The Beginnings of Radio Communication in Germany, 1897–1918

This article surveys the prehistory of broadcasting in the German Reich. It focuses on wireless telegraphy, where the Telefunken Company succeeded internationally with its quenched spark system on the eve of the war. Telefunken's system was developed as an efficient military technology between 1905 and 1908, and it soon became the core of Telefunken's successful attempt to break Marconi's monopoly in maritime radio communication. Encouraged by this success, Telefunken started to establish wireless transoceanic connections to build a global German radio network. The properties of radio broadcasting as a possible new mass medium only gradually became evident before 1918.     

Liberating American Communications: Foreign Ownership Regulations from the Radio Act of 1912 to the Radio Act of 1927

Although foreign ownership regulations, embodied in Section 72 of the Radio Act of 1927, are most commonly associated with propaganda and broadcasting, this study shows that they targeted wireless telegraphy as a weapon of war. Archival research reveals that these rules formed part of the U.S. Navy's strategy to break the supremacy of Britain in international communications. Foreign ownership rules are only one example of pro- visions in the Radio Act that target telegraphy, not broadcasting, prompting us to reinterpret the Act as a hybrid legislation, designed to regulate two different uses of the same technology.     

Pirates,Pranksters, and Prophets: Understanding America's Unlicensed "Free" Radio Movement

This study takes a qualitative look at illegal radio operations as defined by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). It offers a better understanding of the character and motivations of these broadcasters to operate outside the law. Additionally, the project examined reactions to recent FCC inquiries to create legitimate low power "micro radio" broadcasting for licensed small broadcasters. The study concludes that, depending on the specific broadcaster, there can be several motivating factors influencing the decision to bypass the FCC and start up a radio station. Many of these unlicensed operators do not see themselves as true criminals but rather counter-culture renegades of the air- waves. Researchers also found a strong interest in micro radio pro- posed by the FCC.     

Radio in Estonia: Meager but Enduring

Historically radio has held an important place in the lives of Estonians that shaped radio's character during the years of the Soviet Union and after Estonian independence. Radio developed an intimate relationship with Estonian audiences and was important during the drive for independence. After independence state broadcasting moved toward a public service model while commercial radio developed under the control of a small number of corporations. While public service radio and commercial radio compete in ways similar to other European and Nordic countries, radio in Estonia remains strong.     

J. Podber,The Electronic Front Porch. Macon,Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2007

This article discusses the development of radio broadcasting in the new Russia that emerged in the years 1991–2011. Changes in radio were part of the larger, complex and controversial process related to major economic, political and social changes in the Russian Federation after the Soviet Union dissolved. Radio programming developed to reflect the new political, social and public lives of the Russian people. The analysis examines the functioning of state, public, and private radio, and their competition for audience, the role of radio advertising, and programming broadcast content. The article shows that there has been the formation of a new type of free, uncensored journalism with experienced radio journalists experiencing a new environment.     

Nineteenth-Century Telegraphy: Wiring the Emerging Urban Corporate Economy

Nineteenth-century telegraphy had a vital integrative role in the intersecting and mutually constituted developments of American industrialization, urbanization, and mediatization. Previous work by Tarr, Finholt, and Goodman¹1. Tarr, Finholt, and Goodman, The City and the Telegraph.View all notes focused on the internal activities of business, fire, and police institutions in American cities. Here, I move beyond their approach in relating telegraphy to broader infrastructural developments of national-level urban industry and modern mass media in the late nineteenth century and the rise of dominant, networked urban commercial, industrial, financial, and media centers. By radically accelerating the mobility of information and capital, telegraphy significantly reduced barriers of distance to industry, commerce, news and advertising, and state and military interventions. Owing to its commercial ownership in the USA, telegraphy privileged business over public use in comparison to Western Europe. Its enduring effects were its integrative functions in the development of a large-scale, urban-centered, largely private system of mass production, mass media, mass culture, and mass consumption.     

