Historical Bases 11/01/2008 14:05:00

From wireless to Broadcasting

• 19th century wired communication
o Thomas Morse
 Send the first telegraphic message using electricity,
1842
 Between DC, and Baltimore
o Alexander Graham Bell
 First to send voice via wire, 1876
o weakness of wired communication
 construction
 a long time to build, rights of way, labor
 maintenance
 wires go out because of weather, electricity, old
• development of wireless
o Maxwell
 1864, theorized the idea of radio waves
o Hertz
 1887, demonstrated that Maxwell was right and there
were real radio waves out there
o Marconi
 Non-scientist. First person to send a message through
telegraphic code, without wires through radio waves
 In 1901 sends the letter S transatlantic
 o Fessenden
 Used the radio waves to send voice
 In 1906 from Massachusetts sent a message on
Christmas night
o Tuning in: DeForest and the Audion
 Invented the audion, 1907
 Not ready for prime time yet
o Beyond telegraphy: telephone transmission
• From Wireless to Broadcasting
o Maritime influences
 Naval
 Securing the seas
 Commercial
o Legal/regulatory
 Maritime disasters and the Berlin Conference
 Certain frequency bands for maritime and for
emergencies
 In 1910 the US required all maritime vessels to have a
wireless radio and an operator on board
 Titanic
o Big Business: Westinghouse, GE, AT&T, Marconi
 The companies had competing patents
 AT&T pretty much owned anything related to telephony
 GE was providing the electricity manufacturing
  Marconi had patented his inventions
 Westinghouse had generated a lot of electric power and
supplied a lot of equipment for the navy during WWI
o World War I (1914 – 1918)
 Training radio operators
 10,000 people were trained for wireless radio
 Cross-licensing
 The US saw that wireless radio technologies were
too important and made the licensing able to be
used by all the companies
o The Creation of RCA
 Fear of foreign control
 Spy issues, no dependencies.
 US Navy Leadership
 Participants: Navy, GE, AT&T, Westinghouse
o RCA Agreement
 AT&T – Transmitters
 GE / Westinghouse – Receivers
 RCA – Marketing
Broadcasting!
• Frank Conrad and KDKA
o Amateur radio operator that worked for Westinghouse.
o KDKA was created in 1920. They would publicize and
announce their schedules ahead of time. First commercial
broadcast radio.
• The rapid growth of radio broadcasting
 o How much
 by the end of 1920 there were 30 stations.
 By the end of 1921 there were 28 more stations
 By the end of 1921 there were 430 more stations
 By the end of 1924 there were over 1,400 stations in
existence.
o Why
 Why operate a station?
 Why buy a radio receiver?
 Free programming
 a way to relax and escape from their day to day
life
• Getting programs: networks
o Early ad hoc networks
o WEAF-WMAF – the rise of the telephone group
 AT&T had the first radio network, in 1923
 By the end of 1924 they had 24 stations in the network
o The radio group – technically challenged
• How to pay the Bills?
o The Radio Group: Indirect Support

