The radio entertainment industry really began to blossom
once the disc jockey was introduced to world. In 1909, the first disk jockey,
Ray Newby played records over a small transmitter in California. Later Martin
Block, a famous radio announcer, played records as people awaited news of the
Lindbergh kidnapping. This is interesting because the younger generation uses
the radio to listen to music and usually turn it off when they hear news come
on but in the past the radio was their only avenue for news, so the music was
just filler.
The music
industry was not always welcoming to the radio. Many radio stations had to use
live music because radio stations were not allowed to play recorded music for
their first three years on air. Also, many record companies were in fear of
allowing free music to be played, therefore they would stamp a record “Not for
Broadcast” so that it could not be played on the radio. The issue of record legality
on the radio was bought up in court in the case of RCA and Paul Whiteman vs.
The WBO Broadcasting Corporation. The court upheld a decision to favor the
radio deciding that the radio stations could play music on air without the
permission of the artist or the record company. This changed radio forever
because now radio was allowed to be an avenue for listeners to hear their
favorite music while at home even if they couldn’t afford the record. Also,
this became an avenue for artist to promote themselves and their music to a
wide audience. More history of the radio and entertainment can be found at: http://www.percyfaithpages.org/A%20Brief%20History%20of%20Beautiful%20Music%20Radio.pdf
Today, the
radio entertainment industry is not doing as well as it once was. According to
Rolling Stone, the radio entertainment industry is currently the worst is has
been since 1954. In 2008, larger market radios lost about 4% revenue monthly. When
I’m at home, I usually listen to 92.3 on the radio. They experienced budget
cuts not too long ago and I, as a regular listener could definatley tell the
difference. With longer commercial breaks, more advertising, and less and less
of the actual music being played, I definatley noticed a lower quality radio.
Some of the djs had been moved around to different slots and more syndicated
djs were being broadcasted. The local radio entertainment industry was dying
and being turned into the syndicated radio for over 50% of the day.
Radio is facing tough
competition today. With the rise of 24 hour music stations on TV, online radio
stations using Pandora or iTunes, and mp3 players, is radio even necessary still
today? Although it is still it still is suffering today, the top music
listening avenue according to the NPC (http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/97920/survey-says-radio-is-still-king-of-music-listening)
is radio. Surprisingly, American’s say that most of their listening is done in
their car, which was confirmed by our in class discussion. The use of the radio
in the car is what is saving public radio right now, but from what I see and
the research I have done, public radio is dying but satellite/ internet radio
will be on the rise.
