THESIS: Although the invention of radio proved to be a useful tool after its creation, it was also exploited to spread both positive and negative war propaganda.
American broadcasting flourished immediately after World War I, as it was not tested during wartime. (Sweeney 7) Radio has revolutionized and modernized the daily American life like no other form of press.
1920s
The event that sparked radio popularity among Americans was the announcement of the 1920 election over the KDKA radio station. This was the first time that presidential results were publicized through new means of communication. Although only a select number of people actually heard the broadcast, it sent thousands of Americans on the hunt for their own radio. It sparked an immediate curiosity for new technology, much like how our current society craves the newest iPhone or tablet. This even led to a supply shortage in 1922, where radio manufacturers were not able to meet the demand of their products (Siepmann 5)
The emergence of radio caused an uproar of excitement among Americans.
It was described as a time when “the country was afire with radio fever” and when “people were buying radio receivers as fast as they could afford to” (Steve). The evidence for these claims can be seen in the jump of number of broadcasting stations from only 5 in 1921 to over 500 stations only 3 years later. Also, the amount that Americans spent annually on radios reached $198 million by 1927. As quickly as radio emerged, it transformed into a massive industry that became the center of American life. By 1930, about 40 percent of Americans owned had at least one radio in their household. (Steve) The appeal of radio to the American consumers also had to do with the fact that it was free at first glance. The only price Americans believed they were paying for broadcasting entertainment was the price of the radio itself.
In the 1920s, all across the United States, young men and women would end their days listening to the broadcasts of Voices speaking miles away. In order to listen, these men and women would carefully move their antennas, or if they were a bit more affluent, their dials, in just the right position in order to pick up the frequency. They would not just simply go to the store, buy a radio, plug it into their house and listen. Each day, when it was time to gather around and listen to the broadcasts, they would have to assemble the device piece by piece, including the fidgety antenna or dials, so they could then listen. In those early days of radio, there were no regulations. There were no big broadcasting networks or much advertising. This new idea of speaking to an entire country through a single device was so new to the public that there was no need to place burdens on it. With the exception of the Sunday church broadcast, there was no set schedule rhythm to the radio stations. It was unpredictable in its early days, which was a major contributor to its popularity. (Douglas 50ish). Due to its unpredictability, the loose regulations on radio during the early 1900s led to a chaotic broadcasting system. The American government, including Herbert Hoover and the Department of Commerce decided to cooperate in order to assist in the cause for bettering the radio system. The First Radio Conference was called by Herbert Hoover at President Harding’s request, and met from February 27 to March 2, 1922. In the meeting, Hoover stressed the importance of acknowledging radio’s astounding and rapid growth and how this called for more enforced regulations over the airwaves. As the resolutions of the First Radio Conference were not enough to be passed in Congress, it paved the way for more conferences to be called. In total, Hoover called four radio conferences (McChesney 13).
Censorship
Radio journalism in the early 1900s was not a free industry. The extent that the governments of numerous countries censored radio broadcasts was astounding. The excuse that broadcasting companies gave in regards to why they limited the radio services was that there was a limited space for radio services in the sky. As technology has advanced, scientists have been able to open that limit to accommodate more radio traffic. However, this still does not explain why the horrors of the Holocaust in addition to other events occurring in Germany during the second World War, were not communicated to the audience of listeners. This gray area between the supposed functional error and the corruption of broadcasting companies led the Americas being left in the dark while millions of people were suffering in one of the worst genocides in history (Crook ?).
Power of radio
As it is unrealistic to place all the ignorance to the Holocaust on the radio broadcasts, many other journalism medias contributed to this phenomenon. A combination of newspapers, magazines, and talk radio has the responsibility of informing their readers and listeners of what was going on in their world. By 1922, the press and radio were having a battle to gain viewership. The hardcopy press was threatened by the success and widespread viewership of the radio. This shows just how powerful these talk radio shows were at the time (Crook 71). At least thirty European nations had radio systems in place by 1938, however they were not able to broadcast further than their own borders. Within a year, most of those European countries developed those abilities and were able to broadcast far outside of their countries (Keene 53).
Bad incidents
The influence of radio can be seen through specific incidents in American history. The War of the Worlds accident, for example, displayed how prone the American people were to the shaping of radio.
In October of 1938, the CBS Mercury Theatre on Air broadcasted a live dramatization of War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. This caused an immediate panic among listeners. The audience truly believed that Martians had invaded New Jersey, as it was said on the radio.
Americans heard what was said on the radio and believed it, no matter how absurd it was. David Goodman speaks of the incident by saying, “Lyman Bryson observed shortly after the Mars invasion broadcast that radio was ‘one of the most dangerous elements in modern culture’ and that the incident had shown that the United States was ‘not immune to the kind of terror the radio can give.'” (Goodman 245). The War of the Worlds incident was not the only misuse of radio that led to conflict.
In the 1920s, it was popular among young teens to send false messages to ships or Navy boats over the radio. As the technology was still not advanced, these pranks would go unreprimanded because it was virtually impossible to trace where the fake messages came from. Because of all the radio traffic, ship captains would not be able to get a signal out if they had to go save another boat or if they themselves were in peril. One famous instance of this happening is in the sinking of the Titanic. Once Harold Bride, one of the Titanic’s wireless operators, notified the surrounding stations that the ship had received fatal hit from an iceberg, the airwaves were overflowing its questions and messaged about the ship. Many of these messages were supposedly just from press who wanted more information for their articles. All of this airwave congestion led to only one message being understood by the rest of the listeners: that the Titanic passengers were save and towing to Halifax. The editors of famous newspapers, like the London Times and The New York Times, approved headlines containing that false information and were printed the next morning. Once the people learned of the false hope messages, they were resentful of the amateurs over the radio that led to the falsification of not only news headlines but the false hopes of the families of people on the sinking ship.
(Douglas) Incidents like these led to the passing of various acts, which sought to diminish the problems and interference of many users on the airwaves (Kielbowicz…). The first radio act, passed in 1912, granted interstate commerce the right to delegate property rights in the broadcasting airwaves. These delegations favored the military and commercial associations over the local stations that used to have a free reign over the radio. The major flaw in the Radio act of 1912 was that it only pertained to interstate issues, not within states. This indicated that there were no regulations on broadcasting stations within a state. Amateur radio users would cross signals with professional radio broadcasts and disrupt the listening experience of the people who owned the radios (Siepmann) Years after the passing of this act, the government approved a new regulation over broadcasting: the Radio Act of 1927. This act granted the Secretary of Commerce and Labor with the powers of radio broadcasting and communication (McCourt). This act also reduced the ability for outside nations and companies to own American radio licenses down to 20 percent. The Radio Act of a 1927 ultimately served to established the Federal Radio Commission, a government association which served to control the
The proceeding act, the Communications Act of 1934, would later be criticized for not actually accomplishing anything, moreover simply restating the terms of the Radio Act 1927 (Zajacz). This act would establish the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is still in use today. Around the time when this act was established, American society was still getting over the Great Depression. Fears of another crisis were looming over Americans, so they felt the need for government control. They wanted the power that the government had over big businesses and companies to benefit them for the better.
Therefore, in 1934, with the establishment of the Federal Communications Commission, the government embarked on their mission to make radio as available as possible to all Americans. In contrast to the messy radio situation only a decade earlier, this new system would supposedly ensure a functioning broadcasting network (Siepmann 14-17).
Some of the terms of the FCC focused on a non-biased political character. The broadcasting system, under the Federal Communications Commission, was to be free of non-American influences. It would be solely based in the United States and had little dependence onf foreign companies. Another term of the Federal Communications Commission was placed in order for there to be no discrepancy between whether the members of the deciding board where morally just or not.
For this reason, the members were not permanent. Every seven years, new members were to be included into the board and old members were to be taken out. In addition to a routine switch of members, none of the Federal Communications commissioners were allowed to have any financial or commercial interests in broadcasting (Siepmann 15-17).
WWII
1930s
By the 1930s, the use of radio was almost the social norm, as it had become the most popular mode of entertainment in the United States.
The small local radio stations had turned into massive radio corporations that expanded to every nook and cranny of the United States. National radio programs ran for the most of the day and night times, as they were sponsored and managed by agencies for big commercial clients. Although most of the components of modern radio were seen in the broadcasting of the 1930s, including music and advertisement, it was still lacking one major component: news and radio commentary. This changed from the 1930s to mid- 1940s as radio stations began implementing radio news programs into their schedule.
In the late 1930s, 5 percent of scheduled radio broadcasting was news program, while it grew to almost 20 percent in the mid- 1940s.
