Early Days of Recording    

   In 1877, Thomas Edison patented his "talking machine" that duplicated sound by using a unique hand-cranked grooved cylinder and a needle that passed along the groove, which produced electrical energy that activated a diaphragm in a loudspeaker. German immigrant Emile Berliner improved on Edison's invention and made his company, RCA Victor Records, known world-wide:

• Berliner designed the first flat, rotating, wax-coated disc for his gramophone. The disc could be copied or pressed from a metal master, but only played on one side.
• He developed a sophisticated microphone for recording.
• Thru RCA, he imported recordings from Europe's famous opera stars.

   The Columbia Phonograph Company introduced a two-sided  disc in 1905. By 1920, the phonograph or gramophone could be found in most American homes. More than 2 million machines and 107 million recordings were sold in 1919. Where recordings allowed people to hear voices or music created in asynchronous time, wireless radio allowed people to hear someone in "real time" though not in their presence.

Early Days of Broadcast

   Media reporting evolved in the Civil War. Reporters typically transmitted messages about the battlefront to their publications via telegraph. Yet, the armies knew this and therefore cut the wires to try to keep their movements hidden. This required reporters to write in an inverted-pyramid style to get the most important information across the wire, changing the way the public received the news. By the late 1800s, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone company delivered music to homes and businesses by telephone wires. 

   Scientific reports appeared with theories of how to send  radio signals through the air and doing away with the wires altogether. Known as "The Father of Radio," Guglielmo Marconi wanted to send radio signals through the air after reading about the theories that said it could happen. His improvements over earlier experimental designs allowed him to send and receive telegraph code over distances as great as two miles in 1896. After moving from Italy to England, Marconi gathered financial and technical help from the British. With this help, he successfully transmitted wireless signals across the English Channel in 1899 and across the Atlantic Ocean in 1901.

   Two years later, Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden invented the liquid barretter, which allowed wireless voices to be heard. He gave the first public broadcast of voices and music on Christmas Eve 1906, heard by a few newspaper offices and ships at sea.

   American "inventor" Lee DeForest discovered the audion tube, which used a vacuum tube to improve and amplify wireless signals. Unfortunately, DeForest didn't understand exactly how it worked. But where Marconi and others viewed wireless primarily for point-to-point communication (like cell phones today), DeForest saw radio as a means of broadcasting to the masses and noted that transmitters could broadcast "abroad by the Radio Telephone."

The Radio Box Memo
"Radio (would be) a 'household utility' in the same sense as a piano or phonograph. The idea is to bring music into the house by wireless. ... The receiver can be designed in the form of a simple 'Radio Music Box' and arranged for several different wavelengths, which should be changeable with the throwing of a single switch or pressing of a single button." - David Sarnoff, 1916

   Russian immigrant David Sarnoff, then working for American Marconi, sent his superiors the Radio Music Box Memo. But they didn't understand the significance of Sarnoff's insight, and dismissed the idea.  

   Edwin Armstrong understood the audion tube though its inventor did not. Armstrong improved upon DeForest's design through regeneration, which significantly increased the projection of the sound. DeForest sued Armstrong for patent infringement, leading to the longest patent suit in history. DeForest and Fessenden also went to court following accusations that DeForest copied Fessenden's invention while visiting. The patent suits were in limbo when the government took over radio patents in World War I, but released them back to the inventors in 1919.

    However, the government forced American Marconi, General Electric, American Telephone & Telegraph, and Westinghouse to join in the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), a government-sanctioned monopoly. Sarnoff, 28, was named RCA's commercial manager. By Nov. 2, 1920, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's KDKA made the first commercial radio broadcast by announcing election results that sent Warren. G. Harding to the White House.

Regulation

   Much like Marconi and most other inventors, the U.S. government first viewed wireless radio communications as a point-to-point endeavor. The wireless-equipped Republic sank off the east coast in 1909, but nearly all the passengers survived as the vessel called for help from nearby ships. Congress soon passed the Wireless Ship Act of 1910, requiring the equipment and an operator for any ship carrying more than 50 passengers.

