1. How does the history of radio help us understand how internet radio, podcasting, and other audio media are going to develop as commercial forms? As political forms? As artistic forms?
The history of radio is very important in understanding how radio has evolved into the many different forms of audio media that we have today. During World War I, the U.S. Navy moved to accelerate radio technology by settling patent disputes between early inventors like Guglielmo Marconi. During this time Marconi was attempting to buy U.S. patents so that he could consolidate a U.S.- European communications monopoly. This led to a settlement which forced Marconi to sell off his assets to GE, while allowing him to set up a new company with AT&T called Radio Corporation of America (RCA). These three companies set up a patent pool in 1920 which allowed them all to manufacture radio equipment. This led to the development of radio for various purposes. Lee de Forest invented the vacuum tube in 1906 which allowed for the radio transmission of sound, voice, and music which led to the development of the BBC when the Navy returned radio to civilian hands. This led to the use of radio for many purposes including commercial, political, and artistic. It also led to frequency interference, which ultimately led to the issuance of hundreds of licenses in 1923. This eventually led to a strong commercial presence in radio as stations began to charge manufacturers sponsorship of certain programs and for radio time for advertisements based on how much airtime the ad took up. WEAF broadcast the first commercial which led to a quickly growing commercial broadcasting industry. Radio offered advertisers direct access to a consumer’s home, and the radio industry arrangement has become the blueprint of broadcasting today. As podcasting and other media continue to grow in global popularity they will continue to reach more and more people throughout the world. This allows for even more advertisers and commercial entities to nudge into a market space that can directly access the users of more current media forms like podcasts. Additionally we may even come to see the visual form of a podcasts, like a Sportscenter episode, that we can access directly through an iPod or smartphone. We have already seen the impact of Facebook and Twitter and their effects on the "Arab Spring", and the political ramifications that come from the transparency of the World Wide Web. And these sites continue to implement internet radio, and podcasts directly into their websites so that their users can directly access that information without leaving the site. It also allows for commercial entities to get instant feedback from marketing and advertising campaigns because of the direct connectivity of the Internet. There has also been an effect on the various representations of music that we can now get through internet radio as specialized stations which cater to the tastes of any listener. Whether it is talk radio, alternative, jazz, or popular music, one can now receive tailored broadcasts of High-Definition radio. This also allows for commercial entities to narrow down their target consumer segments, while allowing artists to have an outlet in which to express the various representations of music that are out there today.
2. The U.S. was the first country to turn radio into a commercial medium. What does that tell us about how new media may develop in the U.S.? Might they be different elsewhere?
The U.S. was the first to turn radio into a commercial advertising-based model which soon became the most popular model of radio advertising. AT&T became the first broadcast network and it used its phone lines to link several of its stations. This led to a variety of uses for radio including the development of NBC and CBS which through their O&Os and network affiliates could broadcast news, comedy, soap operas, detective dramas, sports, suspense, and action adventures. Many of the different kinds of programming that we now see on television were developed on radio. After 1948, television exploded across the U.S. which adversely affected radio. What media outlets found is that they could add a lot to many of their programs through the use of visual. As a result companies like NBC and CBS turned their refocused their energy on television networks which promised to be a lucrative source of income. This led to the radio networks finding new niches and functions as they transitioned to a more localized format of recorded music, news, sports, and talk radio. Today we are again seeing another transition in media. This is because of the advances of the information age, and the popularity of the internet. I myself do not have cable television at my apartment, but have found it imperative to have internet. It is through the internet that I can access news, music of my choice, and television programming through websites like Hulu.com. This has already led to an adverse effect on the cable companies as they continue to lose subscribers to the internet generation. One challenge that cable companies will face is how to stay competitive with internet TV providers, and how they can mesh the gap between cable TV watchers and internet TV watchers. Netflix has already attempted to do this by giving their customers the option of watching a library of movies, TV programs, and documentaries through gaming consoles. It will also be interesting to see how things pan out because there are many less developed countries that have developed the proper infrastructure to support the internet age. This means that they will also have to transition to the development of media availability on the internet with such things as podcasts, however they may be able to move quicker than in previous era because of the development they already have in place of the internet and the world wide web.
