THE

DYNAMICS
OF MASS
COMMUNCATION

Joseph R. Dominick
University of Georgia--Athens

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights reserved.

 Chapter 7

Chapter Outline Radio

History

Radio in the Digital Age

Defining Features of Radio

Organization of the Radio Industry

Ownership in the Radio Industry

Producing Radio Programs

Economics

Feedback

The Radio Industry

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 History

• Early Radio Milestones

– 1887 – Hertz sends, detects radio waves
– 1896 – Marconi sends wireless Morse Code
– 1906 – Fessenden broadcasts voice and music
– Post WWI – U.S. Navy takes over patents

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 History

• Big Business
– GE, AT&T, and Westinghouse invest in Radio
Corporation of America (RCA)
– Sarnoff – “radio music box”
• Mass Audience
– Frank Conrad of Westinghouse begins garage
radio station → KDKA (1920)
• Better Receivers
– 1926 – radios more user-friendly
– By 1930 – 17 million sets sold

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 History
• Radio Goes Commercial
– WLS, WGN, WSM, WHB
– AT&T sells ad time on WEAF (1922)
• Networks
– Share program production – save money
– NBC is first network (1926)
– 1937 – NBC has 111 affiliated stations, CBS 105
• Government Regulation
– Radio Act of 1927 sets up FRC
– FRC allocates bands and bans portable stations

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 History

• The Depression: 1930-1940

– Radio grows
– Roosevelt creates FCC to regulate entire
electromagnetic spectrum (1934)
• Birth of FM
– Armstrong demos FM to RCA – Sarnoff is not
interested – so creates his own station
• Radio Programs
– Soap operas, “The Lone Ranger”
– Wartime radio coverage and radio news
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 History

• World War II
– Network news thrives as public follows
war developments with “name”
correspondents.
– Ad revenues double 1940-1945
Supreme NBC
Court NBC
(1943) ABC

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 History

• Innovation and Change: 1945-1954

– FM technically superior to AM
– FM and TV use same bands
– FM moved to 88-108 MHz, making half-
million radios useless
– TV affects radio networks; stations
become more local

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 History

• Specialized Formats
– Stations lose network affiliations
– Local personalities emerge
– Station develops “Top 40” format
– Clock hour invented

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 History

• Growth and Stabilization: 1955-1990

– # stations: 3343 (1955) → 7000 (1970)
– DJs’ Top 40 power leads to payola
– FM emerges
– FCC’s non-duplication rule (1965)
– FM begins evolving different sound
– NPR starts up (1970) with 80-station network

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 History

• The Volatile 1990s

– Telecommunication Act of 1966
• Unlimited station ownership
• Increases same-market ownership to eight stations
– Result: a flurry of mergers and acquisitions
– Consolidation and employee cutbacks
– Clear Channel owns stations in 190 markets
– Talk Radio: Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern

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 Radio in the Digital Age

Digital radio receivers introduced in 2004

– 400 stations in 125 cities broadcast in HD radio
format
Satellite radio
– XM radio and Sirius subscription service
– Receivers for home and car
– Wearable receiver similar to Sony’s Walkman
introduced

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 Radio in the Digital Age

• Internet radio
– Specialized formats
– Small audiences
– Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (2002)
– Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002
– Major Internet radio providers: MSN
Radio, AOL, Yahoo and Live365

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 Defining Features of Radio

PORTABLE SUPPLEMENTAL

Radio
UNIVERSAL SELECTIVE
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 Organization of the Radio Industry

• ½ billion working radios in USA

• 13,500 radio stations in operation
• Local stations, networks, and
syndicators
Networks
Local
Stations
Syndicators

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 Organization of the Radio Industry

• AM and FM Stations
– AM = Amplitude Modulation
• Travels farther
• Clear channel
– single dominant station with strong signal
• Regional channel – shared by several stations
• Local channel – shared by many stations
– FM = Frequency Modulation
• Class C – most powerful signal (100 Better quality;
less interference
• Classes B and A less powerful

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 Organization of the Radio Industry

Figure 7-2 Simplified Diagram of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

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 Organization of the Radio Industry

• Station Formats
– Programming chooses an audience
– Three basic formats
• Music –
Urban, AC, Top 40, Contemporary,
Country
• Black / Ethnic –
Hispanic, Polish, German, etc.
• News / Talk
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 Organization of the Radio Industry

• Format Homogenization
– Consolidation – cheaper to use same
programming in all regions
– Low-risk decisions – it worked here, it
should work there
– Use of a limited band of radio consultants
– Use of focus groups and surveys

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 Organization of the Radio Industry

• Voice Tracking
– A single DJ records intros, extros, chatter
– Music mixed in later
– Total program delivered to local stations

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 Organization of the Radio Industry

• Noncommercial Radio
– 2,400 stations (2005)
• Most owned by educational institutions
• Several channels set aside
– NPR (National Public Radio)
• 530 affiliate stations
• Each pays NPR a usage fee
– Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• Funded by Congress
• Sponsors nonprofit stations
– Public Radio International
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 Ownership in the Radio Industry

• Telecommunications Act of 1996

– 5100 different owners in 1996
– 3800 different owners in 2002
– 2 companies: 40% of ad revenue in 2005
• Clear Channel Communications
• Infinity Broadcasting

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 Producing Radio Programs

• Departments and Staff

– General Manager
– Program Director
– Sales department
– News department
– Programming department
– Engineering department

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 Producing Radio Programs

• Putting Together a Program

– Music Format: uses a format wheel
– Talk Format
• Topics depend on time of day
• Some additional electronics
• Moderator with delay system
• Screener for incoming phone calls
– All-News Format
• Also uses programming wheel and cycle
• Large staff and lots of equipment

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 Producing Radio Programs

Figure 7-3 Format Wheel for a Contemporary Rock Station

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 Economics

$ Revenue from radio advertising is flat

$ Ad clutter a problem
$ Radio’s share of total ad $ spent in U.S. only 8%
$ 2004 Clear Channel limited commercial breaks to 4
minutes per hour
Rate card
$ National advertising (5%)
$ Regional or national spot advertising (17%)
$ Local advertising (78%)

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 Economics
$ Expenses
$ Technical – Engineering staff, equipment
$ Programming – Talent, tape/CDs, licenses
$ Selling – Sales staff
$ Administration – Management and
clerical staff, interest on loans
$ News – Covering stories

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 Feedback
• Ratings provided by professional
research organizations
• Major company is Arbitron
– Monitors 280 markets nationwide
– Random sample of listeners
– 3-4000 day-to-day diaries with less than 50%
return rate
– End product is ratings book

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 Feedback

A rating is the ratio of listeners to a

particular station to all people in a
given market.

A share of the audience is the ratio of

listeners to a particular station to all
radio listeners in a given market.

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 Feedback

• Radio Audience Profiles

– Two radios per person in USA
– 1/3 are in cars
– Typical day
• 3/4 of all adults will listen to some radio
• Average person has radio on for about 3 hours
• Most listen during rush-hour drive-time
– As people age, they tend to evolve from one
format to another
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 The Radio Industry

• Entry Level
– Small market
– Versatile – any job asked to do
– Most jobs are in programming and sales
• Upward Mobility
– DJs – larger markets and better time slots
– Sales
• Better accounts
• Sales manager → General manager

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