Chapter 2- Radio

Chapter 2 Radio

Radios incredible journey- Then

       

         Life would be difficult to picture without technology and entertainment. The invention of the radio is something that changed the future of communication forever. Many men in the mid and late 1800’s are credited for creating radio and taking all the way to the radio we know and love today. Before 1880 the only way to successfully communicate over long distances was the sephamore, torches or flags used by Romans and French. The

Native Americans used smoke signals (Medoff, Kaye 15).  These methods of communication took long periods of time between sending the message and receiving it. A man by the name of Samuel F.B. Morse invented the electrical telegraph, as a means of speeding up times for communication. Invented in 1835, this device used current pulses to deflect an electromagnet that produces a written code on paper (Medoff, Kaye 15). Morse eventually changed this system of communication to a series of dots and dashes, later known as Morse Code. This method was faster and efficient and Morse Code was interpreted by telegraph operators. There were still problems with the electrical telegraph and in 1876 a brilliant man invented the electrical telephony. Alexander Graham Bell discovered a new and improved method of two-way communication, and for the first time people could speak long distances to each other in real time with no decoding messages (Medoff, Kaye 16). James Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz both played huge roles in the development of communication. Maxwell was a physicist who predicted signals containing information can be carried through space with no wires, and he published a paper with descriptions on radiant waves (Medoff, Kaye 17). He created a theory called Electromagnetic Theory that demonstrated electricity and light were similar and both radiated constant speed in space (Medoff, Kaye 17). Hertz was a German physicist who took Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory to a new level for communication. He proved through experiments that electromagnetic energy travelled through the air. His work paved the way for electromagnetic waves and the he has an electromagnetic frequency named after him, known as Hertz (Medoff, Kaye 17).

              Another great man credited for wireless transmission of signals is Guglielmo Marconi. In 1899 he proved radio waves can be sent and received over long distances through the English Channel. This system still used dots and dashes and people who used the telephone wanted a radio that could carry voice messages. A few years later in 1906, two Canadian electrical engineers sent the first communication transmission over radio broadcast to ships as sea in the East Coast, playing violin music and scriptures from the Bible. Reginald Fessenden and Ernst Alexanderson are considered to be the first people to successfully transmit radio signals using continuous electromagnetic waves with sound wave patterns (Medoff, Kaye 18).

                In 1900, Marconi had a competitor for radio. Lee de Forest invented a device to amplify weak radio signals and it was a wireless system (Medoff, Kaye 18). In 1918 an American inventor named Edwin Armstrong developed the superheterodyne circuit and in 1933 he discovered how FM broadcasts work (Miller,PBS.org). In the 1920’s Michigan began commercial broadcasting for WWWJ in Detroit (Miller, PBS.org). During this time, The Golden Age of television took over and radio took a step back. The Radio Act of 1927 was put into effect that formed federal regulatory body radio to organize and administrate radio for the U.S (Medoff, Kaye 26). This was used to assign certain frequencies for individual stations and designated station power levels (Medoff, Kaye 26). Fans of radio accepted this Act of 1927 thinking it would end problems with interference. The result of this was powerful stations being given desired frequencies, while stations not as powerful did not get this luxury (Medoff, Kaye 26). During this time period 5 million Americans owned a radio and gave us a concept of free entertainment and information. We got to see politicians and celebrities as well as sports heroes (Medoff, Kaye 26). But, as this age faded, developments like stereophonic broadcasting helped radio remain a pop culture force (Miller, PBS.org). Also DAB, or Digital Audio Broadcasting, began to develop for stereophonic broadcasting. DAB provided c.d. quality sound with no interference. People who listened to DAB could become watchers as well, with information such as program schedules as well as traffic and weather updates (Miller, PBS.org).

             Newspapers became less popular as radio took over. The newspapers forced the radio stations to limit the amount of newscasts, and in 1933 radio and newspapers came to an agreement and signed the Biltmore Agreement. There were 6 general rules to rules to this agreement: Only two newscasts per day with only soft news, not hard news reporting, using the Press Radio Bureau to supply networks and stations news through subscriptions as well as no news gathering operations or sponsorships of shows. Also, Radio was required to say “You can read more about it in your local newspaper.” This Biltmore Agreement did not last long at all and the International News Service and United Press started accepting radio station business for broadcasting (Medoff, Kaye 29). This agreement didn’t last long.

                Decades later came the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which stopped ownership restrictions in radio. We now have voice tracking on radio, which is a prerecording of talk and announcements for later use. Now, according to Arbitron report in 1998, over 90 % of Americans listen to the radio once a week or more (Miller, PBS.org).