o The Telephone Group: “Toll” Broadcasting
 Advertisers could buy an amount of time on the radio
network.
  i.e. lucky strike could buy an hour of programming and
play the lucky strike orchestra and every few minutes
they would let you know you were listening to the lucky
strike orchestra.
The Rise of Modern Broadcasting: The Networks
• AT&T bows out
o Internal questions
 Stations started to built their own transmitters. AT&T
sued the stations and received lots of bad PR and lost.
o Government Concerns
 FTC is concerned about the domination of broadcasting
by AT&T. this then fueled internal debate.
• The AT&T – RCA Agreement
o AT&T leaves broadcasting
o AT&T give up monopoly claim
o WEAF sold to RCA
o AT&T Controls Network Relay System
 They would keep the phone lines that communicate the
stations together and the stations would pay AT&T for
the use of the lines.
• The National Broadcasting Company
o First company established to Operate Network
o Controlled Two Networks:
 Telephone Group  NBC Red  NBC  NBC Television
 Radio Group  NBC Blue  NBC Blue  ABC 
ABC/Capital Cities  Disney/ABC
• A few words about David Sarnoff
• Origins of CBS
o Arthur Judson – United Independent Broadcasters
 o Investment by Columbia Phonograph
o Columbia Drops Out
o William Paley Buys Columbia
 Able to get good big name stars and convinced more
stations to sign up
• Radio Act of 1912
o Radio as Point-to-Point Service
o Regulatory Authority to Secretary of Commerce
 Set frequencies and hours of operation
 Had to issue License on Application
• Regulation after KDKA
o Chaos
 More stations than frequencies
 Some stations ignored rules
 Some with bad equipment
o Solutions?
 National Radio Conferences
 Unwillingness of Congress to act
 Zenith Decision
• The Radio Act of 1927
o Established Federal Radio Communication
o Gave FRC Authority to Determine Licensees
 o Placed Emphasis on local stations
o Provided stability for evolving medium
o Provisions folded into Communications Act of 1934
Sixty Years of Stability (1927 – 1987)
• Programming Forms
• Network/Affiliate Relationships
• Regulation
• Disruptions
o Press/Radio War
 Newspapers were losing business to the radio news
shows
 AP, United Press, and others refused to give news to the
radio stations
 Newspapers met with CBS and NBC they made an
agreement. They agree to only provide the headlines.
The newspapers would have the small details.
 The agreement fell apart around the 1940s with the war
since the radio could provide news much faster than
newspapers.
 “The Billboard Agreement”
o NBC Break-up/ Network Restrictions (1943)
 The government was concerned that networks had too
much power over the stations.
 The contracts had too much power for NBC over the
local stations. NBC had to sell the blue network to ABC.
 The local stations now had more power in their
contracts by law.
o The Rise of Television
 Technical developments
 The TV freezes
  1942 TV WWII wartime stoppage on licensing new
stations and building TV sets
 after war in 1947 T explodes – FCC can’t handle all
license requests and freezes TV again.
 6 report and order
th