   Unfortunately, ships near the Titanic were not manning their wireless devices at the time of the tragedy, and hundreds of lives were needlessly lost. Congress responded with the Radio Act of 1912, which strengthened the rules about shipboard wireless and required the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to license the wireless operators. Where the 1910 Act boosted wireless sales, the 1912 act imposed control:

• It established authority of federal and state governments.
• It set the rules for licenses, including allocation and revoking of privileges.
• It assigned fines for violations.
• It assigned frequencies for operation.

  Broadcasters flouted the law and chaos descended on the medium, turning away listener's tired of changed frequencies and power, changed hours of operation and constant interference between stations. A four-part series of National Radio Conferences brought industry experts, public officials and government regulators together to produce the Radio Act of 1927, which allowed broadcasters to use the public airwaves, a national resource.

   Stations would be held to standards of public interest, convenience and necessity by the Federal Radio Commission. This trustee model of regulation suggests spectrum scarcity requires regulated licenses because broadcasting can reach everyone in society, thus increasing its influence on society. The Communications Act of 1934 replaced the 1927 legislation, renaming the FRC as the Federal Communication Commission and cementing its regulatory structure. In short, government regulation was based on the public interest.

Advertising and the Networks

   If everyone is listening, businessmen want their wares advertised. New York's WEAF accepted the first radio advertisement on Aug. 22, 1922. The 10-minute spot for apartments cost $50. Advertising formed the basis of financial support fro broadcasting.

   Advertising led to the creation of national radio networks, where affiliated stations programmed the most lucrative hours to deliver larger audiences that could be sold for greater fees to the advertisers. Entertainment and information provided the primary content.

• RCA set up a 24-station network called the National Broadcasting Company in 1926.
• RCA bought AT&T's stations and launched a second network, NBC-Blue, and renamed the first network NBC-Red in 1927.
• The Columbia Broadcasting System started in 1927, but struggled until 26-year-old millionaire cigar-maker William Paley bought it 1928.
• The Mutual network started in 1934 on the strength of its hit western, The Lone Ranger. However, Mutual did not own or operate its flagship stations.

The Golden Age of Radio

   Networks ushered in radio's golden age. While the Great Depression hurt the phonograph industry, it boosted radio sales. From 1930-1940, homes with radios grew from 12 million to 30 million. Ad revenues rose from $40 million to $155 million in the same time. The four national networks broadcast 156 hours of network-originated programming including the following genres: 

   Feeling threatened by radio, newspapers refused to make their stories available and many would not carry radio schedules. But the Biltmore Agreement in 1933 limited radio to brief news reports at specific, limited times of the day.

AP Photo/Mark Humphrey | Yahoo!

Still the Standard -- Boxes of Elvis Presley records sit in a warehouse at the United Record Pressing company in Nashville, Tenn. Many record collectors, DJs and music junkies still consider vinyl to be the gold standard of recorded music.

   During World War II, radio was used to sell war bonds and a lot of radio content was aimed at boosting the nation's morale, e.g. Duke Ellington sold war bonds because he was too old to fight in the war. People also wanted to hear the news from abroad, and paper shortages drove them to the radio (with advertisers in tow). WWII also changed the recording industry as veterans brought back reel-to-reel audio tapes from Germany.

   In 1947, Columbia Records introduced the 33 1/3 rpm long-playing record still in use today. More durable than the 78 rpm that played 3 1/2 minutes, Peter Goldmark's advancement would play for 23 minutes per side. Columbia offered the technology to other companies, but RCA refused. Instead RCA made the 45 that would also play 3 1/2 minutes, which led to a "speed" war until 1950, when the companies compromised:

• 33 1/3 became the standard for classical music.
• 45 a.k.a. a "single," became the standard for pop and sustained the music industry until the "British Invasion."

