Chapter 4 Knowledge Claims

1.) “As a medium for mass communication, radio broadcasts offered the possibility of sending voice and music to thousands of people.”

I thought it was interesting to learn that the term broadcasting was originally used to describe the process in which farmers cast seeds over a large area of land. With radio the idea is still similar, but instead refers to the transmission of radio signals. Prior to this invention, wireless referred to person-to-person contact (i.e., telegraph, telephone, etc).

2.) “In the 1920s, as radio moved from narrowcasting to broadcasting, the battle for more frequency space and less channel interference intensified.”

The popularity of radio called for regulation. In 1924 Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover ordered that radio stations share time and schedule time brackets for things such as news reports and weather. It was later ruled that Hoover did not have the right to keep stations from operating. As problems persisted, the Radio Act of 1927 was enacted and was shortly followed by the Federal Communications Act of 1934.

3.) “A key development in the radio’s adaptation occurred with the invention of the transistor by Bell Laboratories in 1947.”

The first transistors were sold by Texas Instruments in 1957 for around $40. Sony followed shortly with the pocket radio. In the 1960s these tiny radios were produced and sold for a low enough price the average American could own one. Unlike the television, these radios could go anywhere. It was around this time that radios begun to be installed into new cars.