 FCC issues Sixth Report & Order in 1952 that ends

TV freezes and establishes channel allotment
plan, including VHF (2-13) and UHF (14-83) bands
 rapid adoption by households
 1948, 200,000 TV sets
 1955 32.5 million TV sets (65% of all homes)
 Color
 Early NTSC standard black and white
 FCC replaced CBS mechanical standard (1950)
with RCA’s electronic standard in 1953
 Color doesn’t take off until mid 1960s (in 1/3 of all
TV homes by 1969)
 UHF
 Established in 6th report and order (1952)
 Band not included on many early TV sets because
most early stations were all network affiliates
(NBC, CBS, ABC, Dumont) in VHF band
 FCC implemented All Channel Receiver Act in
1964
o Radio’s Reaction to TV
 New radio program form
 Rock and roll, gospel, R&B. disc jockeys and local
personalities. Take requests from listeners. Top 40
music became an anticipated event. Huge boost
for radio. Sold more advertisement to local
companies. Relied less on the networks. News and
features every hour of every half hour. Good for
motorists listening to the radio.
 Decline and resurgence of radio networks
 Rise of FM and decline of AM
 Better for music, broadcast in stereo.
  By late 1970s FM is listened by more people than
AM
o Scandals
 McCarthyism
 Payola
 Quiz Shows
o Rise of participating sponsorship (1950s to present)
o Prime time access rule (PTAR) in 1971 (7pm to 11pm EST)
 From 7pm to 8pm the local stations had to make their
own programming and sell local advertising. Usually
syndicated network shows now.
The world turns upside down
• Slicing the audience into smaller pieces
o Cable, home video, home satellite
o Indies, new networks (broadcast)
 Fox (1986)
 UPN (1995), WB (1995)
 CW replaces UPN and WB in 2006
 MyNetwork launched in 2006
• Higher costs/reduced ad revenue (broadcast networks and stations)
• Deregulation (begain 1980s, continues today)
o Liberalized station ownership limits
 In 1984 possible for one company to own 12 TV, 12 FM
& 12 AM radio stations
o Easing of anti-trafficking rules (1982)
  No longer have a station three years before selling
o Ownership changes
 Capital cities buys ABC (1985)
 RCA (including NBC) acquired by GE (1986)
 Westinghouse buys CBS & Disney buys ABC (1995)
• At the turn of the new century
o Further consolidation
 Telecommunications act of 1996 reduces ownership
limits
 Viacom buys CBS (2000)
 CBS split from Viacom (2005)
 AOL merges with Time Warner (2001)
 Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband (2002)
 News Corp. acquires DirecTV (2004)
 NBC merges with Universal (2004)
o Experiments with program strategies and formats
o The digital broadcast conversion
o The rise of the internet and WWW
Cable Television
• Accidental Invention
o CATV. It was a community based effort in order to provide the
more rural areas with television coverage. (Community
Antenna Television)
• Early 1960s: Regulation Begins
 o FCC does not allow to import distant signals
• Late 1960s/early 1970s: Blue Sky
o The TV of Abundance
o 3rd Report and Order
 1972 lifted the distant importation prohibition
• Mid-1970s: Cloudy Skies
o Reality and recession
o Gerald Levin and Ted Turner Save Cable
 Gerald Levin
 HBO
 Microwave technology and satellites
 1975, the thriller and manila
 subscription service to receive their channel.
 Time Warner Cable
 Ted Turner
 TBS. He gave it away from free.
 He broadcast WTBS from Atlanta nationally.
 Also created CNN.
• Late 1970s/ Early 1980s
o Franchise Wars
o MSO Consolidation
  Larger cable companies bought out smaller ones
o Rise of New Networks (via satellite)
 ESPN (1979), CNN (1980), MTV (1981)
• Mid 1980s/ Early 1990s
o Cable Act of 1984 and Deregulation
o Growing Subscriber Base/Faster Growing Revenue
o The Decline of Pay Service
o The Rise of Basic Programming
• The 1990s
o Re-regulation: The Cable Act of 1992
 Rate regulation
 Retransmission Consent/Must Carry
 Level Field for Competitive Technologies
o Stagnation and Erosion of the Customer Base
o New Competition and Demands
 Increasing channel capacity
 Internet services and “cable modems”
 Digitizing systems to offer more services
 Digital must-carry concerns
o Telecommunication Act of 1996
 Rate deregulation
  Removal of telephone/cable entry barriers
 Cross-ownership regulations loosened
• DBS Primary Competitor since early 1990s
o Lacks local stations in some small markets
o Doesn’t have facilities to provide broadband, high-speed
internet (must rely on marketing arrangement with telephone
company to offer DSL)
• Cable Today
o Most systems upgraded to Hybrid Fiber Coax and
provide/bundle:
 Digital and analog cable television
 High-sped internet access
 Voice-over-internet telephony (VoIP)
 Some four-play: marketing partners offer wireless
o Pushing HD cable programming
o Developing interactive television (e.g. PVR/DVR)
• Telephone companies as an emerging competitor
o VoIP offered by cable is cheaper than typical telephone
company offerings
o Fiber to the curb would allow phone companies to offer more
speed and capacity, including the ability to offer subscription
based video services to compete with cable
o Verizon already offering video in Texas
Evolution of Satellite Services
• Arthur Clarke and the invention of Communication Satellites
• Early efforts
o Echo
 o Early Bird
• Comsat and Intelsat
o Comsat (1962)
 Serve as signatory of intelsat
 Launched early bird and leased time on it to transmit
audio and television
• Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) Begin in early 1990s
o Hughes/Hubbard (DirecTV/USSB)
o Dish Network (Echo Star)
• Why current DBS services succeeded
o Programming availability
o Digital compression provides more capacity
o Outsourcing
 Marketing
 Technology
 Customer billing
Evolution of the internet
• Question posed in 1963 by RAND, a cold war think tank
• “how could the U.S. communicate after a nuclear attack?”
•
• the communication network would require:
o the intelligence to reside in the endpoints
 o any endpoint could talk to any other endpoint
o network routing be self-healing after attack
o no centralized control
• Internet began as ARPANET in the late 1960s, run by DoD
• Development of TCP/IP protocols in mid 1970s, incorporated into
ARPANET in 1983
• NSF supports TCP/IP in CSNET in early 1980s
• ARPANET and CSNET emerge in 1980s
• NSF subsidizes NSFNET backbone and regional networks in 1986
• NSF phases out federal support for internet backbone in 1992-95
• Internet commercialized in mid 1990s
The World Wide Web
• Created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991 at the European Center for
Nuclear Research (CERN)
• Portion of the internet that utilizes a software program (browser) to
display WebPages
• Browser development: Mosaic in 1993; Netscape Navigator
popularized in mid 90s
Internet in Context
• Internet is convergence
• Unique multi-modal capabilities and user-driven qualities compared
to previous telecommunication technologies
• Many predict shared protocol of the internet is platform of the future
• EPIC 2015 Video: What will the future internet behold?
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