The Dawn of a Digital Radio- Now

        

        In the past, radio was used to inform and entertain people and started a mass media of knowledge. In 2009 television stations switched over to digital, and slowly the radio is catching up to all the new technology. (Medoff, Kaye 33).  Radios main goal is to is to take every station with it the digital era without making the stations obsolete. A newer system, IBOC is used for radio broadcasters to use same frequencies for digital and analog broadcasting at the same time. In band, on-channel uses a higher level of quality (Medoff, Kaye 34). The two big Satellite Radio companies, XM Satellite and Sirius Satellite Radio, started becoming popular in 2002, but there were a few technical problems. Fans of satellite radio only listened until their subscription period ended, and because of this companies had to spend more money to promote and advertise their services. The term for this is churn and this is why satellite radio failed at making back profits (MEdoff, Kaye 35). Today these two Satellite Radio companies formed to create Sirius XM, and reduced cost of subscriptions as well as gave the customers more programming.

                The history of Pandora Satellite radio was interesting. Tim Westergren is the founder of Pandora ten years ago. His job was composing scores for films. In his experience he found making music for movies was different that music for personal entertainment. He tried to break down these codes into something predictable. He started to decode music by the Music Genome to bring people a better variety of music (Christopher, 2010). This led to the Music Genome Project on 2000 and is now the backbone of Pandora Radio. There are over 700,000 songs in the Genome Library and 10,000 songs are added every month by what is known as a musicologist. Their job is to rate everything based on attributes like soulfulness and rhythmic key changes in a song. Four years after the Genome Project, Westergren finally launched Pandora. It is a free internet radio service that starts with you picking a band or genre of music to create a station, and using the thumbs-up and thumbs- down buttons to get a better selection of music. It gives you the perfect music experience. The more you listen to Pandora the better your music selection will be. I have had a Pandora subscription for 5 years and I can

honestly say it’s a great service. Pandora refines your station with knowledge of your musical preference. Pandora also takes your taste of music and gives you new artists and songs you might like, opening up your musical knowledge even more. Pandora now has an I-Phone app and more people are trying the new era of the radio. Pandora claims to get 65,000 new subscribers in a 24-hour period (Christopher, 2010). The next craze will be having Pandora available in your car for streaming music as you drive. Personally I think this would be an awesome tool because I listen to Pandora everyday while I drive on my phone and it would be much more convenient and save the battery on my phone. The future technology is happening as we speak, and Satellite Radio like Pandora is part of the new era in radio. Looking back at the past it’s only a matter of time before the next radio trend will be in our speakers.

Radios Future Plans: Later

          

   

     Radio has come such a long way and will continue to do so in the future. The big problem with online radio is portability, and in the near future this won’t be a problem at all. People will figure out a way to wirelessly transmit online radio sites like Pandora and IHeartRadio in their own vehicles. Radio continues to struggle with new technology as it did in the 1950’s with television, and must find a way to connect with this fast pace technology (Medoff, Kaye 35). More internet radio stations may turn to what Sirius XM Radio does. Sirius has talk shows, sports radio, comedy skits and traffic updates (Sawers,2013). Other internet radio sites such as The Echo Nest and Spotify are finding their way into the main stream of music entertainment. The dominance of social media is a huge part of what makes these online radio sites sink or swim. People look at what friends are listening to and word of mouth spreads quickly, and the next fad of radio is here (Sawers,2013). Donham is a worker at TuneIn, a cross-platform service that allows you to search thousands of radio stations of every genre of music (Sawers,2013). He states “If you look at the progression of music formats over the recent years- moving from records to CDs to MP3s- it seems that the sound quality worsens with each audio innovation, yet people are consuming audio content more than ever before.”  (Sawers,2013). This isn’t stopping people from using all the internet radio websites as it continues to grow in popularity. Pandora has actually been activated in over 2.5 million vehicles. Media business will never disappear and radio has been in this situation to reinvent itself to make it in today’s new technology (Medoff, Kaye 36).

              Now when we think of radio its usually satellite radio services. People are buying their own equipment and making their own content online, and watch it at their convenience. Radio will always be here, but the way we think of radio will be different (Sawers, 2013). Whatever music we want to hear and whenever we want to stream online is turning out to be the popular form of musical entertainment. Radio will most likely turn into a visual experience in the future because of the screens on our devices (Sawers, 2013). The FCC is still trying to keep localism part of radio because communication is a big part of community and social media (Medoff, Kaye 35). The FCC is changing services for local programs and news by allowing satellite services to put this content on their channels. The big problem with satellite services doing this is extra money to pay for the music and also paying the record labels and the artists. (Medoff, Kaye 36). These satellite systems are causing radio to lose its localism and creates economic issues. But radio does have one thing that online music-streaming doesn’t have, which is portability. Radio in the future may make a big come back if it can reinvent itself for this streaming music generation (Medoff, Kaye 37).