I've been an avid Spotify user for about six years. As soon as I was old enough to have my own iPod, I began using streaming services like iTunes instead of relying on the car radio for music and entertainment. Since moving into the smartphone era, I hadn't really thought much about public radio, and the dependency society used to have on it. Considering I look at the "radio" button in my car nearly everyday, and choose to ignore it in favor of the Spotify subscription I pay for monthly, I was particularly intrigued by Carmela's presentation on the history and invention of the radio.
It was really interesting to learn about radio began as morse code messages sent as a telegraph used by the Navy to transmit messages overseas. I appreciated the in depth review of the evaluation of the radio, beginning with the military use, and leading into the societal reliance on radio for news prior to the 1920s shift to entertainment and music broadcasting.
A few notable impacts of the radio include allowing Americans to receive war time news very quickly. Radios also allowed for the broadcasting of presidential speeches, solving the issue of long wait times to receive news and updates. Radio also opened the door for spoken advertisements, so many companies took advantage of the opportunity for paid programming.
In the early days of radio, many skeptics claimed that "Well-informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.” While some negative aspects include health issues related to the exposure of radio waves and the steady decline in newspaper sales and live entertainment in favor of pre-recorded or broadcasted media, the invention and adoption of the radio opened doors for many significant technological advances.
No comments:
Post a Comment