1940s and WWII
American families who were hit hard by the Great Depression found comfort in clinging to their radios at the end of the day and hearing a familiar tune or an entertaining voice. In 1939, the magazine Fortune, conducted a survey to see the love for radio among the public. When given the option to either stop going to the movies or give up their radios, 80 percent of the answers received claimed they would rather give up going to the movies. Horten describes American reliance on radio by saying, “By the early 1940s, radio fulfilled more tasks than any other medium. It entertained large national audiences while selling the products of commercial sponsors. It provided national and international news coverage, and during World War II it made Americans—as a people—as well informed as they ever had been” (Horten 1). American life was completely revolutionized with the invention of radio from the early to mid-1900s. Another survey, conducted by University of Denver’s National Opinion Research Center, asked Americans to decide which of the following did the best job of serving and influencing the American people during the war: movies, magazines, newspapers, or radio. 90 percent of Americans owned a radio during World War II and each household on average listened to three to four hours of radio broadcasting per day. (Horten 2) Censorship post World War II
As there had been little government interference in radio stations before and during World War I, the concept of censoring what would be said on broadcasts was unexplored. The reasoning of the advocates for American censorship was that at the time it was easy for a radio station to slip and reveal valuable information to other countries,specifically the Axis powers. A radio station could share top-secret military plans or information that could be heard by anyone. Also, foreign speaking radio stations, such as German or Italian speakers, could try to relay messages from the Allied powers about the position of their troops or possible naval missions to their home country. There was also the possibility that a spy got a hold of the microphone and was able to send a coded message to their loyal country and have it not even be noticed by American listeners (Sweeney 7-8).
Byron Price
Byron Price led the World War II effort toward censorship of radio broadcasting and pioneered the way to how we use radio to this day. He was faced with the task of running the Office of Censorship and had the responsibility of protecting the United States.
Propaganda
The American government exercised its power over broadcasting when it needed to, sometimes even in excess. The NRA, National Recovery Administration, was established as a part of Roosevelt’s New Deal and began to use radio as a source of propaganda in 1933. In that year, for example, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), granted almost 7 hours of free broadcasting time to the NRA. NBC even cancelled commercial scheduled entertainment numeroud times in order for the NRA to air speeches made by General Johnson. In 1933, a Federal Radio Commission (FRC) member sent a hostile letter to all radio stations, impeding that the broadcasting stations refrain from allowing other advertisers and sponsors who were not part of the NRA to use their services. (Horten). Another example of the government exercising its powers over radio in order to sway the people’s opinion was during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “fireside chats”. Roosevelt was not ignorant to the impact that the radio had on the American people, especially those in opposition to his policies.
In his first “fireside chat”, he made sure to use commonly used phrases and colloquialisms in order to seem more human and approachable to his audience. Roosevelt would make an effort to appeal to every American listening, whether they agreed with him or not, through patriotism and expressing the importance of the individual. As this was a complete success, his radio broadcasts turned in to propaganda free for all. There were hardly any regulations on the content that Roosevelt could or could not say, which led to his complete control over the radio at his choosing. He was allowed unparalleled freedom over the broadcasting networks, which he used to feed the American people speeches they eventually began to side with (Kiewe 19-21).
Throughout the rest of his “fireside chats’, which amounted to a total of 30, Roosevelt addressed his policies in a way that made Americans feel comfortable, not threatened, by his voice. He made sure to address certain complicated and high importance issues with a sense of understanding and compassion. Roosevelt addressed his listeners as his friends and used personal pronouns to evoke a sense of hospitality.
Over the radio, listeners could hear him allude to the very foundations of American freedom in order to persuade his audience, including famous figures such as Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt talked about a variety of topics including; the New Deal and its economic policies, fascism in Europe, and unemployment. At the end of every broadcast, Roosevelt insisted on playing “The Star Spangled Banner” and mentioning God in some way. Broadcasting allowed him to persuade and convince more Americans into accepting hos policies than newspapers or telegrams ever could.
The importance and significance of radio in American life can be seen in the famous radio personalities in the first half of the 20th century. Father Charles Coughlin, a successful radio preacher in the 1930s, placed radio in a high pedestal in American life. Not only did radio give him a medium for reaching a bigger audience, it also gave him a bigger opportunity to give the American people what they wanted.
As he was a priest and had connections with various celebrities including Clare Booth Luce and Bing Crosby, many Americans immediately trusted him and seriously considered his views to be morally correct.
The only problem with Coughlin’s hold on the American people was that his views were anti-Semitic and he would fraternize with fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Even though his sermons were very controversial and immoral, by 1930, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) was broadcasting his sermons nationally (Glen).