Comm 3211 Test 1
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Fessenden
- 1906 - first transmission of voice (Christmas eve broadcast)
- De Forest
- 1906 - created the Audion to share opera w/ public; asked listeners for feedback, received postcards (audion magnified signals; was later sued for it by Marconi; sold it to AT&T for $50,000)
- Popov
- 1895 - successfully transmitted through the air (wireless; never did a broad demonstration)
- Marconi (beginnings)
- 1895 - transmission in code; ended up selling to British Navy; transmitted Morse code from England to Newfoundland (2,000 miles). Morse used on ships.
- What was the state of amateur radio around WW I?
- There were lots of amateurs on the radio during WW I.
- Who controlled the licensing of transmitters in WWI?
- When US entered WW I in April 1917, it demanded control over licensing of transmitters. The US got full control, helped bankroll a lot of technological development (i.e., more powerful transmitters)
- Was the Navy able to retain its control after WW I, and why/why not?
- No, it overplayed its hand; the Army argued, and then Congress decided to stick it w/ the Dept. of Commerce
- When the Dept. of Commerce was given control over the licensing of transmitters, what was its state?
- It wasn't given any money for it, so it began licensing out the broadcasts; (about 1920) there weren't even radio sets you could really buy; they restricted hours.
- KDKA, Frank Conrad
- first commercial radio station in US; Frank Conrad broadcast of results of the 1920 Presidential Election; radio listeners knew the results before others, and thus people started becoming interested in getting their own receivers
- Horne's Department Store
- Sold receivers, 1920; set sales to a passive public, making radio service more of a one-way than a two-way service. This led to scheduled, predictable broadcasts
- True or False, in first years of 1920s many were still making their own radio sets
- True
- 1920-1929: Manufacturers
- Westinghouse - payoff was int he manufacturing of equipment; GE got involved too. They didn't care what went on the air, but they were smart enough to know that if they didn't put something w/ some regularity, no one would buy the radios. Vaudeville popular; dramas w/ descriptions of stage actions.
- 1920-1929: Business
- Newspapers: wanted to increase their readership (not take advantage of new form of journalism), used radio to get name out there; Dept. stores - same thing, wanted to get name out.
- 1920-1929: Education and religious institutions
- Schools wanted students working w/ new technologies. Religious institutions wanted to proselytize/convert
- 1920-1929: Amateurs
- WDGY - owner Young arranged all sorts of trade-outs (50% off for his family in exchange for ad time)
- 1920-1929: AT&T, toll boradcasting
- toll broadcasting go t aslow start; but they were able to get high-profile entertainers to fill up program space. Finally, housing development from Long Island ran an ad, it was very successful; other companies started to get interested.
- 1920-1929: Gender
- Of those getting licenses, most were males (not many women were encouraged to get into the field)
- 1920-1929: Ethnic minorities
- Attempts to get stations were unsuccessful (this was true until after WW II).
- 1920-1929: Advertising
- Show sponsorships begin; advertising comes in gradually until networks are formed
- 1920-1929: Growth of Networks
- AT&T (1923), NBC (1926), CBS (1928), Mutual (1935), ABC (1945). WEAF (NYC), AT&T's station, networked and shared its programming
- 1920-1929: Borrowed & Original formats
-
Borrowed - sports, religion, variety, news, drama
Original - quiz, soap operas, ads - significance of WEAF
- used for AT&T's toll broadcasting
- Discuss what was covered, concluded by 4 National Radio Conferences (1922-25)
- Amateurs - largest in #s, least predictable (didn't have reliable signals, airtime, etc.; but, they did have licenses). Professionals wanted to get rid of amateurs. By 1925, advertising looks like the real future of advertising; professionals better suited for advertising; Herbert Hoover oversaw these
- What was the outcome of the Zenith Corporation case?
- United States vs. Zenith Radio Corporation (1926), a federal judge ruled the Commerce Department had no jurisdiction to regulate radio. Other rulings by the U.S. Attorney General completely nullified Department of Commerce control.
- What led up to the Zenith case of 1926?
- Zenith dissatisfied w/ its airtime, applied for anew frequency space, US Commerce Dept. says they were reserving the space for interaction w/ Mexico or Canada
- What was decided in the Radio Act of 1927?
- To form the Federal Radio Commission (FRC): made it so that amateurs would have to have equipment to keep it to its assigned frequency (this caused most of the amateurs to disappear, making for happy professionals)
- When did spot advertising and sponsorship become dominant?
- 1928
- What aspect of radio grew especially during the Depression?
- Sponsorship
- Instead of radio, whose audiences decline in Depression, and why not radio?
- Movies, newspapers; not radio because the only cost of radio is the set.
- 1929-1941: Sponsorship
- Sponsorships were never better; there was a price to pay for this - sponsors began to think they shoudl get more in return; they wanted to put ads in at certain points in program, as well as program itself; sponsors, in a sense, start to get censorship rights
- 1929-1941: Programming control
- Ad agencies start creating their own studios, create the shows there; networks lose a lot of control over content programming (though, even if not the case, networks still would've been trying to please the sponsors)
- 1929-1941: First protests over programming content
- Pittsburgh Courier & local church denounced dialogue of Amos 'n' Andy 1930-31. Groups in public began to take radio seriously in terms of its social impact; people became more concerned about daily life in general (not specific to radio)
- Press Radio War
-
1933 - 193?:
Radio (CBS) wants to do its own news broadcasting; up until 1930s if radio station did news broadcasting, it was taken from newspaper; newspapers threatened to stop carrying radio broadcasting schedules; radio wasn't set up w/ idea of transmitting news; it was for entertainment - Communications Act of 1934
- Replaced FRC w/ FCC; Congress got interested in setting aside frequencies for non-commercial broadcasting; commercial broadcasters fought back; this was the result.
- Late 1930s: End of Press-Radio War
- Radio stations start getting back into news, late 1930s; broadcast journalism rises; by the end of the 1930s, networks are developing original newscasts.
- WW II
- Broadcast journalism becomes a lot more important w/ US involvement, reports of battles, etc.; Excess profits tax (80%) leads to increased program sponsorship; Radio feels less public obligation than it did in the 1920s
- Post WW II - part one
- not a huge growth in licensed stations up until 1945, but then BOOM!; FCC opens up frequencies; the new stations have problem: where do they get their programming material? lack of network outlets available.
- Short wave
- Development of short wave technology helped the rise of broadcast journalism
- Post WW II - part two
- new stations w/o network affiliations create format radio (all music); radio carries television (financially; during WW II maybe 10,000 TV sets nationwide); first minority radio stations come ont he air - part of the idea of stations created for one particular type of listener
- format radio
- does one type of broadcasting, and not really anything else