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Early Canadian radio broadcasting policy privileged private, commercial broadcasting enterprises above alternative broadcasting formats, including amateur and community radio. One station, 10AB, operated by the Moose Jaw Radio Association (MJRA) and owned by community members took exception to this policy and engaged in a decade-long dispute with radio authorities, first the Radio Branch of the Department of Marine and Fisheries and later the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC). The MJRA ignored regulations with which it disagreed and challenged the radio authorities whilst requesting a private commercial broadcasting license. Absorbed by perceived discrimination, the MJRA failed to understand the complex situation the CRBC faced. I argue that considering transnational radio history can deepen our understanding of the dispute between the local station and national regulators in Canada.     

The continental marketplace: Authority,advertisers, and audiences in Canadian news broadcasting, 1932–1936

The development of radio news broadcasting in Canada, as in the United States, was delayed by bitter conflict between newspaper and radio interests. This paper looks at news broadcasting in Canada between 1932 and 1936, during the era of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), Canada's first public broadcasting body. It focuses mainly on authority, advertisers, and audiences with respect to the news broadcasting policy and practices of the CRBC itself, but it places these issues in the context of the mixed public/ private and Canadian/American environment in which the Commission operated and raises questions about the narrow margins of maneuver available to the public broadcaster then and now.     

Locally and Free: What Broadcast Radio Still Provides

As was the case with the FCC task force initiative on localism between 2004 and 2006, members of Congress are again taking an interest in the effects of localism in broadcasting. Broadcast radio, the last vestige of “free” broadcasting, has done well in maintaining local service even in the era of consolidation and the competition of satellite delivered radio. This article investigates the current status of broadcast radio and how localism is its saving grace across the nation.     

Women Broadcasters of World War II

By the time World War I1 began, women regularly participated in radio broadcasting, either as entertainers or in the behind the scenes creation of radio programming. Few women owned stations or participated in network management. Newscasts featured dulcet toned, deep, male voices. In short, the serious business of radio was for men: Women were "okay" as long as they stuck to their own domain- cooking shows, homemaker tips, those sorts of things. Through an exhaustive literature review coupled with critical analysis of primary source documentation, this paper examines women who had a profound impact on broadcasting during World War I1 and beyond. Collectively, they created a programming concept that would turn out to be one of the most well liked types of programs during the war.     

Digital Radio in Brazil: Indecision and Impasse After a Ten-Year Discussion

Government and radio broadcasting stations have been debating the model of digital transmission to be adopted in Brazil, without having come to a consensus. The impasse is related to the technological characteristics of the available systems (IBOC, DRM, and DAB) that are not integrally adaptable to the model of radio broadcasting, to the regulatory laws, and to the rules of the radio market in the country. Tests done with IBOC reveal that the digital system does not provide the same coverage as a quality analogical AM radio. Other aspects are the technical conditions of the Brazilian broadcasting stations and their adaptability to a digital system: 37% of them still function with valve transmitters, most of them being between AM commercial and public radio stations. As they are broadcasting stations with few resources for investment in transistorized equipment, it will be necessary to create public policies of incentive for digitalization, which would collaborate toward the sustainability of the sector. The present study presents data from a sample of 750 stations, which corresponds to 96.45% of the profile of the Brazilian radio market, and integrates the data with national research.     

KVOS in the Local,Public Interest: Early Broadcasting and the Constitution of the Local

This article contributes to scholarly literature on local stations in early radio broadcasting history. Taking KVOS in Bellingham, WA as a case study, it attends to how regional geography in conjunction with station operators, broadcasting policy, and audiences helped to define localism in relation to broader national, regional, and international identities forming at the beginnings of early radio and between 1930–1953. KVOS’ history demonstrates how radio was always bound up with the production of locality and how local identity was constituted in and through its relation to broader collective sensibilities taking shape at the time.     

