The Golden Age of Radio - Essay Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : The Golden Age of Radio Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 The Golden Age of Radio Introduction Golden age of radio is described as a period of radio programming in the United States enduring from the propagation of radio broadcasting in 1930s and 1940s until the period when radio was replaced by television and became the main home entertainment medium in the 1950s. During this period when radio medium dominated and the airwaves filled with a range of radio genres and formats, people frequently tuned into their favorite radio programs. During this period there was great depression in North America and people did not have luxuries and even a few basic necessities. The emergence of radio and a wide variety of comedy, live music, dramatic programming and shows acted as a welcome flight from these troubled times (Randa, 2007). Although majority of people could not afford money to pay for their vacuum cleaners and washing machines, they dreadfully struggled to keep up payments on their radios considering that all of these things were comparatively expensive in the 1930s and majority of people did not have jobs. The radios of this era were not small devices in plastic coverings but they were built into big wooden cases that engaged use of sophisticated pieces of furniture. Typically, the radios had huge speakers that produced affluent bass and huge loops of wires wound around an interior drum that acted as an adjustable antenna for receiving distant stations. By the year 1935 more than 22 million homes in America had radios and automobiles were being sold with radios. Significance of the Golden Age Radio The golden age of radio started in a period when Americans were in great depression. Through all of these radical events, American culture through out the Golden Age Radio Era saw people being brought together in through trough the radio. As a function of medium, the radio provided the more greatly attenuated focus on sounds decoded and translated from the airwaves and the humanity imagination that further processed them that contributed the first years of incredible popular transmission much different from anything else that preceded them. They offered frequently desperately wanted distraction, inspiration and a way of escape from several of the most difficult years in modern collective history of the humans. In fact it was the attenuated sounds emanating from the radio that caught the attention and forced the listeners to pay passionate attention to every utterance, every sound and every tone of the presentation whether it was news, music, comedy or variety drama. There is a personal aspect of the simple general understanding of listening. In the era of Golden radio, the diverse and personalized impressions and interpretations made a common understanding of the message from the radio. The common experiences were a basic common denominator that fueled the possibilities of commercials in the early radio (Cox, 2008). The early radio advertisers did not leave any stone unturned in the attempt to tap into the mysterious common listening experiences that made the radio broadcast and its commercial messages popular as well as commercially victorious to a more predictive, wider audience. The Neutrodyne, superheterodyne and heterodyne circuitry of 1922 to 1929 made the listening to early radio vastly involving and more enjoyable experience. The sheer innovation of radio made the early radio transmission a fascinating experience in spite of all the squeals, hisses, and pops. Contemporary anthropologists, research psychologists and social psychologists along with early advertising experts were gaining knowledge that human beings tend to fore focus more keenly on a faint message rather than on a blaring, loud monotonal message. People listened to the early radio because it was delivering a faint less noisy message. The medium of the television and radio before was usually faint, scratchy or distorted by dirty, atmospherics or noisy electrical appliances or by nearby wiring. It forced the audience to attenuate or focus more on the acoustic source of sound along with its nuances and messages. With an improvement in the tube design and circuitry in the golden age radio, there was greater focus on sound and even imagination. Sound was clearer to induce more than just aural responses. The sounds were clear enough to drive the audiences to any place the human imagination could listen to or imagine (David, 2006). The golden age radio emerged when America was in a state of great Depression. People turned to their favorite radio programs which enabled them to carry on with life during these troubled times. . Listening of the Golden Age Radio by the Americans during these troubled periods was not a mere escapism from the problems. It is a deep and usually emotional reminder how a grand nation fought out of the initial great depression and how it survived the demoralizing World wars that came after the wake of the radio medium. During this period of second great depression of American history, the nation needed diverse, transparent and reliable information more than ever. Television and radio could play a significant function in disseminating the information to the public that starved for hope, advice and counsel. The nation reminded itself that it did not legally loose ownership of the airwaves because the golden age radio was still on air. Development of the Golden Age Radio 1920 to 1930 Old Time Radio refers to radio broadcasting that was used during the first half of the 20th century. Wireless radio was originally perceived as a useful tool for military and business functions other than for entertainment. By the mid 1920s, radio stations started to emerge across the United States, Canada and all over the world. In these early days, radios were homemade gadgets fashioned by use of tubes, crystals and other equipments. Broadcasts comprised mainly of phonograph records which were played over the air. During the early years of golden age of radio, radio swiftly caught on the public together with companies like Radio Corporation of America started the development of radio consoles. Within a period of four years, Radio Corporation of America had sixty million Dollars from the sale of radios. Film critic Leonard Maltin stated in his book The Great American Broadcast that within a decade of its widespread introduction to the community, radio became a crucial necessity. As the popularity of radio continued growing, the need for more assorted programming swiftly came up. Even though music still played an important function in radio programming very much, radio stations created stages in which entire orchestrast could perform (Michael, 2004). Radio stations started presenting shows which were a precursor to modern talk radio. Commentators gave their opinions on the issues of the day when delivering the news. Fictional programs developed slowly than the other genres as a result of difficulties in taking a stage play or a film and adapting it for a non visual medium. In addition, there was fear that the public was less likely to accept this concept. Early attempts at the fictional genre involved actors reciting mystery stories or recreating stage plays. 