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The technology of radio has always had a great deal to do with how the listeners behaved as consumers. Young people have consistently embraced the newest technology, no matter what form that technology may take. At the start of the 21st century, the hot new radio technology is literally out of this world. The Past In the 1960s, KHJ was on the AM radio frequency at 930 on the dial. Popular music of the day on AM radio was the standard then. Popular music on FM radio became the standard in the 1970s. Young people today may not even know about AM radio because popular music hits are on FM, on television, on the Internet, and on satellite radio. In 2003, this writer happened to ride in an elevator in downtown Washington, DC and observed a young man in this 20s, carrying an iPod, as he was asked by a young woman, also in her 20s, “What’s that got in it?” He answered, “Only ten gigabytes.” What he meant was that some models of this popular digital music device of the early 21st century are capable of holding 30 gigabytes or 7,500 songs. In the 1920s, AM radio stations reached national prominence in the United States and enabled the growth of American recorded music companies. In those days, music was distributed on flat disks (ultimately made of vinyl) which were played on record players comprised largely of a rotating turntable and a device (originally a metal needle, but later a stylus made of precious gems such as diamonds.) To satisfy the interest in higher playback fidelity and ultimately stereophonic sound, the rotation speeds of the records changed from the original 78 rotations per minute to 33.3 rpm and 45 rpm. The sale of rock ‘n’ roll music in mono on 45 rpm records (nicknamed “45’s” or “singles") was standard procedure back then. The rock ‘n’ roll music industry embraced stereo recordings in the 1960s and FM became the medium of choice to deliver the product to the market. Stereo 45’s followed next. One of the first was “Hey Jude” by The Beatles. But radio stations were still primarily AM and in mono. The widespread acceptance of FM radio did not happen until the late 1960s. The Federal Communications Commission changed their rules governing radio receivers so that both AM and FM band were available in one convenient package, and FM radio jumped in popularity. At the same time, stereo radio broadcasting on FM made it possible for the listeners to hear music as it was intended by producers and recording artists. Previously, listeners could only hear remixed mono versions of music on the air. Much like when television become a potential threat to AM radio in the 1950’s, after the FCC rules regarding hardware were change, in the 1970s FM posed an obvious financial threat to AM radio’s stronghold over the American radio audience. FM became the first--and at that time, only--way to broadcast stereo records. Since FM broadcasts in a very different way than AM radio, FM has no static, much higher fidelity of audio, and FM signals travel farther in the air than AM can. But in the early days of this development, there was fierce competition between AM and FM stations for listeners. To offset the loss of listeners to FM and to what was then called “progressive rock,” the RKO flagship station, KHJ, started changing its music format. Billboard magazine explained: “The imitators would hardly recognize the new sound of KHJ today. Some of the programming foundation is still there—such as an image of being the station in town on which to hear oldies (called ‘goldens’ by the staff of KHJ), but even the goldens have been cut back drastically.” And, as in the 1960’s, the other Drake-Chenault-consulted stations followed the lead of KHJ in order to “update the stations’ programming and be a little more a reflection of what’s being sold in the music market--albums as opposed to singles.” The inclusion of album cuts on RKO stations, however, seemed to be what led to the chain-wise drop in ratings and trouble for the Drake-Chenault team. The Future? Arthur C. Clarke predicted the future when he invented satellite-delivered radio nearly 60 years ago. The visionary author of 2001: A Space Odyssey also wrote a short story called “I Remember Babylon,” published in 1945, depicting a futuristic society that used satellites to deliver radio programming to people’s receivers on the ground. It was then considered science fiction.
The innovations of Drake-Chenault Enterprises in radio programming syndication during the late 1960s and early 1970s are covered elsewhere on this site. Now that we are in the 21st century, the radio industry perhaps has seen one of the “the next big things” to come along. Satellite-delivered radio programming directly to individual receivers on the ground has become a business reality, but the long-term financial viability of satellite-delivered programming is not a certainty. One serviced named XM Radio has, at least for the moment, found a niche market to serve with all the popular radio programming formats on separate channels--some without any commercial interruption. Their only competitor is Sirius satellite radio, which carries Howard Stern. Rumors abound that these two competitors will oneday merge due to the huge expenses of running two separate, independent satellite-delivered programming services. The wider acceptance of the Internet, however, in which people can download music to their personal computer or hand-held device (like iPod), poses a commercial threat both to standard over-the-air radio broadcasting and satellite-delivered radio. |
(Photograph: California teenagers in 1965 listen to the latest technology, a hand-held transistor radio receiver that did not require external electric power.)
(Photograph: A 21st century hand-held receiver of digital satellite radio programming.)
But, now that cell phones and MP3 players and the Internet have converged (Photograph: The |
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