Early Radio Programming

• Early programming was primitive compared to today. They broadcast recorded music, usually classical, many lectures, and some news. Broadcasters didn’t have guidelines as to what kinds of programs to air. Radio was an open frontier.

• A month after KDKA’s broadcast, Texas A&M University broadcast the first football game on radio. A few months after that, KDKA broadcast the first church service.

• Early radio drama consisted mostly of dramatic readings of plays. Sound effects were invented on the spot, built from scratch. Thunder was created by shaking a thin sheet of metal, the sound of rain created by rolling dried peas down a cardboard tube.

• Music was the most popular type of programming on early radio and remains so today.
• Many radio pioneers thought radio would bring culture and art to the masses.
• Opera and classical music were quite common on 1920s radio compared to the variety available today.
• Variety and comedy shows became popular around 1922.

• President Calvin Coolidge used a network of more than 20 radio stations to broadcast his words around the country. The first networks were small and reached few households compared to today’s total coverage of the country.

• Radio succeeded in bringing music, both popular and classical, to thousands who previously had no access to live music.

** Read NY Times article on Coolidge.

• The first linking of radio stations into a chain, or network, occurred in January 1923.
• A concert happening in New York was broadcast on WEAF to New Yorkers.
• At the same time, over long-distance telephone lines, the concert was broadcast in Boston, on WNAC.

• It also succeeded in creating a national interest in sports. Without mass media, sporting events would have remained of only local interest. Radio helped create national heroes of sports stars and gave rise to fans who knew all about nationally famous teams.

• Boxing was a popular sport in the 1920s. The heavyweight championship fight between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier on July 2, 1921, became a radio event. The ringside announcer telephoned his blow-blow account to the radio station. The radio announcer wrote down the account and relayed the description to an audience of thousands.

War of the Worlds Broadcast

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365108972/

• Early baseball games were covered by a play-by-play announcer reading a ticker-tape account of the game in a different city. Announcers tried to make the event sound live. Appropriate sounds were added to give the game a live quality.

Early Radio Programming