MTM Lesson 5 Early Radio 2024 PDF

Early Radio & Electrical Recording 1920s-1930s 1924 portable RCA Radiola 24 Western Historic Radio Museum http://www.radioblvd.com/photos.html Before we discuss radio… In groups of 3: How did consumers use phonographs/gramophones? Excerpts of publications from 1899-1924 Why the “radio craze” in the...

Early Radio & Electrical Recording 1920s-1930s 1924 portable RCA Radiola 24 Western Historic Radio Museum http://www.radioblvd.com/photos.html Before we discuss radio… In groups of 3: How did consumers use phonographs/gramophones? Excerpts of publications from 1899-1924 Why the “radio craze” in the 1920s? What’s the big deal about radio? Why the “radio craze” in the early 1920s? Andre Millard, America on Record: Free content Improved fidelity by 1924 Packaged as nice furniture – consumer products Susan Douglas, Listening In: DXers formed an early-adopting audience, a demand 1920s: 300% increase in spending on entertainment New desire to stay home for entertainment People wanted the latest entertainment technology In groups of 3: What did listeners think about radio in the early 1920s? Did their predictions come true? 1. 2. 3. M. J. Caveney, “New Voices in the Wilderness,” Collier’s, April 1920 Waldemar Kaempffert, “The Social Destiny of Radio,” Forum, June 1924 Joseph Jackson, “Should Radio be Used for Advertising?” Radio Broadcast, November 1922 Essay 1 Assignment: Early Musical Technologies PART II. Electrical Recording and Amplification Technologies, 1925 Converted acoustic sound into fluctuating electrical current; amplified, could be recorded, and transformed back into acoustic sound Results: – Better fidelity/sound quality – Wider frequency range – low and high pitches Important technologies: – – – – Microphone (condenser) Vacuum tube amplifier Loudspeaker (Reentrant/Folded/Orthophonic) “Moving Coil” recording device (Morton, p. 94) Short Video excerpts: “How do microphones work” by Jake Sulsa, YouTube.com, 2018 “How do microphones work” Into The Ordinary, YouTube.com, 2015 Microphone – similar to the telephone Vacuum Tube Amplifier (Lee DeForest’s Audion, 1907) Reentrant Loudspeaker with diaphragm Victor Orthophonic Victrola Ex. Bing Crosby with Paul Whiteman, 1931 Do vocals sound different than acoustic recordings? Crooning, Crooners Singing softly, intimate sound, more subtleties. Great for ballads, romantic/ sentimental songs. Electrical recording made it possible. vs. the loud tenors of acoustic recording: Caruso, Murray, et al. PART III. Radio Stations and Music Programming in the 1920s Network Radio and Independent Stations, Diversity and Homogeneity Fast growing radio industry Radio stations (#) Radio receivers sold (#) Radio receiver sales ($) 1920: first commercial radio station, Pittsburg 1921: 5 radio stations in U.S. 1922: 60,000 receivers sold 1920: $2 million in receiver sales 1923: 600 stations in U.S. 1923: 550,000 receivers sold 1925: 3.7 mil sold, 5.5 were in use in the U.S. 1924: $350 billion in receiver sales Data from Richard Campbell, Christopher Martin, Bettina Fabos, Media and Culture, 10th ed. (Bedford St. Martins, 2015), 158; and Ari Kelman, Station Identification (Univ. Calif. Press, 2009), 29 Radio Corporation of America (RCA), 1919 1922, New Jersey – “Private sector monopoly” allowed by the government – Pooled patents from GE, AT&T, Westinghouse – Acquired other companies RCA started NBC, 1926 Rise of Network Radio in the USA NBC, 1926 CBS, 1929 Advertising business model Networks of stations subscribed to content of main station, WNEW for NBC. Distributed programs – via telephone networks leased from AT&T – switched to recording programs and ads on discs, and mailing to network stations NBC sold the Blue Network to ABC in 1943 Show video by NBC explaining NBC. Student Presentation! Network Radio Broadcasts 1934: BBC (England), Winston Churchill - The Threat Of Nazi Germany 1935: NBC, WEAF (NYC), Let’s Dance - Benny Goodman 1935: CBS, Stoopnagle and Budd If We Supervised Radio 1935: White House Christmas Tree Lighting PART IV. Impact of Radio and the Great Depression on the Record Industry, 1930s “Empires of Sound” (Andre Millard) Companies with radio, recording, and electronics businesses Corporate consolidation during the Great Depression: mergers and acquisitions Old model of inventor-entrepreneurs replaced with business executives running corporations Advertisers influenced network