Ch 8 Radio

This chapter covers radio from its invention in the 1890s to internet streaming radio today. A selection from this chapter is found in the Features section:  Radio and the Titanic.

Discussion Questions

1. Titanic:  How did radio telegraphy help and / or hurt in the Titanic disaster?
2.  No use whatsoever: How could someone as brilliant as Heinrich Hertz say that there was no practical use for his discoveries about radio?
3. Oh the humanity:  Herbert Morris made the Hindenburg disaster famous. What do we know about the Hindenburg disaster today?
4. War of the Worlds:  Would people be frightened by a radio report of an invasion from Mars today? Why or why not?  What made it frightening in 1938?

People & Events

Heinrich Hertz, Guglielmo Marconi, Reginald Fessenden, Edwin H. Armstrong, David Sarnoff, William S. Paley, Orson Wells, Herbert Morrison, Mae West, Amos n’ Andy, Edward R. Murrow, William L. Shirer, Father Charles Coughlin, Franklin D. Roosevelt,

Radio telegraphy, radio telephony, continuous wave versus spark, talk radio, radio censorship, fireside chats, War of the Worlds broadcast, controversy over news on radio, FRC regulation, Mayflower decision (leading to Fairness Doctrine, Ch 9); payola scandals, radio station ownership consolidation in Telecommunications Act of 1996, satellite radio, internet radio, MP3 players (iPods etc).

Documentary videos

• Radio : out of thin air / A&E Television Networks ; The History Channel New York :  c1997
• Philadelphia Inquirer short video about RCA museum in Camden NJ. (May 8, 2012)

MARconi and the titanic

1. Marconi’s plans for the world, 1912 – They included wireless telephony, wireless heating, wireless lighting, and wireless fertilizer. Hey, two out of four isnt bad.
2. Marconi calling– an extraordinary and innovative web site about the invention of radio telegraphy.
3. The sinking of the Republic — how telegraphy helped rescue passengers.
4. The New York Herald uncovered hidden arrangements concerning news of the Titanic.
5. Marconi Company and Titanic Disaster Communication (1912)

The Sounds of the Past

Radio and politics 

1. Sarnoff’s “Radio Music Box” memo, 1916 — Early Radio History web site.
   
2. FDR’s Fireside Chats were the first time a president used the radio consistently to reach out to the public.  This Fireside Chat from April 29, 1935, like many in the 1930s, was an attempt to project confidence during the great Depression.  By 1940, a more somber FDR would tell audiences of the danger of Nazi victory. And by January 11, 1944, another Fireside Chat on the Bill of Rights would remind Americans of the economic rights they were also fighting for.  Text of the Fireside Chats is available here.
3. Gandhi’s 1930  Salt March radio re-enactment from BBC Witness.
4. Father Charles Coughlin — A growing radio power in 1936, but cut off the air by NBC and CBS as a Nazi apologist by 1939. Radio address 1938: Not Antisemitism but Anti-Communism. For other broadcasts see I am the Witness web site.
5. Amy Semple Macpherson was a radio evangelist whose politics were not as extreme as Coughlin.
6. Winston Churchill’s famous “Fight them on the Beaches” speech, June 4, 1940.
7. Marlene Deitrich – “Hello, boys.” Address to the Fifth Army.
8. Harry Truman announces V-E day. (short clip)
9. September 21, 1939: A Day in Radio
10. The Sounds of History - great site with links to radio news.

Radio entertainment

1. War of the Worlds Halloween, 1938 broadcast; Mercury Theater site; documentary clips of reaction to War of the Worlds; Newsreel of Wells the morning after; Wells on TV reminiscing about the broadcast around 1970.
   1. The broadcast style was informed by Herbert Morrison’s broadcast of the Hindenburg disaster  of 1937. Here’s another  Hindenburg disaster site.
   2. Radio hoax in London, 1926, may have foreshadowed Orson Wells 1938 broadcast.
2. Amos n’ Andy – Offensively stereotyped by modern standards, this  comedy by two white guys was an extremely popular early platform for social commentary, as this sketch from the 1928 Smith – Hoover election shows.  (Hoover was a Republican, by the way).
3. Lone Ranger – Interesting background in the introduction, but the show starts at 1:08.
4. Mae West and Don Ameche in The Garden of Eden sketch, 1938. This gave the FCC serious heartburn.
5. The Shadow radio drama — This one is The Man Who Murdered Time, probably 1938.  There are links to others on the YouTube page. at 3:30 on this page, there’s an interesting statement about radio itself:  “Thirty years ago, the notion that a human voice could circle the earth would not only have been called fantastic, but impossible.”
6. Fibber McGee and Molly – 1942 broadcast. Note the disparaging remarks about Hitler.
7. Flash Gordon — The amazing interplanetary adventures of Flash Gordon and Dale Arden. This is the first episode broadcast in 1935 where he and Dale  meet Professor Zarkov.
8. Boswell Sisters — Dancing Cheek to Cheek — one of the best-remembered early radio songs.
9. A Date with Judy radio comedy. Not well remembered today but funny and pitched to the feminine audience.
10. Jack Benny radio program Nov. 2, 1941 on NBC. Show starts at 1:55. A little more than a month later the world would change as America entered World War II.
11. Sherlock Holmes – Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were favorites of the era. Murder in the Casbah was broadcast over Armed Forces Radio around 1943.
12. Little Orphan Annie was a cartoon character translated to radio in the 1930s.  The actual story in  this clip starts at 2:30, which gives you some idea of why the FCC was complaining about over-commercialization of radio at the time.
13. CBS Radio Mystery Theater - 1,399 episodes from 1974 – 1982,  searchable by plots, actors and writers.
14. Newspaper heroes on the radio  — Also Turn Back the Dial — Both are great websites about radio by Bob Stepno.
15. Radio’s longest running show — The Grand Ole Opry

Radio News 1930s and 40s

1. “No one in Europe wants to fight.” — Mutual Broadcasting Service’s John Steele tells Americans not to worry as Austria becomes part of Germany in March, 1938.  (Also see Wikipedia background on what was called  “the Anschluss.”   And for more see  the Nazis take over Austria March 1938. )
2. Hans Kaltenborn reports August 27, 1939 on   The eve of war
   
3. Nauen Transmitter Station – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 
4. William L. Shirer covers the beginning of WWII (broadcast)
5. Elmer Davis on the French surrender June 21, 1940.
6. This is London — Edward R. Murrow, probably summer 1940.
7. This is Trafalgar Square –  Edward R. Murrow, Aug. 24, 1940.
   1. (And an interesting modern juxtaposition of the famous Trafalgar Square broadcast)
8. “Orchestrated Hell“ – Edward R. Murrow describes an air raid over Berlin, Dec. 2, 1943.
9. D-Day — Charles Collingwood, CBS eyewitness report, D-Day June 6, 1944.
10. Drew Pearson reports on the Soviet advance on Berlin, April 22, 1945.
11. Edward R. Murrow reports on the liberation of the Buchanwald concentration camp, May 1945.
12. Hiroshima –  CBS reports the Hiroshima bomb from the home front Aug 7, 1945.
13. Nagasaki — British Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, designated as an observer of the US  atomic bomb by Winston Churchill, reported for the BBC on the Aug. 9, 1945.

Recent radio controversies

• Conservative radio talk show host fired after making critical comments on natural gas (fracking)
• CommunityRadio | Reclaim the Media
  
• The day the music died — College radio at Vanderbilt sold to NPR affiliate
  
• The Limbaugh slut flap of 2012 — Some in the talk business suggest things are different now.  Washington Post March 15.