1930 to 1945 The major turning points that took radio to its golden age were the creation of broadcast networks. Before, radio station were possessed and operated by individual organizations and they could not afford the necessary resources to air different programs individually. Before programming could be recorded, radio stations all of their individual programming live and this was expensive and demanded for main resources. There saw the need for development of Radio networks. In 1923 four different radio stations on the east coast of the United States decided that they could share the cost of originating several programs by linking the radio stations with special, high quality telephone lines which enabled them to broadcast the same program simultaneously. The other stations joined the network and this select group of stations came to be known as the telephone group or the broadcasting Corporation of America (BCA). After joining a network the radio stations gained admission into a greater financial aid as well as a bigger personnel team to draw from (Norman, 2000). National Broadcasting Corporation was the initial national network which was formed in 1930. After a few years, Columbia Broadcasting System and the Mutual Broadcasting System came into existence. The development of these networks made sure that the radio shows that came out of the there national radio centers which were Hollywood, New York and Chicago entertained, informed and shaped the opinions of the public. This was indicated by radio historian and novelist John Dunning in On the Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio. As the radio became more famous during the 1930s and 1940s, networks started employing writers who produced shows in a wide range of genres including soap opera, comedy and mystery. In his 1944 book called Open Mike, Jerome Lawrence stared that writing for radio has no stage to maintain it within the limits of a proscenium arch, and there is no camera to confine to things that may be observed. The imagination of the listener is the most helpful and ardent collaborator of the radio (Lawrence, 1999). In 1935 radio was the central medium for the depressed Americans and two out of three homes possessed radio sets with the four national and twenty regional networks providing programs in all over the place for twenty four hours. Advertising agencies shifted their jobs from newspapers to radio as the public confidence in print media decreased and became stronger in radio. In 1936 Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) stared the Columbia Workshop series During the November election the Federal Democratic Republic party used radio more efficiently than the Alf Landon party, with both parties spending two million Dollars on the radio. Father Coughlin created a political party called Union Party and used the radio to attack the Federal Democratic Republic party. In 1937, Archibald MacLeish produced an allegory on the war which was mounting Europe with his Radio play called The Fall of the City on the Columbia Broadcasting System and Arch Oboler produced a play called Lights Out on the national Broadcasting Company. Another man Orson Welles started his Mercury Theatre series on the Columbia Broadcasting System. When the Hindenburg exploded at Lakehurst in May 15, 1937, WLS FM radio announcer Herb Morrison along with engineer Charles Nehlsen were creating a disc recording and therefore were able to capture the event live as it happened. This recording was greatly dramatic and unique that the national Broadcasting System decided to end its ban on the radio records and permitted the recording to be transmitted on the network. In October1938, two radio programs in exposed the increasing national terror of war through the play Air raid produced by Archibald MacLeish and through another play War of the Worlds produced by Orson Wells and The Plot to Overthrow Christmas, A play produced by Norman Corwin (Roy, 1973) Radio programs usually had only one sponsor that possessed the show and had considerable influence on the presentation of the show. For instance, The Great Gilder sleeve, a comedy series was under the sponsorship of Kraft. Advertisement on radio was drastically diverse from that in television. Other than having a sequence of commercials for a wide range of services and goods, two or three marketing segments promoted the sponsor of the show. On shows like Fibber McGee and Molly, advertising was directly incorporated into the plot of the show with the anchor being one of the characters within the show (Leonard, 1997). Revival of the Golden Age Radio It is not possible to tell how many different shows were produced and broadcasted from the 1930s to 1950s because the recordings of several shows did not survive. Nevertheless, a few of shows have been conserved and the enthusiasts of the old time radio are taking moves to uphold this history. Since majority of the shows are no longer under copyright, the fans are able to share them lawfully and this is made easier by the development of the internet. Currently, most of the existing shows can be obtained via the file sharing websites. There are also some companies which make the shows accessible for sale. Apart from several shows still being accessible, television and film shows continue to compliment these programs (Martha, 1996) For instance; the film versions of The Saint and The shadow have been created in the past few years. In addition, comedic radio characters like Chester Riley and Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve might have influenced the production of latest television characters like Al Bundy and Homer Simpson. Radio broadcasting was the cheapest most affordable form of entertainment and it offered the public a far excellent entertainment than majority of the persons were accustomed to. It was very popular that theaters could not dare to open until the popular radio show called Amos and Andy was over. In the thirties radio broadcasting was completely a different genre from what it turned into after the introduction of television. People who had only known news, music and talk radio show of the recent decade can not have the conception of the heavy budget of that period was radio was on top of the electronic hill. Similar to reading, radio required the application of imagination. Through the image inspiring sound effects, which reached a great level of complexity in the thirties, radio replaced vision with visualization. Perfected during this period was the only new art form emerged, the soap opera which was called so because sponsors of these sequential moral plays were typically soap companies who targeted at housewives , who were many in numbers at this period (John, 1998) Conclusion The golden age radio dominated the entertainment field from the 1920s until its replacement by television in the 1950s. Although many people did not have jobs at this time they struggled hard to make payments for their radios. The development of radio networks enabled different radio stations to air same programs simultaneously and many advertising companies shifted their works from the newspapers to radio as public confidence in print media declined and increased in radio. Bibliography Lawrence, J., 1999, Off Mike, Random House Press, New York. Leonard, G., 1997, The Great American Broadcast, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. John, D., 1998, On the air: the encyclopedia of old-time, Oxford University Press, New York. David, S., 2006, A resource guide to the golden age of radio: special collections, bibliography and the Internet, Book Hunter Press, Michigan. Cox, J., 2008, Sold on radio: advertisers in the golden age of radio, McFarland Press, Delhi Randa, L., 2007, Rural America and the golden age of radio, University Press of Kentucky, San Bruno. Michael, O., 2004, King Football: Sport and Spectacle in the Golden Age of Radio and Newsreels, Movies and Magazines, University of California Press, California. Roy, B., 1973, Norman Corwin and Radio: The Golden Years, University of Alabama Press, Alabama. Norman, H., 2000, Sounds in the Air: The Golden Age of Radio, Universe.Com Press, Hollywood. Martha, W., 1996, A Golden Age: The Golden Age of Radio. Soundprints Press, Columbia. Read More