A Revolution on the Radio Wave

Ammy Nguyen

Mrs. Baker

Literary Analysis

08 March 2019

Ammy Nguyen
 Nguyen 1

Mrs. Baker

Literary Analysis

08 March 2019

A Revolution on the Radio Wave

Modern society has created numerous means of reaching out to the vast public.

Television and social media have all but replaced other media sources. With so many other forms

of entertainment and information people forget one of the first great pieces of technology: the

radio. The invention and commercialization of the radio resulted in a public media revolution

and important developments within the government and United States economy in the 1920s.

Inventing and commercializing the original radio was not a short walk in the park. It was

a process occuring over nearly three decades, combining the works of years of questions and

thoughts into a revolutionary technology. The founding father of all radio technology was

Heinrich Hertz. He was the first to prove that electric waves could be transmitted and received

wirelessly in the late 1800s. He had no clue at that time how revolutionary his work would be,

but this realization would become the basis of all radio technology. After this, a number of other

scientists continued to build on the idea of wireless wave transmission including, most famously,

Nikola Tesla who would go on to create the Tesla coil still used in modern radios. Ernst

Alexanderson and Reginald Fessenden would then devise various methods to transmit speech

through the aforementioned waves (“Short”).

The actual creation of the radio was a long and tedious process, but would have been of

no use if there were not people to utilize and commercialize it. These men, while not scientists,

were just as important as the actual creators of the physical radio apparatus. One such man was

Guglielmo Marconi who “established the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company in 1897”
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(“Short”). Thus beginning radio’s advancement and Marconi’s leap into the rising technological

fray. Lee Deforest the “father of American radio”,walked the line between scientist and

businessman. He was chief scientist of American Wireless Telephone and Telegraph, the United

States’ first radio firm, and even though Marconi would eventually take over the firm, Deforest

patented over three hundred designs for the radio, most famously being the Audion vacuum tube

to amplify radio waves (“Short”). Hugh Richard Slotten put it best, radio “came into existence as

the result of a complex process of interaction among different institutions and individuals” (485).

Through the effort and brilliance of a variety of ingenious individuals, the radio, as it is known

now, came into existence.

Until the invention of the radio, the public relied on fairly simplistic ways of spreading

information, ideas, and culture, but with the radio came a revolution of mass communication and

culture in the ‘20s. Resources like newspapers have been used to spread news and information

for centuries, but with the invention of the radio, mass media became much more massive.

Literacy and distance were no longer issues in the age of radio, and the number of people with

access to information before grew substantially (“Understanding” 283). Radio also helped the

public connect emotionally to events that a newspaper could not. The news became more than a

tale in ink, it became a story dripping from reality; however, this emotional effect didn’t always

turn out favourably. In 1938 the Mercury Theatre on Air broadcasted an adapted version of H.G.

Wells classic The War of the Worlds, and despite the disclaimer explain that it was fiction, 1.7

million out of the 6 million listeners would actually believe the story. Many people panicked and

prepared for an alien invasion that was never to come revealing the intimate effect the radio had

on the public, and the people’s unquestioning belief in the radio (“Understanding” 284-286).
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Despite the importance of using the radio to publicize news, the radio would truly claim

fame and notoriety in music. Before the radio, music was done live and people had to be at a

performance in order to experience the music, and so with the invention of the radio also came

the prospering of the American music industry. During the 1920s, use of the radio gave rise to

swing jazz and artists like Duke Ellington. Despite the existence of recorded music, the radio still

had better music quality. It also helped regional musical talents to rise to the national stage all

while transforming the music industry. Artists had a measurable change in the way they

presented music, the spotlight of radio created star personas, and singers discovered new and

unique ways to use their vocals to capture the attention of audiences miles away. The very

foundation of the American cultural identity and media changed with the conception of the radio

(“Understanding” 284-286).

With the rise of American radio in the 1920s came a need for regulation or deregulation

and a realization by government and businessmen that radio could be used as a communication

and marketing tool. Big businesses wanted to get a foot into the radio industry, but in the early

days of radio this was a daunting task. Thousands of private radio shows had appeared

throughout the country; however, these small shows had a disadvantage, they did not have

government support (Slotten 486). Eventually companies began to take over and buy out the

smaller shows, and according to Hugh Richard Slotten, “The 1912 Radio Act reinforced this

trend by giving preferential access to the radio spectrum to institutional users in the United States

rather than to individuals” (486). In doing so the United States government ensured that the radio

waves of America would no longer be controlled by small people, but rather by business

tycoons.
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Businesses and the government soon realized the effect that the radio had on the general

populace and used it to their benefit. During the ‘20s advertising rose substantially as more and

more businesses got their name out in the world. Even though this form of advertising was

considered an invasion of privacy in its early years, it was soon accepted as a norm by the public

(“Understanding” 268). The government soon realized the potential of radio propaganda, and as

early as 1941, the War Department had already established a radio division in the Bureau of

Public Relations. Norman Corwin’s This is War was funded by the War Department as

propaganda in support for World War II (“Understanding” 288). The military also realized the

tactical advantage of radio use. During WWI, 4000 radio licenses were issued to operators

receiving and intercepting radio messages from both sides of the war. These messages would

prove vital in the success of the war and the saving of hundreds of lives. Along those lines

marine and aviation vessels began use of the radio to communicate with other ships and main

base. This communication reduced the time needed to receive and pass along information, and

may very well have helped end World War I earlier then what should have been expected

(“First”). Radio revealed its many advantages to the economy and government soon after its

reveal to the world.

Today, the radio is overshadowed by new forms of media, but its importance is still

evident in the written story of the United States. The radio fundamentally changed society and

led to the development of today’s culture and institutions. It would become the stepping stone off

of which the new age of technology would launch itself, sending the world hurtling into the

future.
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Works Cited

Juniper, Dean. “ The First World War and Radio Development.” Historical Today, May 2004,

pp. 32-38. Proquest Research Library, Academic Search Complete,

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=8&sid=0c6bd02a-66be-4bb5-858d-

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sessmgr06&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=13050931&db=a9h.

“A Short History of the Radio.” Federal Communications Commision, Winter 2003-2004,

https://transition.fcc.gov/omd/history/radio/documents/short_history.pdf.

Slotten, Hugh Richard. “Universities, Public Service Experimentation, and the Origins of Radio

Broadcasting.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, vol. 26, no. 4,

Routledge, Oct. 200, pp. 485-486. Academic Search Complete,

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=0c6bd02a-66be-4bb5-858d-

cc2e517780c2%40sdc-v-

sessmgr06&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=22564299.

Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communications. University of

Minnesota Libraries, 2016, pp. 283-290, file:///home/chronos/u-

d97ba559c3472bf4eb35acbc2f24afded0f67dfe/Downloads/Understanding-Media-and-

Culture-An-Introduction-to-Mass-Communication-1538678536.pdf.