   The Beatles arrival in America not only ushered in the "British Invasion" of rock'n'roll, but also established the 33 1/3 album into a dominant cultural force that reinvented radio.

Where People Listen to Radio

Year	Home	Work	Car	Other
2004	25%	39%	33%	3%
2007	39%	23%	37%	1%
Courtesy of Project for Excellence in Journalism

Surviving Change

   When television arrived, networks went to the new medium. Affiliations dropped by half in the mid-1950s as stations focused on local broadcasts in concession to televisions national dominance. Among the stars and genres to move from one medium to another: Lucille Ball, The Lone Ranger, CBS comedy duo George Burns and Gracie Allen.

Radio in the United States

Year	Total stations	commercial AM	commercial FM	non-commmercial FM	Low-power FM
2007	13,476	4,781	6,224	2,471	??
2009	13,939	4,776	6,290	2,873	815
Courtesy of Baran, 6th ed.

   Radio prospered from diversifying, which it continues to do today. Where pre-television radio was characterized by national networks, post-TV radio focuses on formats in local, fragmented, personal and specialized stations. More than 225 million people, including 94 percent of all Americans 12 and over, listen to the radio in an average week.

   However, radio audience continues to decline. Between 2002 and 2007, the number of Americans who considered radio their "most essential" medium fell from 26 percent to 17 percent. The industry blames loss of audience on the availability of online music, listener dissatisfaction with unimaginative radio (e.g. McRadio) and hypercommercialization — an average hour of radio includes 12 minutes of commercials.

   Radio continues primarily due to five factors (pp. 188-189):

1. Local programming — Radio looks to a local audience rather than compete with television. Local advertisers can afford radio easier than television.
2. Fragmented audience — Radio stations appear in nearly every town. The number of stations in an area relates to population and proximity to other towns, e.g. Long Beach, Miss., hosts one FM station; Chicago has 19 AMs and 30 FMs.
3. Niche formatting — While choosing a particular format results in some listeners not tuning in, audience size is secondary to audience composition. Arbitron ratings service recognizes 50 different formats with some stations offering secondary services, e.g. a Country station offering a Gospel format for 10 hours over the weekend. Format radio requires a disc jockey using a playlist, i.e. a predetermined sequence of records.
4. Personal — Families seldom huddle around a radio anymore. Instead we select (or sometimes squabble over) personally pleasing formats.
5. Mobility — People can listen to radio anytime, anywhere while doing anything. Car radio production exceeded home receivers in 1951 and continues to do so.

   FM stations typically attract more listeners than AM stations as FM rests on a wider signal, allowing higher fidelity stereo sound that makes music sound better. Those favoring sports, news and information turn to an AM dial, which also dominates rural areas as the AM wave carries farther, e.g. KAAY 1090 AM could be heard out of Little Rock and in Chicago on clear nights. Although the FCC approved stereo AM in 1985, few people have stereo AM receivers.

   Edwin Armstrong (last seen fighting DeForest) began working on FM in 1923, and demonstrated FM radio to Sarnoff in 1935. RCA rejected this competitor to its AM domain and focused on TV instead. Armstrong took his idea to competitor GE and they put the first FM station on the air in 1939. The FCC approved FM stereo broadcasts in 1961, an imposed a freeze on AM licenses a year later (which would become permanent in 1968). Through nonduplication rules, AM/FM stations were required to broadcast different content at least 50 percent of the time. The FM stations switched formats to rock'n'roll and soon overtook the airwaves.

   Noncommercial FM stations accept no advertising. The FCC set aside FM frequencies between 88.1 and 91.9 for noncommercial radio in 1945. In addition to local services, many offer national network quality radio through affiliation with National Public Radio and Public Radio International, or through smaller networks like Pacifica Radio.  

The Business of Radio

   Advertisers enjoy radio's specialization because it provides access to homogenous groups of listeners. Since specialized formats hit the airwaves, annual billings have not declined. Advertisers buy local time, national spots and network time.

