5 Facts About the Golden Age of Radio

[DavidEduardo]

Interesting article and no paywall:

It starts out...

It’s easy to take for granted today, but the emergence of broadcast radio was a seismic shift in early 20th-century culture. Born out of ship-to-shore wireless telegraph communication at the turn of the 20th century, broadcast radio represented an entirely new pastime by the time it began to mature in the 1920s. The golden age of radio was the period from the 1920s to the 1950s when the medium was at its absolute peak in both program variety and popularity. Radio grew massively during this era: In 1922, Variety reported that the number of radio sets in use had reached 1 million. By 1947, a C.E. Hooper survey estimated that 82% of Americans were radio listeners.

5 Facts About the Golden Age of Radio

It’s easy to take for granted today, but the emergence of broadcast radio was a seismic shift in early 20th-century culture.

historyfacts.com

 

[Gregg.]

It's hard to imagine that it took until the 1920s for radio to be available as an entertainment and information medium. People had cars first, electric lights first, silent movies first, even popular nationally-sold products like Jell-O and Coca-Cola first. People got their news and saw advertisements for cars and consumer products in newspapers and magazines.

It's also amazing how fast after radio became commonplace that television began. The "Golden Age of Radio" lasted only about 25 years before television took over in the 1950s, at least for dramas, comedies and other long-form entertainment. Radio had to re-invent itself as a vehicle for listening to mostly music, an entertainment and news medium you could enjoy while driving or doing other things when you couldn't look at a screen.

 

[tbolt909]

There's a great episode of the TWILIGHT ZONE called "Static". A man finds an old Radio that picks up shows from the long past before TV. There's a line ---
"Radio was a world that had to be believed to be seen"...

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

It’s a reminder that “golden age” can be influenced by one’s own biases. People will talk about the 60s or 70s or 80s as a golden age as well. Which, in turn, feeds into the “everything today sucks because it isn’t what it was when I was younger” narrative.

 

[Mikey Radio]

It's also amazing how fast after radio became commonplace that television began. The "Golden Age of Radio" lasted only about 25 years before television took over in the 1950s, at least for dramas, comedies and other long-form entertainment. Radio had to re-invent itself as a vehicle for listening to mostly music, an entertainment and news medium you could enjoy while driving or doing other things when you couldn't look at a screen.

Yep. In a relatively short period of time all things considered, it went from the "golden age" when radio programs and family entertainment were broadcast on a huge set that looked like a piece of furniture with glowing lights and a large speaker, to shows being broadcast on black/white TV, then to color TV. Radios then TVs moved away from tubes to solid state, music on the radio sounded a whole lot better with the move to FM stereo, then both TV and radio transitioned from analog to digital, and now what we're seeing with the move to the internet, smartphones and apps.

It's also interesting to consider that some very famous actors who were on TV and in the movies through the 1980s and some into the 90s got their starts with Vaudeville, then were "stars" during the golden age of radio, then transitioned to TV broadcasting and then to modern-day cinema and color TV. Of course, that also came with challenges. Some just didn't handle the various transitions well. Some radio programs and acts didn't translate well to TV when attempted. Some actors truly had a "face for radio". Lots of popular programs like "The Munsters" could get away with certain (somewhat sloppy vs. modern times) makeup and sets and filming techniques when their programs were shot in B/W, but looked terrible when they transitioned to color.

 

[DavidEduardo]

… music on the radio sounded a whole lot better with the move to FM stereo, then both TV and radio transitioned from analog to digital, and now what we're seeing with the move to the internet, smartphones and apps.

I would say that FM stereo gave the band a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) which made it different from AM and not “just another band with an expensive radio”. But the adoption was very slow by stations and really only became a big selling point at the tail end of the 60’s as rock fans bought the new generation of home stereo component systems with big amplifiers, tuners, turntables and speakers.

 

[Mikey Radio]

I would say that FM stereo gave the band a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) which made it different from AM and not “just another band with an expensive radio”. But the adoption was very slow by stations and really only became a big selling point at the tail end of the 60’s as rock fans bought. The new generation of home stereo component systems with big amplifiers, tuners, turntables and speakers.

In the northeast US where I grew up, I don't recall the transition of many music stations from AM to FM until the very early 1980s, and I recall it being fairly sudden where most all stations in that area changed at nearly the same time. I was very young back then but remember being at a family event when someone mentioned they were disappointed that their favorite music station was gone. My uncle explained it was now on FM. His theory is that you would go to the spot on the dial where the AM music station was once located, flip to the FM band and that music station would be right there. Of course, that would've meant that the owners of those stations would have to make a concerted effort to purchase the FM that was also low/middle/high on the dial like their AM had been, but also assumes that all radio dials back then were laid out and spaced the same.

