Empowerment or Enslavement?

The Statistical Abstract of

the United States via the
San Francisco Chronicle,
Dec. 15, 2006

• Next year, adults and

adolescents in the United
States will spend almost five
months -- 3,518 hours --
exploring the Internet,
watching television, reading
daily newspapers and
listening to music on various
personal devices. They'll
invest an average of $937
on media.
Empowerment or Enslavement?
• They'll be parked in front of
their TVs for 65 days and on
the Internet for more than a
week, according to
projections from a
communications industry
forecast. They'll spend 41
days listening to radio.
Empowerment or Enslavement?
• Adults will invest an entire
week in reading daily
newspapers. Along with
teenagers, they'll put in
another week listening to
recorded music. And they'll
buy more than 3 billion
books next year.
Empowerment or Enslavement?
• The report also found that 97
million adult Internet users
looked for news online in
2005, 16 million used a
social or professional
networking site, and 13
million created a blog.
Beginnings
• “Platform Agnosticism”
 Beginnings
• 1884
• Discovered the scanning
principles of television
• Thought pictures could be
transmitted by wire

Paul Nipkow
Beginnings
Beginnings
Beginnings
• Guglielmo Marconi, 1874-
1937
• Father of wireless
communication
• Italy was not interested in his
invention so he took it to
Britain
• In 1897 he formed The
Wireless Telegraph & Signal
Company Limited later re-
named Marconi's Wireless
Telegraph Company Limited
Beginnings
• 1900 - Patent 7777 for
“tuned or syntonic
telegraphy”
• 1901 - Proved
transmission was not
affected by the
curvature of the Earth
by transmitting across
the Atlantic ocean

The Marconi Corporation

Beginnings
Beginnings
• David Sarnoff
• Started as an office boy for
American Marconi
• Supposedly manned the
wireless during the Titanic
disaster - he was actually
one of many operators
• Saw the future in radio for
non-military uses
• General Electric had the
transmitting power &
American Marconi wanted it
so they formed …
Beginnings
• RCA with David Sarnoff in
charge
• Saw radio as something that
would be in every household
• GE & Westinghouse would
make the parts, AT&T would
sell transmitters made by
subsidiary Western Electric &
AT&T would handle all
telephonic concerns, wired or
wireless
Beginnings
• Early radio marked by patent
squabbles to stop other
inventors and amateur
operators - kind of like the
internet is now…
• Anybody could have a radio
station and indeed,, RCA
was beaten to the punch by
amateurs
Beginnings
•Lee DeForest
•Developed the Audion
tube to amplify signal for
wireless transmission
Beginnings
•Edwin H. Armstrong
•Regenerative Circuit
•FM Radio
•Patent battles galore
The Golden Age of Radio
• As GE, Westinghouse
& AT&T did not want
to generate content,
that was left to…RCA
who decided the
model should be…
• Advertisement-driven
or “toll” broadcasting
and networks were
born
Campbell's Soup
 The Golden Age of Radio
• In regulating the
broadcast spectrum,
the amateurs were
forced out
• KDKA, Pittsburgh
sprang from amateur
Frank Conrad’s 8MK
•Frank Conrad’s 8MK in his garage
The Golden Age of Radio
• First commercial
broadcast was of
election results

KDKA's First Broadcast

The Golden Age of Radio
• By 1935, 2 out of three
homes had a radio
• There was
programming 24 hours
a day
• Amos & Andy was the
most popular program

Amos & Andy

The Golden Age of Radio
• Franklin Delano
Roosevelt used
radio to great effect
during his “Fireside
Chats”

FDR's Fireside Chats

The Golden Age of Radio
• News
• Serials
• Dramas
• Music

http://www.radiolovers.com/
The Golden Age of Radio
• Orson Welles & The
Mercury Theater
• In 1938, War of the
Worlds caused
panic as people
thought it was real

The War of the Worlds

The Golden Age of Radio
• Television was being
developed all along this
time
• Economics sidelined it
during the Depression
• WWII halted all
development as most
engineering was being
channeled into the war
effort so radio was it…
• Broadcasting was an
integral part of our lives as
David Sarnoff predicted