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FIRST DRAFT: RESEARCH PAPER

Reyes, Ann Remedios D.

2JRN1

TeleRadioSion

“Communication systems now circle the earth like the threads of a ball of yarn and bind

this ball together with invisible but nonetheless real threads. Events in the remotest part of the

earth can be instantaneously and fully reported by the men who use them ~ broadcast men.”

(Emery et al., 1970) Broadcasting is the transmission of information and entertainment in a

readily understandable audio and/or visual form to the general public. Most people think

"Broadcasting" began with Guglielmo Marconi in 1895. However, there were several

antecedents to Marconi, and even "broadcasts" before Marconi’s experiments. Moreover, the

origin of the term "broadcasting" comes from seeds on a farm in that, the seeds would be spread

in all directions from broad + cast occurred in 1767. Also Gration, Reilly, and Tifford (1998)

stated that broadcasting is the phenomenon of the 20th century just as the printed word dominated

mass communication in the 19th century. Telephone and radio, but especially television, have

become the most powerful media in this century. Although radio technology had existed for

some time, the first actual broadcast was not made in Britain by Marconi until 1922, the

Americans led the way with broadcasts from KDKA Pittsburgh in 1921. In 1922, the British

Broadcasting Company (BBC) was established by Royal Charter (Gration et al., 1998).

Technical definition of broadcasting would be the proper channeling and distribution of audio

and video signals. These signals help in the transmission of various programs to different

audiences. Usually, these audiences is scattered into wide array of sets. They could be huge

crowd in a public place or they could be certain sub-section of people in groups.

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Broadcasting could find its roots attached to the radio transmissions, wired telephone and

wireless telegraphy because even those were transmissions of signals in different formats though.

Most people believed that broadcasting began with Guglielmo Marconi in 1895. However, there

were several antecedents to Marconi, one of which is a professional painter in the name of

Samuel Morse. In 1843, the U.S. Congress awarded him a financial grant in order to build the

first successful long-distance telegraph line, which ran from the nation’s capital to Baltimore,

Maryland. Thirty years after Samuel Morse, a dentist by the name of Dr. Mahlon Loomis

proposed to design and test a wireless system to telegraph signals through the air directly

between the United States and Switzerland to the Congress. Loomis was granted U.S. patent

number 129, 971 on July 30, 1872 for “A New and Improved Mode of Telegraphing and of

Generating Light, Heat, and Motive Power.” Moreso, changes in the broadcasting equipment

and technology take place very rapidly and the growth has always been on a progressive curve.

A lot has happened to the date and even a lot of events are still coming in the broadcasting

technology.

Historically, there have been several different kinds of electronic broadcasting. These are

telephone broadcasting, radio broadcasting, and television broadcasting. The earliest form of

electronic broadcasting medium is the telephone broadcasting which allows subscribers to listen

to live opera and theatre performances over telephone lines (“Broadcasting”,

http://www.wikipedia.org, 2010). When radio technology first developed there was little idea

about what the broadcasts should actually contain (Gration et al., 1998). Indeed, with radio and

telephone, came later with the television broadcasting. This video-programming medium was

long-awaited by the general public and rapidly rose to compete with its older radio-broadcasting

sibling. According to Gration et al. (1998), the supply came before the demand from the mass of

population. However, in 1939, it was overtaken by the onset of World War II and had to

patiently wait for another 20 years for its major expansion.

Telephone broadcasting, being the earliest form of electronic broadcasting formally

started in 1881. It began with the advent of Théâtrophone “Theatre Phone” systems created by
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French inventor Clément Ader, which were telephone-based distribution systems allowing

subscribers to listen to live opera and theatre performances over telephone lines. In addition to

this, telephone broadcasting also grew to include telephone newspaper services for news and

entertainment programming which were introduced in the 1890s, primarily located in large

European cities. These subscription services which are telephone-based, were the first examples

of electrical/electronic broadcasting and offered a wide variety of programming. (“Television

Broadcast: Forms of Electronic Broadcasting,”

http://servinghistory.com/topics/television_broadcast::sub::Forms_of_Electronic_Broadcasting,

2010)

Features of telephone broadcasting services are ideal for political calls and community or

customer notifications. These features put head and shoulders above the other forms of media.

Features include broadcast messages to either individuals or to answering machines and

individuals with different messages; remote database access with XML Pull; automatic FTC Do

Not Call Compliance; Call transfer to live agents with intelligent call routing; remote call

transfer through dial out; timeout features and call control options; Do Not Call checks for bulk

message blast campaigns; Voice blast messages to millions of households; computer generated

phone calls for alerts and automatic event notifications such as system failures; Single Message

broadcast using XML Push; customized touchphone responses; database access and update; Text

to Speech Data Conversions; email notification of call results or voicemail; touchphone response

control for both parties; bulk message blast with low flat rates; comprehensive online reporting

and call management and professional voice over talent for on hold message voice overs.

