How Technological Change Influenced and Affected the Evolution of the U.S. Radio Industry

Woo hoo!! We’re finally getting into the portion of the class that I personally find most interesting: radio and music. I don’t know about any of you, but I’m pretty psyched.

Since its creation in the 1920’s, the U.S. radio industry has evolved quite a bit over the course of time. Although there being many impacts on why this statement is true, I believe that the main reason for the radio industry evolving the way that it has is in response to the TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE in our society. With a combination of recording technology, changes in programming, popular music styles and etc., the radio industry has made crucial changes in the way that it functions with society. The U.S. radio industry has really evolved since its beginning in the 1920’s, has made a huge impact, and has held many important roles in our society.

            No matter the social issue or area, technological change has made a huge impact in America history; take the industrial age of society, between 1850 and 1901, for example. It’s simple: as technology changes and improves, the more opportunity citizens will have to use the technology, and the more options citizens will actually have with using the new technology. The whole idea of continually changing technology is to better objects and ideas that we, the people of the United States, already have, giving us a broader and more enjoyable usage of these products. The American society has a characteristic of being very diverse. To ensure that all citizens, having many different view, beliefs, and opinions, all are happy and satisfied, the world of technology has really had to step up in the world. The advances in technology allow people to see, hear, and say what they want, how they want, and whenever they want to for their convenience. A good example of this would be television and the TIVO DVR. This device allows users to not only watch the television programs that they love to watch, but now they have the opportunity to record the program to watch at their later convenience.
            In the year 1896 the wireless telegraph that used radio waves was invented by an Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi created and built up a business named the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company that was held in Italy, Britain, and then the United States. His company did what the telegraph wires were not capable of doing: “setting up a series of shore-based radio stations to receive and retransmit telegraph signals to oceangoing ships, where telegraph wires could not reach. His company also manufactured and operated the radio equipment and dominated radio in Europe and the United States in the early years” (Media Now, 159). A very good example of how Marconi’s wireless telegraph played a role in the world is the tragedy of the sinking of the ocean liner the Titanic. The ship struck a large iceberg in the North Atlantic. Once the captain and other important people in charge of running the ship found out the damage and knew they would be sinking, they used the Morse code to send radio help calls over the Marconi wireless system. Marconi and operators based in New York received the message and were able to save the lives of many passengers. The news of the disaster was then reported, in result, attracting the public to the technology, and beginning the regulation of the airwaves. Over time technology grew better, bringing the rise of radio networks and the selling of individual radios. These played key roles in many American family households. Families would gather around their one single radio and obtain their source of news, many types of entertainment including music, talk shows and soap operas, and other vital information. Decades passed and technology continued to grow better. Because of the American society’s diversity, radio stations began to hold not only a few different stations, but made it to where there would be several different stations for the public to choose from. People have different tastes, opinions, ideas and beliefs. Now they were able to choose what they wanted to listen to. Throughout the years the changes in technology gave society more choice and options as to what they wanted to hear, and when they wanted to hear it. This increased sales and increased the market for these new and improved technologies and the radio industry. Now days we have things like iTunes by Apple that allow us to buy any music we want, whenever we want. Also, the internet has given us the opportunity to go to several different websites to listen to all types of music of our liking and at our convenience.
            As technology evolves and grows better, this only makes things that much better and easier for its users. The growth of technology gives society more and more choices, and more simple ways of using things and obtaining important information and entertainment. Who knows what advances in technology will be invented in the next decade? One can only hope and dream of what is to come. I hope you all found this week’s blog post enjoyable. Have a great weekend!

Here is a link to a great radio station based in the Dallas, Tx area. The station is 106.1 Kiss FM. It's a top 40 hits radio station: http://www.1061kissfm.com/main.html.