Sterling & Kittross

Presented by: Kelly Franck & Kathy Woo

Thesis: the development of radio programming in the late 1930s was a catalyst in public participation in political and cultural matters

On average, radio stations broadcasted at least 12 hours a day, but many for 18 hours or more.

Some Statistics from FCC’s March 1938 survey of programming:

53% of airtime was devoted to music 11% talks and dialogues 9% to drama 9% to variety 9% to news 5% to religion and devotion 2% to special events 2% to miscellaneous

In total, 50%-70% were network affiliates of programming

Music remained the staple of most radio schedules.

Local stations were offered service from transcription companies operated by networks and independents

Transcription companies pre-recorded music, some of which were programmed

By early 1939, more than 575 stations subscribed to at least one transcription service, and nearly half of them used two or more

RCA’s transcription operation probably accounted for 35% of the industry’s business

The rise and falls of music genres

Classical musical programs declined in importance on the networks after the early 1930s

With the exception of NBC Symphony Orchestra

Large dance bands were increasingly heard on both national and local programs

1930s’ reputation as the “big band era”

Local stations presented a wide range of live music

Radio as Opportunities to Stardom

Local or national amateur hour broadcasts presented unknowns who would sing, tap dance, or do imitation in the hope of making a career

The most famous amateur variety show was Major Bowes and His Original Amateur Hour

The Drama

Besides music, Drama was the most important network in programming in hours broadcast per week

In 1935, the weekly hours of broadcasting increased

By 1940, the four networks combined devoted 75 hours a week to drama series

Primarily, drama series emphasized domestic life with its ups and–more usually– its downs

Discussion:

1.What kind of role should radio play in society?

Do you think that role was fulfilled in the 1930s?

Drama In 1938 Welles created the new series called Mercury Theatre on the Air

He created a Halloween program which most consider one of the most famous radio shows ever presented

The show was made in present time, and many viewers thought it was a real news program

The FCC decided that these types of “scare” programs and formats as broadcasting were not in the public interest

The show was an adaptation on the fiction story “War of the Worlds”

Thrillers and situation comedies filled more network time per week than any other form of drama

Most network dramas occurred in the evening

Only the largest stations produced their own dramatic programs regularly

The audience had to use its imagination to fill in the setting and the action → without the audience’s imagination, radio drama would have never succeeded

Political Broadcasting

Radio as a political instrument in the U.S came into its own with the first administration of Roosevelt

He began a series called “Fireside Chats” on the problems of the Depression

He conduced 28 broadcasts

The ratings were very high

During 1936 presidential election campaign, the Republican party tried many uses of radio → interviews, debates, and pre-recorded speeches

Surveys conducted during this campaign suggested that most voters now considered radio more important than newspapers as a source of political news

Pre-recorded speeches of Roosevelt violated CBS policy against recordings and most network affiliates did not air the entire program because of that

Discussion:

Do you think if something similar to the “War of the

Worlds” radio show happened today, people would

believe it at all? Why or why not?

Do you think it would make more of an impact

through a different type of medium?

Hilmes

Presented by: Janie Ginsberg & Sylvia Guirguis

Intro: What this chapter is about…

1920’s period

J. Walter Thompson Company

Relationships between agencies and dominant networks

Advertising agencies slow to see potential in radio for product promotion

Opposition to radio in agencies early 1920’s

N. W. Ayer Agency participated in earliest experimentation of radio broadcasting

William H. Rankin Agency was the earliest example of Hollywood agency radio interaction

J. Walter Thompson (JWT) displayed uneasy feelings about radio, but in 1927 formed official radio department

John U. Reber, head of JWT radio department, first to dismiss radio experts

JWT had “showmanship,” NBC did not

1923 JWT concerned with common reader

1927 Lowbrow advertising

JWT famous Lux Hollywood endorsement campaign

Danny Danker and radio production Hollywood

Reber and Danker created “Hollywood era of radio”

mid 1930’s schedules occupied by programs provided by agencies on behalf of sponsors

late 1920’s musical programs agency driven programs

agencies push for recorded programs for benefit of clients

resisted by networks

Discussion:

Why do you think showmanship was an effective

tool for JWT?