(“Telephone Broadcasting Services,” http://www.easyivr.com/psphone_broadcast.htm, 2009)

Types of telephone broadcasting campaigns include a basic message delivery where the

phone system dials from a list and plays one standard message either to an individual, or to an

individual and an answering machine which is called the Simple Phone Broadcasting. Custom

Telephone Broadcast Messaging, on the other hand is somewhat similar to the Simple Voice

Broadcasting but the phone system plays a customized message based upon the number dialed.
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Unique items of information can be inserted into a standard message. Likewise the entire

message could be unique for each number or based upon demographic items in the call list

database. The message itself could be stored in the database. The third type is the Voice

Broadcasting and Touchphone Response from which this technique expands the prior call

technique by playing a message that gives the contacted individual options from which to select.

Using touchphone responses such as "Press 1 for…,” the choices could include obtaining

additional information, being removed from the call list, leaving a voice message, or terminating

the call. A different message can be left on an answering machine or the answering machine

could be ignored completely. Although more complex than the prior call types, this form of call

broadcast dialing does not require an agent available to handle this call. Second to the last type is

the, Phone Broadcasting and Call Transfer which is similar to the prior call technique but with

the option to transfer the call to a third party. Again, using touchphone responses the contacted

individual can request that the call be transferred to an outside agent. The phone system dials

another number and when contact is made with the third party or different phone system, the call

is transferred. Finally, the last type is called the “Smart” Message Broadcasting. This type of

calling campaign blends Voice Broadcasting with Predictive Dialing and can produce very

productive results. Call broadcast messages are played to the called individual, and if the person

expresses an interest in your product or service, the call can be routed immediately to a group of

agents who are actively standing by to accept calls. This type of call works well when a call

center is behind the message broadcast campaign. It has been very effectively transformed to an

outbound call center agent into a more productive inbound agent. (“Types of Telephone

Broadcast Campaigns,” http://www.easyivr.com/psphone_broadcast.htm, 2009)

The next kind of electronic broadcasting is the growth of radio broadcasting, which is an

audio sound broadcasting service broadcasted through the air as radio waves from a transmitter

to an antenna and, thus, to a receiving device (“Broadcasting,” http://www.wikipedia.org, 2010).

In the 1920s, radio developed as a mass medium and evolved as a means of bringing

entertainment into private homes. According to Herbert Hoover the radio boom was “one of the

most astounding things that [has] come under my observation of American life.” Gorman &
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McLean (2003) mentioned that on the eve of World War II, not only was radio poised to play an

important wartime role as a source of information and entertainment, but also as a powerful tool

for propaganda. Radio communication had existed for more than twenty years before radio

broadcasting on a large scale began. It primarily began as wireless telegraphy using Morse code

as a means of communication, with each letter of the alphabet represented by a series of dots and

dashes signaled by electrical impulses. One of the pioneers of radio development was the Italian

Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi used wireless telegraphy in ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore

communication with the use of Marconigrams. Meanwhile, Atlantic Lee De Forest is known as

the “father of radio.” He made an important advancement with the use of “audion.” An audion

is a three-electrode vacuum tube used to amplify voice transmissions. In 1903, he interested the

U.S. Signal Corps in his works on wireless telegraphy and later on became involved in

experiments. Then at 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt used wireless on the warship West

Virginia following the “amateur radio boom” in 1906, and in 1908 De Forest’s radiotelephone

equipment was installed on ships of the North American Fleet. Also, De Forest broadcasted

phonograph records from the Eiffel Tower. Significantly, the sinking of the famous TITANIC in

1912, conducted rescue operations was coordinated by Marconi wireless telegraphy. Meanwhile,

the outbreak of war in 1914 temporarily halted any development of radio as a source of

entertainment or as a means of communication leading to the prohibition of the broadcasting of

entertainments in 1922. Finally, during its post-war years, commercial interest became involved

in the radio broadcasting industry.

Radio broadcasting news has many features. First is that it spreads fast. Using the radio

transmission sound travel 300,000 km. per second is extremely considered very quickly. Second

feature is that it is easy to spread it widely. Radio broadcasting can climb mountains, and cross

the rover across the river. Its hearing priority is its third feature, wherein, broadcast channel is

the key role of energy in the human hearing. Lastly is its fast and convenient duration. Many

news reports on the radio only 30-45 seconds, 3 minutes is a long single newscast that has been

reported.
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From the conventional radio programs and channels there was an evolution from the AM

radio to the FM radio stations. They changed entire outlook of the radio broadcasting. With the

advent of the FM radio, there started the decline of the AM radio because of the reasons like

poor signal coverage in the AM radio, lower cost of FM receivers and very narrow AM radio

bandwidth. These changes took place during the 1970s to the 1990s.