   Radio ads can easily be updated or completely changed, specialized to run at certain times of the day, and is less expensive than television advertising. Yet deregulation is changing radio.

   To ensure multiple perspectives in the cultural forum, the FCC once limited the number of radio stations one person or company could own to one AM and one FM locally, and seven AMs and seven FMs nationally. But the Telecommunications Act of 1996 nearly eliminated these rules.

   Thanks to deregulation, no national ownership limits exist, and one person can own as many as eight stations in one market. This situation has allowed duopoly -- one person or company owning and managing multiple radio stations in a market -- to explode. Since the act passed, more than 10,000 stations have be sold, and now 1,100 fewer owners exist.

   The vast majority of channels have been sold to large radio groups like Clear Channel, Cumulus and Citadel. In 25 of the 50 largest markets, three companies claim 80 percent of all listeners. Clear Channel became the subject of Congressional and criminal investigations for alleged antitrust practices in 2002. A year earlier, Clear Channel instructed its 1,200 stations to stop playing 162 songs in the wake of 9/11.  

    This concentration concerns many radio professionals. Local public affairs shows now make up less than one-half of 1 percent of all commercial broadcast time in the nation. Thirty-five percent of all commercial stations do not provide local news, and 25 percent provide no local public affairs reporting at all.

   Low Power FM, 10- to 100-watt community radio stations that can only reach a few miles, provide one response to radio concentration. As a result of the Local Community Radio Act of 2005, 815 LPFM stations now offer opportunities for additional radio voices to serve local listeners in all 50 states. 

Scope and Nature of the Industry

  When dee-jays and Top 40 formats saved radio in the 1950s, they also changed the recording industry. R&B and rock 'n' roll did not end racism, but the music helped individuals in a society overcome its ugly hold. Until the 1950s, white musicians covered successful songs by R&B artists who happened to be Black (see p. 188), giving us multiple versions of "Earth Angel," "Maybelline" and even "Shake, Rattle and Roll."

   But the white teens demanded the original versions, and the music of Little Richard, Fats Domino, Ray Charles and Chuck Berry made a lie of what white teens had been told about race, the inferiority of African Americans and Black's satisfaction with the status quo.

   Sam Phillips founded Sun Records in Memphis in an effort to bring Black music to a wider audience. "If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound, I could make a billion dollars," he said prior to finding Elvis. Covers didn't end though; now a project tracks current covers around the world.

   Four major recording companies control 90 percent of the recorded U.S. music market. Sony and BMG alone control more than 60 percent of the world's music market.

• Sony BMG controls 28 percent of the U.S. market. Co-owned by Japan's Sony and Germany's Bertlesmann, its labels include Columbia, Epic, RCA and Arista.
• Warner Music Group controls 16 percent of the U.S. market. Based in New York, its labels include Atlantic, Electra and Warner Brothers.
• Universal Music Group controls 35 percent of the U.S. market. French conglomerate Vivendi Universal owns the company and controls labels including MCA.
• EMI Records controls 9 percent of the U.S. market. Owned by England's EMI group, it controls labels including BMI, Capitol and Def Jam records.

   More than 5,000 U.S. companies annually sell 500 million tapes and discs of recorded music on more than 10,000 labels. See Figure 7.2 (p. 186) to see what types of music are popular.  

   Critics like the Future of Music Coalition voice concern over conglomeration and the internationalization of the music industry. Multibillion-dollar conglomerates take fewer risks with newer artists. If a band cannot immediately deliver the goods, they aren't signed, which could lead to cultural homogenization.

   The dominance of profit over artistry worries many fans. When a major label signs a super-act like R.E.M. ($80 million), Mariah Carey ($80 million) or Whitney Houston ($100 million), it typically drops lesser-known acts. This could lead to the infringement of artistic freedom for "minor" artists. Record industry sales continue to drop, with the steepest fall-off in recent years.

