Current mood:	accomplished
Current music:	sneaker pimps

updated term paper


As our world has evolved over the last century, so has radio broadcasting and all the elements that surround it. From the founder of the AM radio waves to the War of the Worlds broadcast to the FCC suing Howard Stern, all of these aspects have been landmarks in the radio world.
In 1895, an Italian physicist named Guglielmo Marconi started to fiddle with wireless technology. The next year, Marconi sent wireless telegraph waves to England from Italy. In a few years, Marconi had set up his own wireless companies in England, Italy, and America. The first trans Atlantic wireless wave was sent from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland, Canada. (“Radio”)
After approximately ten years of the telegraph being used as the primary wireless source, Marconi’s wireless station in Cape Cod Massachusetts received the first radio broadcast with voice and music. This broadcast was being made by another radio pioneer, Reginald Fessenden, from his broadcast station in Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Fessenden patented the high-frequency alternator in 1901. This piece of equipment was capable of “generating continuous waves rather than intermittent impulses,” and it became the first official radio transmitter. This broadcast was heard by many ships in the surrounding waters on Christmas Eve of 1906. (“Radio”)
Another “father” of radio, Lee De Forest, broadcasted the first news bulletin over the airwaves, and the voice of tenor opera singer, Enrico Caruso. Within three years of the broadcasts there were over five hundred radio stations across the United States. (“Radio”)
Many people in the late teens and early twenties were considered “hobbyists, and at first, radio was just that: a pastime, a novelty.” (Maltin 2). Many of these hobbyists “built their own radio sets, and mail order businesses thrived selling crystals, tubes, headphones, and related paraphernalia.” (Maltin 2)
In the early 1900’s the government started the “Federal Communications Commision” (FCC) to regulate the growing airwaves. “In the earliest days of broadcasting, there were no rules, and there certainly were no precedents,” (Maltin 12)
until Congress passed the Radio Acts of 1912 and 1927. (“Radio”)
The Radio Act of 1912 would require that the wireless should be manned at all times, that auxiliary power should be available in the event of engine failure, and implementation of a strict protocol for receiving distress signals and that each ship radio had to have a range of at least 100 miles.” (“Titanic”) Along with these regulations, the Radio Act of 1912 purged the radio waves of the amateurs who had confused the official operators on the night of April 15, 1912, the night that the ocean liner, Titanic, hit an ice burg. The operators also had to be licensed, and if the amateurs wanted to broadcast, they could only use the shortest waves, which the FCC considered useless. (“Titanic”) “The medium [radio] was seen as a substitute for telegraphy only where wires couldn’t be laid down. Its usefulness seemed limited to matters of seagoing safety and international security; accordingly, its development was accelerated because of radio’s strategic importance during World War One. During that period, and for several years to follow, it was seen by most businessmen as a means of sending wireless communications, not as a medium of entertainment.” (Maltin 2)
The next Radio Act fifteen years later in 1927 mostly dealt with “propaganda and broadcasting” in section twelve of the bill. (Rita 1)
One of the most frequently asked questions about radio is, “What is the difference of AM radio and FM radio.” The FCC says that AM radio, also known as “amplitude modulation” (“Differences”), “is a combined audio frequency and radio frequency waves, and [the frequency] varies to match the audio signal. AM radio can develop problems with interference. This makes it hard to hear the radio show. Interference can be caused by many sources. For example, sparks discharge when a car is started, in electric motors in all sorts of electrical appliances, and even lightning. All of these things can produce interference to AM radio. As you can see, there is a lot of background noise that changes the amplitude of the radio wave signal. This creates the random crackling noises called static.” (“Differences”) The FCC also clarifies FM, for the average person, “FM stands for “frequency modulation”- a type of radio transmission, the frequency of the combined waves change to reproduce the audio signal. For example, higher frequency is associated with the peak amplitude in the audio wave. FM waves do not have a problem with interference because the noise background does not modify the radio wave frequency. In addition FM waves give better sound reproduction.” (“Difference”)
In 1938 “Howard Koch's radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds was performed on CBS Radio by the Mercury Theatre on the Air, directed by twenty-four-year-old Orson Welles.” (“War”) This was one of the most influential broadcasts in the twentieth century because of the mass panic the report created. (“War”)
