Each One Teach One

The first radio transmitted in 1906 from Brant Rock, Massachusetts (Sterling). They were later improved in 1908 with the ability to use a wireless transmitter, creating the crystal radio (Sterling).  Most radio receivers were homemade by hobbyists, and the broadcasts were by amateurs reading out of instructional manuals (Sterling). Even though they were cheap and easy to make, the "cat's whisker" of the radio was difficult to tune to a station (Sterling). Because of this, most people only heard of the radio, not listened to the radio (Sterling). The people who used the radio most often were young men, not able to use speakers and having to default to headphones (Sterling).

During World War I, the government made restrictions on radios, hindering the industry's growth (Sterling). Afterwards, however, most amateurs started making their own broadcasts without paying attention to government interference (Sterling). The first schedules radio broadcast in the world was in the Netherlands in 1919 (Sterling). Numerous other countries allowed radio long before America, such as Australia and Puerto Rico. Channels owned by random people popped up all over the country before thirty stations were made in 1921 (Sterling). There were almost 600 stations the next year, but most did not survive (Sterling).

The golden age of radio was from 1930 to 1955. Norman Corwin, one of the radio's breakout stars, said it was "the shortest Golden Age in history" (Sterling).

Before radio, the only transmissions in America were from ships to the shore (Sterling). Because of this, there was only a law on maritime transmissions, which had poor application to the radio (Sterling. Herbert Hoover, the secretary of commerce at the time, was in charge of radios because of maritime shipments falling under his jurisdiction. He organized four different conventions to petition law changes by Congress (Sterling). At first, only one channel was allowed in the country, which did not work in major cities. Hoover repeatedly ordered more channels, each one becoming overcrowded in succession, before the Radio Act of 1927 was passed (Sterling). The law dictated that radio frequencies were owned by the government, not the individual, and that companies had to use a license to broadcast on them (Sterling). This system is still in place today.

At first, listeners were strongly against advertising on the radio because they saw it as an invasion of the home. Eventually they loosened enough for the system of "blocks" to be implemented, where certain amounts of time would be bought by companies to run an ad. This system is still in use in radios, and is now also on televisions, movies, and video sharing websites (Sterling).

Radio needed to see how many people watched their shows, so they came up with a system that is now used with every other piece of media available. At first, they'd call random people on the phone and ask them to repeat back the plots of the radio programs they remembered, gauging how much people were paying attention (Sterling). Later they started only calling people in major cities and asking what they were listening to at that moment, tallying their answers (Sterling). Finally they created the audiometer, which would record what frequency the radio was on at that moment with ticker tape (Sterling). A more advanced audiometer is now in every device we own, monitoring what we do via AI.

Sources:

 Christopher H. Sterling on Brittanica

Photo of Herbert Hoover

Photo of Swedish Crystal Radio, 1922