“Network Woes”

Tensions developed between networks and advertising agencies as the agencies got out of control.

Agencies failed to submit their scripts, leading to new policies and network censors – these were undermined.

Celebrities were invited without network approval and resorted to humour deemed inappropriate by NBC.

1930s: radio networks responded to pressures of social negotiation by:

1.Creating a separate daytime sphere for the most offensive shows.

2.Encouraging non-controversial domestic drama that focused on the “average American family”.

These dramas and sitcoms were eventually carried over onto early television.

Notorious for being radio’s bad boy, comedian Fred Allen pushed the network over the edge.

Fed up, by the late 1940s, NBC began to undercut the power of the agencies.

McLuhan

Presented by: Chris Gallo & Kevan Hamilton

In this chapter Marshall McLuhan discusses:

what the use of radio meant for

literate Western civilization

“tribal” societies

how television effected radio

radio’s impact on the press, advertising, drama, and poetry

Radio and Literate, Western Civilizations

Exposure to literacy and industrialism conflicts with McLuhan’s idea of what radio stands for.

First mass experience of electronic implosion

reversal of direction and meaning of Western civilization

Absorbed radio without revolution

continuity, uniformity, and repeatability → standardization

Radio and “Tribal” Societies

Social existence is an extension of family life.

Radio is a violent experience stresses individuality

Explosive

German obsession with lebensraum (auditory space)

Auditory vs. Visual

German & middle-European access to radio enabled them to excel in music, dance, and sculpture

Subatomic physics!

Radio

• Involves people in-depth

• Hot medium

• affects people intimately, person-to-person

• after the rise of literacy, radio neutralized nationalism but evoked “tribal ghosts” → uncovered the lost qualities of the spoken word

• an extension of the central nervous system

• provides new meanings and textures to words

• develops an independent isolation

Television’s Impact on Radio

• From entertainment to information news, time signals, traffic data, and the

weather

• TV rejects hot figures and hot issues Radio seems more appealing

1. Do you agree that radio provides a private, experience that encourages individuality?

Discussion:

Early Radio

Jean Shepherd (WOR New York) regards radio as a new medium for a new type of novel, where the microphone is his pen and paper, the audience and their knowledge are the characters, scenes, and moods.

Jean Shepherd ultimately uses the radio as an essay and novel form for recording awareness in a new world with universal human participation.

The radio has gained as little recognition as the written word. Its ability to shape society into a collective group has gone unnoticed.

David Sarnoff proposed the idea of a “music box” for the home to the director of the American Marconi Company in 1916, but it was ignored. Later in the same year, was the first radio broadcast.

Commercial Radio

Initially, there was no commercial interest in the radio. Early radio facilities were met with reluctance from the press, eventually leading to the formation of the BBC and the “firm shackling of radio by newspaper and advertising interests”.

Even though the medium is the message, controls and censorship go beyond programming and are directed as the content of the message (which can be perceived as another medium in itself). Therefore, the effects of the radio should be seen as being independent of its programming.

The commercial entertainment strategy that has been taken up ensures messages of advertising as passed at a fast rate. A strategy by those “dedicated to permanence rather than change”.

Education will become a defense from fallout media. The only medium that education currently offers some defense from is print media.

Radio contributes to the ‘Global Village’ phenomenon by contracting the world down to village size, while creating collective group opinions. However, it doesn’t quite homogenize the village quarters I.e., India has more than 12 official languages, and the same number of official radio networks.

The effect of radio as a ‘reviver of archaism’ is not limited to Hitler’s Germany; Ireland, Scotland and Wales have seen as a resurgence of their ancient languages since the arrival of the radio.

Radio now turns to the specific needs of people at different times of the day, illustrated by the presence of radios in washrooms, kitchens, cars, bedrooms, and pockets. The radio has now turned to private and individual uses.

The radio renders the political, structural assumptions of Plato irrelevant, in that it links a large-scale community together by providing the same content to people hundreds of miles apart.

How important is the radio to the structure of

society? Does it impact societal values?

Discussion: