Early Failures of Radio

I have found Fireside Politics much more helpful than by last reading. Although I have yet to finish it, it has provided me with much insight into how radio stations were setup and the differing ideas on regulating them. I was not surprised to learn of the opposition to any plan that involved government ownership of stations. As with so many things, England, Canada, and Australia had some type of system where the government owned at least some of the stations. However, in sticking with the iconic American idea of keeping government and business separate, there was little support for a similar system of regulation here.

One thing that did surprise me was the voluntary censorship the stations adopted during the early years of FDR’s presidency. All the Federal Radio Commission had to do was imply that any station that that broadcast ideas that opposed Roosevelt’s policies would face the possibility of their license being renewed and that was the end of it. An industry dominated with Republicans gave FDR unrestricted access to their airwaves and refused to air opposing viewpoints. In my option, this is an example of a great failure in journalism. According to Craig, many newspapers published editorials openly disagreeing with FDR’s policies. But the threat of being denied a license renewal was enough to prevent radio stations from doing the same.

I have started to read about the formation of the FCC and hope that its replacement of the FRC will alleviate some of the politics of keeping a radio license.

I plan to continue reading Fireside Politics and possibly begin Communities of the Air this week.

Fireside Politics

I finished The Nightly News Nightmare and was generally disappointed. The book provided overwhelming evidence that the nightly news is failing Americans. The nightly news increasingly focuses on the horse race, scandals, and has an increasingly negative tone. They also, in the rush to be first with breaking stories, do not research stores as much as they should. Take the 2000 election as a prime example.

After finishing this book, I began reading Fireside Politics. Part I of this book focuses on the history of radio as a medium. Initially seen solely as a way to communicate between two people, General Electric quickly realized that mass broadcasts of entertainment had the potential to make a lot of money. They created RCA with this mission. I was surprised to learn that during World War I, all radio was put under the control of the Navy. Although Part I does not necessarily relate to my topic, I think it will be beneficial to have a background on radio before reading about its effects on political culture, which the book covers in Part II.

For next week, I hope to finish Fireside Politics and begin to examine what I will be writing about for our November papers.