When it comes to impact and significance of radio in broadcasting, there are relatively

little serious studies made before the 1990s. Hilmes in 1997 claimed that no other medium had

been “more thoroughly forgotten by the public, historians, and media scholars alike,” Another

historian in the name of Douglas noted that, “radio as an invention, and a cultural force, is

regarded as mattering very little now in the grand scheme of things, especially in the face of

cable TV, blockbuster movies, and the Internet. It is low-tech, unglamorous, and taken for

granted.” The work of Hilmer, Douglas and others has done much to advance historical

understanding of radio broadcasting beyond earlier studies of technological changes that made

radio broadcasting possible and celebratory accounts of early program genres. But radio

broadcasting exercised a powerful influence socially and culturally at the national level and for

particular groups. Douglas, writing of the American context, stated that, “Radio played a pivotal

role, especially in the first half of the century, in helping us imagine ourselves and our

relationships to other Americans differently. It constructed imagined communities… and thus

cultivated both a sense of nationhood and a validation of subcultures… Radio did indeed …

bring the country together… [and] the radio networks cemented New York City’s role as the

cultural capital of the nation.” Like Douglas, other historians too have highlighted the role of

radio in catering to specific audiences such as women, for example in daytime programs

including the popular serials and soap opera that developed in the 1930s. Radio has also been

important at the local level in fostering and sustaining community identity; community radio has

retained widespread popularity even as new media have emerged. (Gorman and McLean, 2003)
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The manner in which radio broadcasting had developed provided a basis for the development

of an equally pervasive medium in the second half of the twentieth century telephone

broadcasting. Tyrell (1972) states that television broadcasting is barely 21 years old and is

considered as the newest branch of craft that is older than printing, writing, and speech. From

radio, the transition took over to the television media sector. The source of revenue started

inclining towards television. This change occurred in the 1950s in various parts of the world.

Although the television broadcasting was once overtaken by the onset of World War II in 1939,

it had to wait 20 years for its major expansion. It was during the 1950s that television really took

off in Britain, fuelled by the economic boom and the rise of the consumer society. Television

superseded the cinema as the major organ of mass entertainment for the working and middle

class. (Gration et al., 1998)

Scopes of television journalism include the daily news programmes; weekly news magazines;

specialists programmes (science, economics, arts); religious programmes. (Tyrell, 1972) TV

news report of a record nature of improvisation, as well as on a regular basis, that is to work in

time for the continuity of the fragments separated, there is "room" of other communication

features. First is that it spreads rapidly. Similarly, alarming spread of television, although it did

not broadcast production, is simple, but it was quickly now ignored. Another feature works on

the role of three-dimensional ways. Maps, sound, word spread of the three elements of the

television. Acting on the eye image and text, language, music, sound effects are first on the ears.

Third feature is the dissemination of rich contents. Television has the most generous measure. It

is compatible with world affairs, involving human beings who should be aware of things not yet

known, and covers the correct satisfied. Fourth feature is its space is boundless. Television can

also make real audio-visual symbols across hills and water, and crosses to cross the river, so to

reach every space in any kind of matter. Then its final feature is it follows a linear process.

Television broadcasting has with the passage of time the same characteristics from then until

now, its smooth sequence of "one-off", the lack of storage and complex dominant, it is "out of

date is not waiting, “and can never be returned.

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The impact of television broadcasting was first realized during the mid-1900s. U.S. citizens had been

reading about the civil rights struggle for decades. But, it was only when TV came along in the 50s and

60s that viewers saw in TV news footage what was really happening, and that the country amassed

political pressure to take action to change things. U.S. citizens had also read about war for decades. But

when they started seeing newsreel footage of dead, maimed, and wounded American soldiers every night

on TV as a result of the Vietnam War, majority of the country soon turned against the war. A research

was made by “The Green Mountain Waldorf School”, in 1997, with regards to the summary of

the impact of television viewing. Direct quotes from anonymous persons are noted, "When

viewed for more than 20 hours per week, TV can seriously inhibit the development of verbal-

logical, left brain functions." US surveys indicate that by the time the American individual

graduates from high school, he or she will have to spend more hours in TV viewing than in

school. Study considers the effects of television on development of sight and hearing, its effects

on health, as well as its effects on cognitive and intellectual development. Creativity and

imagination, as well as linear cognitive development are shown to be damaged by television.

Questions whether TV viewers retain a sense of wonder at the natural world.

Consequently, telephone broadcasting, radio broadcasting and television broadcasting are

kinds of electronic mediums in broadcasting. From the secret usage of radio and radio signals in

the world wars to the present day podcasting, electronic broadcasting has traveled a long way

out. Due to changes in broadcasting equipment and technology that takes place very rapidly and

the growth has always been on a progressive curve, a lot has happened to the date and even a lot

is still expected to come in the electronic broadcasting technology.