Commercialization of Radio Changed Our Lives

The Commercialization of Radio Changed Our Lives

The Commercialization of Radio Changed Our Lives

Radio was developed from the ideas that brought us the telegraph and telephone. At first it was only utilized for wireless telegraphy, than grew into adolescence through experimentation and discovery. Its’ broadcasting first started out as a public service for various schools, newspapers, stores and companies.  The commercialization aspect of radio began out of necessity due to the growing operational and equipment costs. Some new steady sources of revenue were required in order to meet the rising expenses. That commercialization lead radio into maturity as it is now interwoven into our daily lives at various levels depending on the individual. Plus if you consider without the development of radio, we would not have television, motion pictures or satellite communication.

In the 1860s a Scottish physicist James Maxwell predicted the existence of “Maxwell waves”. Eventually, these waves would open access to new forms of communication. In 1866, an American dentist Mahlon Loomis was able to perform wireless telegraphy with these waves and established the first form of wireless aerial communication. Then in 1886, German physicist, Heinrich Hertz demonstrated the production and detection of “Maxwell’s waves” experimentally. He called them “Hertzian waves”. In 1895, Italian inventor Guglielmo proved the feasibility of radio communication by sending and receiving the first radio signal. Up until 1899, the military was using pigeons and visual signals to send messages across long distances. Then, the Army and Navy continued to further develop this new radio communication technology.  

Several state universities such as Ohio State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin were utilizing radio as a broadcasting instrument for scholastic programing. They were supported by state legislature funding for the establishment and operation of radio stations. Then on October 14th, 1920 WRUC began broadcasting becoming the first college radio station in America, which was ran by students. It still operates today, but only when Union College is in session. However, there is still a dispute over whether this experimental station or KDKA of Pittsburg was the first official radio station in America. The Board of Education in New York City began to send classes by means of radio stations. This began “schools of the air”, in which classes were broadcasted to millions of American students.

Manufacturer and department owned radio stations goal was to sell radios. While, newspaper owned radio stations, utilized radio at first to transmit news bulletins to their subscribers overnight via the airwaves which generated new subscriptions and increased advertising revenue. The Newspaper owners had hoped that delivering news via radio would eliminate the costly printing and delivery process completely. A multitude of experiments were done in the 1930 to try to facilitate this, because this would shift the distribution cost from the publisher to the consumer.