Family Listening to News on the Radio

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Family Listening to News on the Radio

Photograph

By: Anonymous

Date: October 8, 1939

Source: Bettmann/Corbis. "Family Listening to News on the Radio." 〈http://www.corbis.com〉 (accessed June 16, 2006).

About the Photographer: This photograph resides in the Bettmann Archives of Corbis Corporation, an image group headquartered in Seattle, with a worldwide archive of over seventy million images.

INTRODUCTION

As the United States expanded from thirteen small colonies to a broad expanse of states, communication technology struggled to keep pace. The need for quick communication spawned numerous schemes to bridge the distances. In 1860 and 1861, the shortlived Pony Express employed a series of riders and fresh horses every ten miles to travel a 2000-mile route in ten to sixteen days, depending on the weather. The Pony Express briefly provided the fastest route for cross-country news delivery, but it became outmoded with the completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861.

Although the telegraph allowed news to traverse the country at the speed of electricity, information was often stuck in a bottleneck once it arrived. Americans still received most of their news from daily newspapers, meaning that most developments were not widely reported until the following morning. The holdup at this final leg of news delivery remained in place for many years.

In the late 1800s, researchers exploring the properties of electricity noticed that an electric spark produced waves that could be detected remotely, suggesting that it might be possible to send telegraph messages without wires. Several years of further research and experimentation followed, and in 1896 Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937) filed for a British patent on the first practical radio transmitter and receiver.

In 1919, the Radio Corporation of America, known today as RCA, was created to promote the radio market, and radio quickly spread throughout the United States. By 1935, two-thirds of American fami-lies owned a radio; four national networks, along with numerous regional services, broadcast around the clock. Newspapers found themselves fighting to keep advertising dollars, which were slowly trickling away to broadcasters. As the Great Depression (1929–1939) lingered, many Americans turned to radio for free news and entertainment.

The 1930s witnessed the debut of several immensely successful radio programs. In 1931, radio dramas were becoming increasingly popular and the Little Orphan Annie show premiered, telling the serialized tale of Annie's adventures punctuated with plugs for the show's sponsors. Other radio hits of the 1930s included The Shadow and Amos 'n' Andy. Producers supplied variety, musical, and quiz shows to meet the growing demand. Most of these programs aired in the evening, making a family night around the radio a common event.

President Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945) frequently spoke to the nation via radio, and a 1934 editorial noted that this new medium enabled the president to instantly respond to attacks on himself or his policies, a capability enjoyed by no previous president. From 1933 to 1944, as the nation moved from the Great Depression into World War II (1939–1945), the president broadcast a series of thirty "Fireside Chats" in which he spoke directly to the American people about the banking crisis, the New Deal, and the progress of the war effort.

PRIMARY SOURCE

FAMILY LISTENING TO NEWS ON THE RADIO

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

The arrival of commercial radio changed the national culture in many ways. For the first time, Americans could receive breaking news as it was happening, and enormous news-gathering organizations evolved to meet the hunger for up-to-the-minute news. Politicians, formerly forced to rely on some-times hostile newspaper editors to communicate their messages, could now bypass the press entirely, speaking directly to voters. Workplace conversations began to focus on the previous night's episode of a favorite show, as the country's individual entertainment tastes converged around radio programs. Radio began producing new celebrities, including dramatic performers, musicians, news reporters, and even disc jockeys, like the pioneering Wolfman Jack.

The development of television signaled the end of radio's golden age, and numerous shows, including Gunsmoke, made the leap from radio to television, in some cases airing on both simultaneously. The postwar economic boom also spawned new entertainment choices, producing an increasingly fragmented marketplace and ensuring that radio would never again play the central role it had played in American family life during the 1930s and 1940s.

A century after radio's development, the medium remains strong. News and talk formats dominate the original AM band, while music predominates on FM. Satellite radio offers multiple formats, and online streaming audio and podcasting have created new ways to enjoy the traditional listening experience offered by radio. While television has taken radio's place as today's primary entertainment delivery vehicle, radio remains a popular entertainment choice. Arbitron, the agency that measures radio listening rates in the United States, identifies forty-seven distinct programming formats available today. A 2004 study found that during a given day, eighty-three percent of Americans listen to the radio.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Maltin, Leonard. The Great American Broadcast: A Celebration of Radio's Golden Age. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1997.

Oriard, Michael. King Football: Sport and Spectacle in the Golden Age of Radio and Newsreels, Movies and Magazines, the Weekly and the Daily Press. Charlotte: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Siegel, Susan and David S. Siegel. A Resource Guide to the Golden Age of Radio: Special Collections, Bibliography, and the Internet. Yorktown Heights, N.Y.: Book Hunter Press, 2006.