   Though the Record Industry Association of America claims Internet piracy is the reason for industry decline, music critics blame the industry itself for providing superficial pop stars instead of promoting edgy, socially conscious groups with new sounds. Playlists dominated by corporate ownership give the masses "wallpaper music." Why would someone pay when they can get music for free through the Internet or 'Net stations like Pandora?

   Sales in catalogue albums, i.e. albums more than three years old, account for more than 30 percent of all music sold. Figure 7.3 (p. 191) shows the best-selling artists and albums primarily came from the 1970s. But recent catalogue albums, i.e. those out for 15 months to three years, have fallen dramatically over the past five years.

   Critics complain that promotion overshadows the music. Fans worry about artists selling out:

• In the shoe industry, Nelly sang about Nike's Air Force 1 sneakers for so long, the shoemaker now markets Nelly Nikes; 50 Cent rhymes for Reebok, and Run-DMC raps about "My Adidas." Nike also used the Beatles' "Revolution" to sell sneakers. Michael Jackson owned the Beatles catalogue at the time; when he sold the rights, living members of the Beatles complained loudly. Paul McCartney bought the catalogue back and no more Beatles' songs have been used for commercials.
• In the auto industry, Cadillac used Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll;" Sting's "Desert Rose" and the Clash's "London Calling" sell Jaguar; Bob Seger's "Like a Rock" sells Chevy trucks. Rappers Ms. Jade and Timbaland collected money for a Hummer H2 product placement in their video; The Who's "Happy Jack" was featured in Hummer commercials.
• Microsoft uses music from Madonna and the Rolling Stones.
• In alcohol sales, Kid Rock sells Coors; Busta Rhymes titled his ode to his favorite drink, "Pass the Couvoisier."
• Bob Dylan sells Victoria's Secret lingerie and bank services.
• Among groups refusing to license their music for commercials: The Doors, Neil Young, the Beastie Boys, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, James Taylor, R.E.M. and Tom Waits.

Convergence in Radio and Sound Recording

   Television fundamentally changed music with the formation of MTV. Those groups that don't look good on MTV won't be signed, thus giving creedence to the Buggles song "Video Killed the Radio Star," which happened to be the first song played on MTV. Not only must artists make music videos to market their songs, they now also need extravagant multimedia concerts. Fewer artists can afford such lavish expense, and fewer acts are going on the road.

   Satellite and cable has aided the rebirth of radio networks. ABC markets its network, as well as Disney and ESPN, to thousands of stations. Satellite provides another application by delivering DMX (Digital Music Express) through cable televisions, and digital audio radio service through XM Radio and Sirius Radio.

   Mobile phones use ring-tone downloads, which is a $5 billion industry. Since 2002 2,000 stations have begun broadcasting terrestrial digital radio. Web radio, streaming and podcasting have led the Internet rebellion against bland commercial radio. 

   When music changed to digital recording in 1983 with the CD, the industry completely changed. By 1988, CD sales surpassed vinyl sales (see Fig. 7.5, p. 195). Mp3 compresses songs are provided through open source software with a loss in quality only significantly criticized by audiophiles.

   In 2007, Radiohead changed the direction of music packaging by releasing "In Rainbows" for free in Mp3 form, but then selling a package that had vinyl versions of the same songs, plus two CDs. The second disc contained songs not found on vinyl or Mp3.

  The industry is finally coming around with "approved" downloading at napster.com, emusic.com and musicnet.com. However, it took iTunes to provide the best industry strategy. Now Rhapsody offers a Windows' version. Now more than 500 legally licensed music sites reside on the Internet.

  If you really want to download music, at least check to see if the bands are listed on FurtherNet's Legally Traded Bandlist, then jump on the Internet Archive (there's text, video and software too!) or Nugs.net to broaden your musical horizons. If you insist on downloading illegally, realize the law does not consider that to be fair use.  Didn't get to go to Bonnaroo? You can purchase the sets of the shows you missed. If you're interested in Southern music, try some of these bands. Banning doesn't just apply to books: some people refuse to appreciate the music.