“Touching the sentiments of everyone”;: Nationalism and state broadcasting in thirties Mexico

This paper provides a historical perspective on the intersection of media, popular culture, and nationalism through a study of the broadcasting policies and programs of one of Mexico's earliest government radio stations. This study analyzes the musical programs that formed the centerpiece of government radio programming in order to evaluate the racial and class ideologies imbedded in the nationalist discourse of state broadcasters. By viewing these government programs through the lens of a broader literature on nationalism in the Third World and among diasporic communities, it is possible to identify a fundamental tension in Mexico's official nationalism between a search for the roots of an “authentic”; ethnic identity, and a need to position Mexican culture within the constellation of Western “civilization.”; Finally, this paper investigates audience reactions to state broadcasts in order to explore the meaning of early broadcast nationalism for Mexico's radio listeners.     

The new competitive environment of radio broadcasting in the Nordic countries: A short history of deregulation and analysis

The new competitive environment of radio broadcasting in the Nordic countries consists of three sectors: (1) public service radio channels, (2) commercial radio stations and networks, and (3) community radio. Commercial radio represents the latest phase in a long process of transformation that started with decentralization inside the national broadcasting corporations in the 1960s and continued with introduction of noncommercial forms of local and community radio since the late 1970s. In the 1990s, commercial radio represents a hegemonic cultural form whose values and meanings penetrate to all sectors of radio. As a response to commercialization, the public service broadcasting tradition is undergoing a serious rearticulation. In contrast with the radical liberalism of the 1980s, there seems to be a growing political will to safeguard a balanced dualism of noncommercial and commercial forms of broadcasting.     

新语境下我国广播业发展趋势分析

本文以全球化、数字化、产业化的新语境分析我国广播业的发展趋势：加强各地广播电台间的合作与联盟,加强广播与电视、报刊、互联网等媒体的合作,加强传媒业与其他行业的合作发展及广播载体的多样化发展。     

A prescription for AM radio programming!

During the past several years the academic community has written an obituary for radio, particularly AM radio. The broadcast curricula usually lack “real world”; orientation. Programming, sales, and management classes often reflect materials designed more appropriately for large metro radio stations. Little research has been published on AM or FM radio. The lack of academic journals devoted exclusively to radio broadcasting (exception is the new Journal of Radio Studies) testifies to the importance the academic community places on radio broadcast research and theoretical concepts. The author suggests a rapprochement of broadcasting curricula, including programming—a critical element in any future success of radio, and AM in particular.     

Radio and Localism: Has the FCC Dropped the Ball?

Although no news of the FCC task force initiative on localism came forth between 2004 and 2006, members of Congress have taken an interest in the effects of localism in radio broadcasting. This interest can be attributed to the view that radio consolidation has minimized local radio service. As well, satellite-delivered radio has begun to encroach on local radio as it now provides traffic and weather updates in selected metropolitan markets. This article investigates the status of radio and localism, an issue that affects listeners across the nation.     

Digital Radio Policy in Canada: From Analog Replacement to Multimedia Convergence

Digital radio policy in Canada has moved from a position of seeking to migrate all radio broadcasting onto a single digital transmission system (Eureka-147) to a multi-platform, cross-media and multimedia approach. The most recent digital radio policy of 2006 suggests a range of new possibilities for radio broadcasting, including multimedia broadcasting, but as a result has compromised the early adoption of the Eureka-147 standard. This paper contrasts the different policy contexts of 1995 and 2006 and argues that the competing technological options for digital audio delivery now pose significant dilemmas for broadcasters and policy makers.     

Different Standards: Engineers’ Expectations and Listener Adoption of Digital and FM Radio Broadcasting

As digital radio broadcasting enters its third decade of operation, few would argue that it has met all expectations expressed at the time of its launch in the mid-1990s. Observers are now more circumspect, with views divided on the pace of transition to an all-digital future. In exploring this mismatch between expectation and actuality, this article considers the introduction of FM radio in the 1950s. It too was expected to replace its forebear (AM) but, like digital radio, its adoption by listeners was slower than anticipated. An examination of published literature, in particular engineering and technical documents, reveals a number of similarities in the development of digital radio and FM. Assumptions about listeners’ needs and preferences appear to have been based on little actual audience research and, with continual reference in the literature to the supposed deficiencies of the predecessor technology, suggest an emphasis in decision making on the technical qualities of radio broadcasting over an appreciation of actual audience preferences.