to push political campaigns. “In the 1928 presidential election campaign, networks sold more than $1 million in advertising time to the Democratic and Republican Parties(American).” The radio influenced American households in many ways, at times, not in a positive manner. In the Radio show Amos ‘n’ Andy, it portrayed African Americans with racial stereotypes(khan). This racial discrimination showed how the radio’s influence wasn’t always a good

The radio is one of the most influential pieces of technology ever invented. From political debates to Taylor Swift’s latest hit, with the help of the radio, society stays informed on a plethora of topics. Freddie Mercury wasn’t lying when he said, “and everything I had to know, I learned it on my radio.” In almost every country in the world, there is at least one radio station used to broadcast news to it’s people. Since the creation of the FM radio, it has been used to reach out to people over a certain area and keep them informed about the society they live in. During the 1930s and the 1940s, the radio played a very important role in history; it was a tool used during World War II by America, Great Britain, and Nazi Germany. By sending

The radio is the oldest use of media for music. It has not lost its importance in spreading music though. Bands today still rely on the radio to help spread their music so people will want to but their albums. For a band to gain an audience and to get people to buy their albums they

Which ever way the electronic media which is the radio intends to pass the messages, it is important to know that it is through the media which is the radio that the targeted audience can be reached.