THE HISTORY AND IMPACT OF THE RADIO

Before the internet or television, there was radio. Like those later media types, radio forever changed the world. It allowed widespread, instant communication for the first time. Presidents and Kings could now speak directly to their people. President Franklin Roosevelt changed the trajectory of our nation by his radio Fireside Chats, which convinced Americans that they have “nothing to fear but fear itself”(National Archives). While the idea of radio had existed among scientists since the late 1800s, the first commercial radio station (KDKA)-(PBS)-began in Wilkinsburg, PA in 1920. The golden age of radio was from the late 1920s until the early 1950s (when it began to be pushed out by the rise of television).

Almost every American family had a radio in their living room and they gathered around it together to hear comedies, dramas, popular music, and news. It also united every American with the good or bad news of events in World War II. It changed Americans’ lives in a new way, who became used to turning on their radios at a particular time each week to hear their favorite programs. Popular sporting events like the World Series or heavyweight boxing could be heard live by millions at the same time.

Even with the rise of television and the transfer of the weekly comedies and dramas to television in the mid 1950s (some like Superman and the Lone Ranger made the leap), radio remained vital until recently. In a 1998 arbitron report (PBS) , 95% of Americans listened to the radio at least once a week, most while traveling in their cars or in their bathrooms getting ready for work in the morning. They used it for popular music (could rock and roll have become an American icon without radio?), sports (because it was able to offer so many more options than television) and up to the minute news.

With the rise of the internet and cell phones over the past twenty years, the influence of radio has changed. There are tens of thousands of internet options for news, sports and entertainment that can be played by bluetooth in your car or watched on your TV or cell phone at home. Even XM radio (which sought to bring all that is good about radio under one umbrella) is dwarfed by all of the options that the internet provides. Nothing in radio can compete with Spotify, YouTube or Apple Music’s ability to bring all published music in the world directly to you in the order and manner you want it. The quality of the sound, even on a good FM radio, does not compete with cell phones.

You can have a Drake music channel through Apple Music and listen to nothing but Drake, 24/7, wherever you go. TV is also available to car passengers now through cell phones. Radio personalities are no longer limited to just radio and can branch out through podcasts or youtube directly to their fans. It may be that Rush Limbaugh (who died in 2021) will be considered the last radio star, whose popularity was primarily linked to his radio program and not to other media. While my parents still listen to XM Radio and individual radio stations like NPR, my generation is not using commercial radio at all. Influencers today are using Youtube and Podcasts to reach their fans, and not radio.