Radio's History of Feeling Inferior
“There are some things that will scare you so bad, that you will hurt yourself,” said Molly Ivins. And that’s exactly what I believe the radio industry has been doing to itself for most of its 100-year history.
The Golden Age of Radio
The first golden age of radio was during the 1930s and 40s, and was a period when over-the-air commercial radio was sewn into the fabric of American’s daily lives. It delivered the day’s news and provided entertainment to people struggling with the effects of the Great Depression and a second world war.
Here comes TV
Television was introduced to America at the 1939 New York World’s Fair with a live broadcast of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt opening the fair on NBC’s experimental station W2XBS in New York City.
Unfortunately, the development of television in America was halted by Japan bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and bringing the United States into World War II.
When the war ended, there were only six television stations on the air in America, three in New York City, one in Chicago, one in Philadelphia and one in Schenectady, New York.
The number of television sets in use in 1946 were about 6,000, but by 1951 that number grew to over 12 million, and by 1955 half of all homes in the United States had a black and white television.
Radio’s Over Because of…
Radio’s inferiority complex began with television, and probably for good reason. Television stole radio’s prime time programs and right along with it, it’s listeners. Worse, radio’s big station owners and radio networks, CBS and NBC, would use radio’s revenues to fund the development of television stations and TV networks.
There were many who predicted that television would be the demise of radio broadcasting.
This was the first known case of “radio’s over because of…”
What’s Killing Radio, Let Me Count the Ways
I worked in the radio industry all of my professional life. Other than earning money as a professional musician early in my working life or as a Broadcast Professor at the end, radio has been my source of income and my love.
During that time, I would hear about the latest new technology that was going to put radio out of business.
- TV was going to be the end of radio
- FM was going to be the end of AM radio
- CB Radios were going to be the end of commercial radio
- 8-Track Tapes were going to be the end of home & car radio
- Cassette Tapes were going to be the end of home & car radio
- Compact Discs were going to be the end of home & car radio
- MP3s were going to be the end of home & car radio
- Satellite Radio was going to be the end of radio
- The internet was going to be the end of radio
- iPhones/iTunes were going to be the end of radio
- Pandora & Spotify et al were going to be the end of radio
- YouTube was going to be the end of radio
Have I missed any?
FCC Symposium Sees Radio Industry Challenged by Competition and Regulation
The FCC held a symposium at the end of 2019 to solicit things it needed to be addressing for the health of the radio industry. Fingers, by the invited panelists, were pointing in every direction, but at themselves.
The radio industry believes it can make itself better by...
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