“Yet the broadcast so successfully convinced so many people of its truth that CBS had to promise not to air any more fictionalized news events. Many commentators believed that the astonishing reaction of the public expressed hidden concerns about the prospect of another world war, to which contemporary events in Europe and Asia were then inexorably leading.” (“War”) The reaction was probably helped by the fact that the broadcast coincided with a power failure in Washington State. (“War”)
“As with television a generation later, cable TV thirty years after that, and today’s Internet, there was a kind of “gold rush” to establish footholds in this new, mushrooming field. Industrialists and entrepreneurs saw the medium as a voice for special interests—and a lucrative vehicle for advertising.” (Maltin 3) Every one from Lucky Strike cigarettes to Horlick’s Malted Milk were sponsored on air. (Maltin 155)
Two other radio systems have started over the past twenty years, satellite radio and internet radio.
Presently though, a listener doesn’t need a radio to listen to radio. There is another new medium broadcasting music, voices, and ideas. This medium is the internet. “The number of people listening to the radio via the Internet continues to rise at a rapid rate,” (“New” 8).
Research in Forbe's magazine in late 2004 says that over 16% of Americans tuned into internet radio at least once in the past month. The Microsoft Company thinks that this statistic might be something for companies to look into. Microsoft would like many companies to look into advertising on internet radio, but because of the small percentage of people tuning in, most companies turn a blind eye to the opportunity of internet advertising. (Kafka.)
Microsoft's head honcho, Bill Gates, has started to copycat FM radio stations. On Microsoft internet shows, a listener can tune into the same music they would here over the radio in their vehicle or living room. The difference between the Microsoft internet radio and FM radio would be fewer sponsor commercials and more of the music that the listeners want to hear. (Kafka.)
Internet Radio is one of the most accessible mediums of Radio if an average person wanted to host a show. A thirteen year old eighth grader named Matthew Bischoff, from New Jersey, "podcast's" as often as he can on the internet, although some night he has too much school work. Podcasting is just another form of saying "do it your self radio broadcasting." Host from these shows can be as informal as two friends talking about their day, or talented enough to rival professional radio broadcasts. (Dyril)
A constellation and music coming over the radio waves, they both have something in common, a simple name, Sirius. Sirius is just one of the few main suppliers of satellite radio in the world. Satellite radio not only deals with audio being cast through the cosmos, but also, video being sent to thousands of people over the world. The Sirius entertainment stated that the reason for this was because children will demand back seat video entertainment. (“Sirius”)
The FCC, even with their spat with the notorious shock jock host Howard Stern, has set regulations on satellite radio. XM radio, another satellite radio provider, has to abide by certain terrestrial repeaters [the type of frequency being sent from satellite]. (Regulatory) The type of radio that the FCC doesn't regulate is internet programs. Even with unsponsored college radio, the FCC has set the boundaries of what can and cannot be said before ten o'clock P.M. (FCC)
Paul Sousa from the Providence Rhode Island band The Cringe was on college radio between 2002 and 2005. He had said the difference between the mainstream radio stations (that are sponsored by multiple companies) and college "underground" radio was that college radio a show host had freer reign over what they were able to play. The deep voice co-host of the show No Positive Radio was able to play his own band's music is "shameless self promotion" and a set of industrial and ambience hybrid of music that "no person would ever hear on 94.1 WHJY [a radio station based out of Providence Rhode Island]." (Cringe)
"It was tough," Paul Sousa commented in an interview on February 27, "having a time slot at eight o'clock on a Sunday night right after the infamous 'Children's Show.' Paul, John, and I wanted to play fast crippling punk and some of those lyrics weren't 'clean' enough to be heard during that time slot." With that, The Cringe and their show No Positive Radio ended up getting torn off of the airwaves because of an accidental slip of the tongue. Two months later, The Cringe was found early Saturday mornings playing seldom heard music, and hosting a boisterous talk show called The Fistfight.

With the brief history of the radio in this old world, there are already many types to choose from. From the mass panic that the War of the Worlds broadcast created in the living rooms across America, to the banning of the shock jock radio host from New York city, Howard Stern, on FM radio, each has its own place in American subculture history.



I am also going to be working on this bitch on the way to school getting some more quotes and shit from this book i have. HORRAH

it shall be DONE and finished by E hour.

FUCK YES

then at lunch i have to work on my Morocco thing..


fuck..


--Dee