Radio Entertainment

    

     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.