Radio in the United States
A small number of U.S. Navy stations with N call signs made broadcasts in the early 20th century, including NOF, NSS and NAA.)
In late 1906, Reginald Fessenden demonstrated an alternator transmitter at Brant Rock, Massachusetts,[44] and many years later stated that he had also conducted broadcasts on the evenings of December 24 and 31.
[48] De Forest received national attention, but far less known at the time was Charles "Doc" Herrold of San Jose, California, who is generally credited with being the first in the United States to conduct entertainment radio broadcasts on a regular schedule.
[53] In addition, George C. Cannon reported that from December 1916 to February 1917 he had maintained "a regular schedule from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m." of news and entertainment broadcasts over Special Amateur station 2ZK, located at his New Rochelle, New York home.
The 1906 International Radiotelegraph Convention, held in Berlin, called for countries to license their stations, and although United States representatives had signed the agreement, the U.S. Senate did not ratify this treaty until April 3, 1912.
Initially there were no formal regulations designating which stations could make broadcasts intended for the general public, so a mixture operating under a variety of existing classifications, most commonly Experimental and Amateur, were free to take to the airwaves.
[77] Programming offered by the station gradually expanded,[78] including a special broadcast arranged at the end of October that featured the playing the latest Victor phonograph records, held in conjunction with the local Rudolph Wurlitzer Company.
Thompson, took up the promotion of newspaper-run broadcasting stations, offering local franchises and asking in national advertisements "Is Your Paper to be One of the Pioneers Distributing News and Music by Wireless?
"[88] Westinghouse's entry was a result of a Pittsburgh department store advertisement, seen by company vice president H. P. Davis, for radios capable of receiving Frank Conrad's ongoing broadcasts over 8XK.
He quickly worked to establish a station at the company's East Pittsburgh plant in time for the upcoming presidential election, which successfully debuted on November 2, 1920, initially operating as 8ZZ.
[90] KDKA proved to be a very successful experiment, and during the next year Westinghouse constructed three additional prominent stations, in or near New York City (WJZ, now WABC), Boston (WBZ) and Chicago (KYW).
Responding to the growing activity, effective December 1, 1921 the United States Department of Commerce adopted regulations explicitly establishing a broadcast station category.
[95] The existence of early radio stations encouraged many young people to build their own crystal sets (with ear phones) to listen to the new technical marvel.
Entrepreneurs established radio stores to sell parts as well as complete sets that evolved into stylish and expensive consoles the whole family could listen to, or which restaurants and shops could buy to entertain customers.
This practice dated back to at least a July 1912 broadcast by Charles Herrold in San Jose, California that featured records supplied by the Wiley B. Allen company.
However, the industry soon faced a crisis due to mounting costs, and the financial model eventually adopted by a majority of stations was selling advertising airtime, which became known as "American Plan".
The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) began in 1927 as an initially struggling attempt to compete with the NBC networks, which gained new momentum when William S. Paley was installed as company president.
On April 16, 1926, Judge James H. Wilkerson ruled that, under the 1912 Act, the Commerce Department in fact could not limit the number of broadcasting licenses issued, or designate station frequencies.
However, the next year several independent stations successfully formed the Mutual Broadcasting System in order to exchange syndicated programming, including The Lone Ranger.
Advertising revenues had been plunging due to the Great Depression, and the newspapers sought to protect their monopoly in providing news by limiting its appearance on commercial radio.
Often paid just over minimum wage, "combo operator-announcers," later called DJs, became entertainers and local celebrities, and cultivated "on-air personalities," sometimes pairing one who was straight-laced with one playing the clown.
ETs, mailed to stations by the thousands, many for government sales of savings bonds and military recruiting, were up to 15 inches (38 cm) in diameter and provided 15 minutes of programming.
[129] The mid-1930s saw the introduction of a group of "carrier current" stations operating on the AM band, mostly located on college campuses, whose very low powers and limited ranges meant they were exempt from FCC regulation.
[130] The stations received a major publicity boost by a complimentary article that appeared in the May 24, 1941 issue of The Saturday Evening Post,[131] and eventually hundreds were established.
Like the original broadcasting stations, the Apex band employed amplitude modulation (AM), although the 40 kHz spacing between adjacent frequencies was four times as wide, which reduced adjacent-frequency interference and provided additional bandwidth for high-fidelity audio.
An additional complicating factor was the concern by the FCC that the assigned frequencies were prone to occasional interference caused by atmospheric conditions, especially during periods of high solar activity.
[134] Based on this analysis, that July the FCC announced, despite fierce resistance by the existing station owners, that it was reassigning the FM band to a higher frequency range of 88–108 MHz.
Talk radio, although it had a small following in the cities, did not achieve mainstream popularity until the 1980s, due to a combination of factors, including improved satellite communications that made national distribution more affordable, the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine and (by the mid-1990s) extensive concentration of media ownership stemming from the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
[158] On June 8, 1988 a conference held at Rio de Janeiro under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union adopted provisions, effective July 1, 1990, for the countries located in the Americas to expand the AM band, adding frequencies from 1610 to 1700 kHz.
In contrast, for radio broadcasting the FCC has adopted a dual analog-digital hybrid approach, permitting but not requiring stations to add digital signals to their existing analog ones.