radio decisions Consolidation: Mergers Consolidation: Acquisitions Impacts on the Recording Industry 1924: 50-60% decline in record sales 1926: RCA Victor radio-grampohone combos, “Radiola-Electrola” (next slide) 1929: RCA buys Victor à RCA-Victor 1929: Edison Records falls 1930s: Companies switch to electronic record players Recording engineers moved west, Hollywood Juke boxes help save record industry (again) RCA-Victor “Radiola-Electrolas”1929 & 1931 ARC: American Record Company Herbert Yates, entrepreneur After Crash of 1929, ARC bought other labels: Okeh, Pathé, Brunswick, Banner, Cameo, Conqueror, Melotone, Perfect, Romeo, and Vocalion 1934: ARC bought Columbia Records 1938: CBS bought ARC British Labels in the USA EMI (Electric and Music Industries), 1931 – Formed after merger of the British companies of Gramophone (Berliner) and Columbia Decca Records (UK), 1929 – Decca US, 1934 – new company The Old Big Three (major record companies) Old Big Three Victor Columbia Edison 1938: New Big Three (major record companies) Old Big Three Victor Columbia Edison New Big Three RCA Victor, 1929 CBS/Columbia/ARC Decca US, 1934 (EMI, Britain, 1931) If time… PART V. Beyond Network Radio: niche markets, large and small On the radio: Hillbilly music more than Race music Country Music on the Radio “Grand Ole Opry” (1925) WSM, Nashville e.g., Dave Macon, Roy Acuff Video: American Roots Music “The Grand Ole Opry,” Ep 1, Ch 5 African Americans (not so much) on the Radio Early 1920s: many Black entertainers were on independent radio stations or individual broadcasts Late-1920s – 1930s: African Americans were rarely on network radio, usually in stereotyped roles; influenced by segregated entertainment unions, advertisers who wanted white mainstream customers, and segregated southern markets. White actors imitated Black characters and white musicians played music innovated by African Americans, like jazz. Some exceptions, like Deford Baily (harmonica) on the Grand Ole Opry William Barlow, Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio (Temple Univ. Press, 1999), 15-28 Jack L. Cooper Entrepreneur in “Black-Appeal Radio” in Chicago “demonstrated that radio programming by African Americans could attract a sizable urban listening audience.” (50) 1929: The All-Negro Hour “first successful weekly radio show featuring African Americans” (Barlow, 51-58) – Paid for air time on an ethnic radio station, WSBC – comedy, jazz, blues, gospel, preaching 1931: Radio production company 1937: Advertising firm Playing recordings on air ASCAP demanded performance royalties in the 1920s, which discouraged radio stations from playing records. Government, musicians unions, and (in response) labels discouraged playing records on air Large stations: programmed live performances on air Small stations ignored “Do not play on radio” warning from record labels. Or played music by non-ASCAP member musicians. Networks did make recordings of live shows for replay and distribution to network stations; cheaper to share. Jack Cooper also played records on air Unusual by the late 1920s radio stations played recordings in the early 1920s Until ASCAP (representing publishers/composers) insisted on performance royalties from broadcasters (explained next week) Major radio stations switched to live programming But… small stations played records anyway, and ASCAP didn’t represent most African-American music on race records So… Cooper switched from live to play race records in 1932 Diversification in addition to Homogenization Independent, local and ethnic radio stations On the one hand, radio was considered a way to Americanize immigrants, accelerating assimilation by teaching them English and about American politics and culture. “Ironically, instead of moving from a multilingual country of immigrants to a more ordered nation of English speakers, radio diversified during the 1920s and became more hospitable to nonEnglish speakers on the airwaves.” Small stations hosted multilingual programs. “The debut of the NBC network in 1926 certainly buoyed fantasies of a national audience, but immigrant audiences, when given the chance, turned their attention to local programming on smaller stations with weaker broadcast signals [while they] continued to listen to radio programming in English.” Ari Kelman, Station Identification: A cultural history of Yiddish Radio in the United States (Univ. Calif. Press, 2009), 57-58