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Chapter Summary| Radio has survived periods of experimentation, glory, and trauma. Early inventors, such as Maxwell, Hertz, Marconi, Fleming, Fessenden, and De Forest, would not recognize radio in its present form. Many people who knew and loved radio during the 1930s and 1940s do not truly recognize it today. Radio has endured and along the way has chalked up an impressive list of great moments: picking up the Titanic's frantic distress calls, broadcasting the Harding–Cox presidential election returns, broadcasting the World War II newscasts of Edward R. Murrow, and surviving the television takeover.
Along the way, government interaction with radio illustrates the medium's growth as a broadcasting entity. Early laws dealt with radio primarily as a safety medium. The fact that government took control of radio during World War I but did not do so during World War II indicates that radio had grown from a private communication medium to a very public one that most Americans relied on for information. The need for the government to step in to solve the problem of overcrowded airwaves during the late 1920s proved the popularity and prestige of radio. The ensuing Communications Act of 1934 and the various FCC regulations helped solidify the government's role in broadcasting. When Congress passed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, it set the groundwork for the reorganization of public radio. Government both hindered and helped the development of FM and is now involved with the establishment of DARS and LPFM. The lessening of ownership regulations in recent times is further evidence that radio has survived.
Companies from the private-enterprise sector have also played significant roles in the history of radio, starting with the Marconi company and progressing through the founding of RCA by the still-powerful AT&T, GE, and Westinghouse. These early companies contributed a great deal in terms of technology, programming, and finance. The networks, each in its own peculiar way, set the scene for both healthy competition and elements of unhealthy intrigue. Intrigue also characterized the rivalry between newspapers and radio in the prewar days, and free enterprise in its purest sense altered the format of radio when television stole its listeners. The formation of new networks by Westwood One and the revitalization of networks by ABC and CBS are further proof that radio has survived.
Radio programming is indebted to early pioneers who filled the airwaves with boxing matches, “potted palm” music, and call letters, and to Amos 'n' Andy, Jack Benny, and others who are remembered for creating the golden era of radio. Today countless disc jockeys, talk show hosts, and newscasters let us know that radio has survived.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education