- •The Radio Industry
- •Determining the Use of Radio
- •The Creation of the rca
- •Government Regulation of Radio
- •Radio in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s
- •Network Programming
- •The Baby Boom, Radio, and Recordings
- •Ethics and Payola
- •Fm Radio and the Fragmentation of Rock Music
- •Challenges of Fragmentation and Digitization, 1970 to the Present
- •Internet radio a service in which streaming audio is distributed to digital devices that access the Web location
- •An Overview of the Terrestrial Radio Industry
- •Where and When People Listen to the Radio
- •Am vs. Fm Technology
- •Commercial Radio Stations vs. Noncommercial Radio Stations
- •Radio Market Size
- •Production in the Radio Industry
- •Radio Formats
- •Determining Listening Patterns
- •Working with Formats
- •Producing the Playlist
- •Conducting Research to Compile the Playlist
- •Maintaining the Format and Retaining the Target Audience
- •Distribution in the Radio Industry
- •The Role of Networks, Syndicators, and Format Networks
- •Learning Who Listens
- •Conducting Market Research to Determine Station Ratings
- •When Stations Fare Poorly in the Ratings
- •Radio and the New Digital World
- •Satellite Radio
- •Traditional Radio’s Responses to Digital Music
- •Commercial Time
- •Hd Radio
- •Internet Participation
- •Media Literacy and the Radio Industry
- •If you had to create an industry that streams music and talk formats to Americans, would the radio industry as it is now organized be what you would choose?
- •Questions for Discussion and Critical Thinking
- •Case Study
Media Literacy and the Radio Industry
If you had to create an industry that streams music and talk formats to Americans, would the radio industry as it is now organized be what you would choose?
As we have seen, the U.S. radio industry developed over decades in response to a variety of forces relating to industry, technology, and society. Powerful organizations work hard to protect the industry's turf so that challenges to the ways radio firms approach the airwaves are difficult to mount. Yet challenges are taking place, mainly from companies and individuals with new digital technologies that ignore the traditional airwaves. To make sense of all these changes, their problems and possibilities, it may be useful to think of the radio industry not only as it currently exists. Rather, think of streaming audio, the industries that are involved in providing it, and the consequences they seem to be having on the variety and diversity of sounds and ideas that Americans can access.
Next time you take a long car trip, try to listen to as many radio stations as you can along the way. Pay attention to their formats and try to determine how much variety there is in the sounds you can hear in different parts of the country. Think, too, of this chapter's discussion of the way these formats are chosen, produced, and evaluated. Then consider what streaming audio in a car, or on a walk, or at work, or in the home might be like in a decade. Winds of change are certainly blowing from various directions. Relaxed federal ownership rules allow companies to own far more stations in a given market than ever before. Yet heightened competition from other media for audiences and advertising revenues poses new threats to traditional radio. How will these and other trends affect the landscape of streaming audio? Will the developments really introduce people to a greater variety of the music enjoyed by many communities in American society, or will they primarily allow individuals to fall into areas of comfortable sounds that are narrower than those found on contemporary radio? Are there ways to encourage a balance of both approaches? How would you like to see streaming audio develop? Why? Keep listening, and thinking.
Questions for Discussion and Critical Thinking
What methods do stations use to signal their formats to listeners?
How do radio stations know who their listeners are?
What are ways in which radio stations deal with poor ratings?
What impact does consolidation have, according to media critics?
Why hasn't internet radio taken more of traditional radio's audience?
What changes in technologies suggest that this situation might change?
Internet Resources
National Association of Broadcasters (http://www.nab,org)
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is the trade association that represents radio and television stations and networks before government bodies.
United States Early Radio History (http://www.earlyradiohistory.us/)
This site explores the history of radio technology and stations (but not programming) from the mid-nineteenth century to the early 1950s. Aside from essays on various historical periods, it has links to many websites with documents that expand on its writings.
Radio Days (http://www.otr.com/index.shtml)
This website contains essays about and examples of network radio from the 1930s and 1940s. There are mystery programs, private eye shows, comedy programs, and science fiction series.
Opry.com (http://www.opry.com/MeetTheOpry/History.aspx)
The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville was a staple for country music fans on radio from the time WSM started carrying it in 1925. This website reviews the past and present of the Opry, including its radio history.
Radio & Records (http://www.radioand.records.com/RRWebSite)
Radio & Records is a trade magazine of the radio and record industries. Its website offers useful information on station formats, ratings, and industry conventions.