 

[Mikey Radio]

It’s a reminder that “golden age” can be influenced by one’s own biases. People will talk about the 60s or 70s or 80s as a golden age as well. Which, in turn, feeds into the “everything today sucks because it isn’t what it was when I was younger” narrative.

Perhaps to some, similar to the way some say Saturday Night Live hasn't been the same since the Belushi/Akroyd era, or the Dana Carvey / Phil Hartman era, or since Will Farrell was there, etc. That said, the true "Golden Age or Radio" is pretty well defined. As stated in @DavidEduardo's original post "The golden age of radio was the period from the 1920s to the 1950s when the medium was at its absolute peak in both program variety and popularity"

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

The SNL thing is very true. I'm not the target audience. My time in that demo was more that Hartman/Carvey type era. I've certainly seen the earliest era in part, and I continue to watch today. The fact that I don't "get" either side of my sweet spot as much as the ones I grew up with don't make them less golden to those who do. The fact that I don't laugh nearly as much today because I don't get all the humor is a me issue, not a show issue.

And that's the thing, people will determine their own golden ages. There are people for whom nothing surpasses the progressive rock boom, or the CHR glory days, or whatever. It's all good, it's all what gives you the great memories. But recognize that those who come after have different experiences, different definitions and theirs are just as valid.

 

[TheBigA]

There are a lot of books about this era, and one of the best is Empire of The Air. It became a Ken Burns movie and it chronicles the people who made the golden age:

Watch Empire of the Air | A Ken Burns Documentary on the Men Who Made Radio | PBS

Keep in mind that radio was new technology. The companies behind it were the big electronics companies such as RCA, Westinghouse, GE, and Crosley. AT&T was in the middle. It was the internet of it's time. Radio was at the crossroads between technology and commerce with show business as the core product. This was not mom& pop time. Sure there were some small operators at the time. But they weren't the movers or shakers.

 

[vchimpanzee]

In the northeast US where I grew up, I don't recall the transition of many music stations from AM to FM until the very early 1980s, and I recall it being fairly sudden where most all stations in that area changed at nearly the same time. I was very young back then but remember being at a family event when someone mentioned they were disappointed that their favorite music station was gone. My uncle explained it was now on FM. His theory is that you would go to the spot on the dial where the AM music station was once located, flip to the FM band and that music station would be right there. Of course, that would've meant that the owners of those stations would have to make a concerted effort to purchase the FM that was also low/middle/high on the dial like their AM had been, but also assumes that all radio dials back then were laid out and spaced the same.

I've encountered this. It was the co-owned station, not necessarily the same station after a move.

 

[vchimpanzee]

There's a great episode of the TWILIGHT ZONE called "Static". A man finds an old Radio that picks up shows from the long past before TV. There's a line ---
"Radio was a world that had to be believed to be seen"...

I watched an episode of "Family Guy" I recorded several years ago. It was just old enough for this joke to work.

Joe inherited a relative's classic car from the 50s. He turned on the radio and Walter Cronkite was announcing Kennedy's death.

 

[xkxrx]

There are a lot of books about this era, and one of the best is Empire of The Air. It became a Ken Burns movie and it chronicles the people who made the golden age:

Watch Empire of the Air | A Ken Burns Documentary on the Men Who Made Radio | PBS

It's behind a paywall there for me but I did find it here. Just disable your adblocker.

 

[TheBigA]

It's hard to imagine that it took until the 1920s for radio to be available as an entertainment and information medium.

One of the turning points, the #1 fact in the OP, was the first commercial. Before that, radio was basically for hobbyists. WEAF was owned by AT&T, and they sold time on radio the way they sold minutes on the phone. AT&T got out of the radio ownership business in 1926 with the formation of NBC. WEAF became the flagship station, and NBC was a partnership of RCA, Westinghouse, GE, and AT&T. Once they figured out a revenue stream, then it became a bigger deal. Herbert Hoover was running the department of commerce, and the government got behind its growth.

 

[Mark Roberts]

There are a lot of books about this era, and one of the best is Empire of The Air. It became a Ken Burns movie and it chronicles the people who made the golden age:

Watch Empire of the Air | A Ken Burns Documentary on the Men Who Made Radio | PBS

A great read, to be sure. I bought it in 1991.



