Author: Not Decided
Status: In Research
Please post any ideas or research for this episode that you want to contribute in this topic. If the episode hasn’t been assigned to an author yet, you can note your intent to write in the string too, and we will contact you to discuss.
One thing that is important was the way governments viewed Radio broadcast into homes. Some like the U.S. Radio stations were supported with ad revenue and was in the control of private hands. This had the effect that the radio programming was more geared to popular taste and allowed the broadcasting of sports which was very popular later on thier would be more genres that later became a blueprint of the genres on Television. Also during this time many inventors are trying different methods of broadcasting moving pictures, the start of Television, and by the 30’s we had broadcast Television yet it would no be till after WW2 that Television would really take off.
Now in some countries Brittain for example they were horrified by U.S. commercial broadcast and decided to take an approach of the government owning the stations and a tax would be levied on radio recievers. While from a cultural perspective the programming could be called high culture. Many Brits prefered radio Luxembourg becuase it was commercially operated and provided more entertainment geared toward common taste.
My Grandfather worked with Lee de Forest in NYC. He would work in Radio during the day and played saxaphone in the Speakeasies in Manhattan at night.
Did your grandpa know of Forest’s sound-on-film experiments? 'Cause that would be awesome.
He never mentioned it so I really don’t know.
We would in fact like to get the bridge towards the future of TV into this episode. We discussed a pure TV tech episode, but a s you say it takes until after the war for that to take off. Thus in teh interest of staying in topic we have to touch TV technology within the scope of radio.
New Time Ghost Private here. I have an decent collection of Audio material from 1920-1930’s radio, mostly on phonographs. Would a sampling of the more unusual programs, that prove there was as much variety of programming on radio as there is on TV, be of use to Radio Days research? Granted, all I have is sound, no video, but I can craft a playlist or audio montage to a theme such as Sports or Politics.
Thanks.
John Poole