Even better, the book was set in Goudy Oldstyle, the perfect choice of font for a book about a subject in the 1920s and 1930s.

 

[CTListener]

It’s a reminder that “golden age” can be influenced by one’s own biases. People will talk about the 60s or 70s or 80s as a golden age as well. Which, in turn, feeds into the “everything today sucks because it isn’t what it was when I was younger” narrative.

Which internet would you rather have today? The dial-up, graphics-poor, video-primitive 1994 version, with AltaVista search, AOL's walled garden and free-wheeling discussion groups on Usenet ... or the 2024 version, with lightning speed, high-definition video, instant access to all kinds of music -- and deepfakes, malware, AI abuse, and the demise of local media, local commerce and civil discourse?

 

[Dr. Bob]

The breakthrough in early technology was when Armstrong invented the superheterodyne receiver in 1919. If you ever tuned a regenerative receiver you will know what a leap in technology that represented.

As for FM where I grew up, David is correct that the adoption was slow. Many automobiles didn’t have FM receivers until the 70’s. My first automobile with “factory” FM was a 1975 Mercury Cougar.

 

[DavidEduardo]

The breakthrough in early technology was when Armstrong invented the superheterodyne receiver in 1919. If you ever tuned a regenerative receiver you will know what a leap in technology that represented.

And Major Armstrong went on to create a usable FM system, only to be cheated and suppressed by one of the great "robber barons of all time, Sarnoff.

As for FM where I grew up, David is correct that the adoption was slow. Many automobiles didn’t have FM receivers until the 70’s. My first automobile with “factory” FM was a 1975 Mercury Cougar.

The majority of listening went to FM around 1978... parity the year before. The majority of music listening was on FM around 1975 or 1976.

A lot depended on whether the market had multiple good signal AMs or not. In Miami, music listening reached a majority around 1973 with WMYQ and Y-100 and the Beautiful Music stations pushing the number for FM. In the market I was in, San Juan, FM only had 13% of the total audience in 1978. In 1979, it had over 50%, driven by one FM station that got as high as a 42 share all on its own!

Markets with horrible AM selections like Phoenix and Salt Lake City and even Detroit and Milwaukee that only had from zero to one or two "good" AM signals could not compete with as many as a dozen nice full market FMs!

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

or the 2024 version, with lightning speed, high-definition video, instant access to all kinds of music -- and deepfakes, malware, AI abuse, and the demise of local media, local commerce and civil discourse?

Which is why I’m not one to call anything about the Web a golden age. It’s also vastly different in scope than “radio,” which co-exists as one content.

I’d also suggest civil discourse, or lack thereof, is not an internet phenomenon, and not a recent one. Talk radio (to bring this to radio) moved into the realm of argument long ago. Some of these early web user group forums were very civil and some were far from it; the same is true today depending on where one hangs out.

Another thought exercise: was TV in a golden age for all when entire communities of people were not represented or were limited to often offensive background representations? And that was just in front of the camera, never mind who need not have applied for jobs in the business.

 

[Dr. Bob]

And Major Armstrong went on to create a usable FM system, only to be cheated and suppressed by one of the great "robber barons of all time, Sarnoff.

The majority of listening went to FM around 1978... parity the year before. The majority of music listening was on FM around 1975 or 1976.

A lot depended on whether the market had multiple good signal AMs or not. In Miami, music listening reached a majority around 1973 with WMYQ and Y-100 and the Beautiful Music stations pushing the number for FM. In the market I was in, San Juan, FM only had 13% of the total audience in 1978. In 1979, it had over 50%, driven by one FM station that got as high as a 42 share all on its own!

Markets with horrible AM selections like Phoenix and Salt Lake City and even Detroit and Milwaukee that only had from zero to one or two "good" AM signals could not compete with as many as a dozen nice full market FMs!

Sarnoff was more interested in developing television and his company, RCA, was throwing millions of dollars into TV R&D. Others cheated Armstrong too, like Motorola. The legal fights wore Armstrong down and he committed suicide but his widow eventually prevailed against those who used his patents without compensation.

Where I grew up in Memphis, FM formats made huge changes from the 60’s (mostly flavors of easy listening and album rock) to every flavor of music by the mid 70’s. AM did hang on for awhile longer there but, eventually gave into FM except for a couple of AM stations that are still part of the culture there, WDIA and WLOK but I’ll bet their demos are all 55+ today.

The market that seemed to hold on to AM longest was San Francisco with its terrain issues.