Broadcast Media History

Broadcast Media History

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults. The date of history’s first broadcast accepted by most historians of the subject is the first radio newscast, which occurred in 1909 in San Jose, California- some 40 miles south of San Francisco. There, Dr. Charles David Herrold built a tiny experimental radio transmitter and hooked it to an aerial which was strung over downtown streets between numerous buildings. Over this spider-web of steel, the doctor broadcast news and other programs to friends in the area to whom he had provided free crystal sets. Regardless of which station was first, the broadcast industry began its meteoric growth during the 1920s: by 1922 there were some 600 stations on the air. Two year later, that number had more than double to some 1400 most of which functioned as promotional sidelines for commercial business. The stations offered music, top names of the entertainment world and other material to amuse to small number of faithful listeners. The people who owned the stations financed all of this. Despite Herrold’s fledgling attempts in San Jose to broadcast news, there was practically no attempt made in the early days to do any type of radio reporting on a regular basis. But on rare occasions there were net broadcast of special events. The idea of network radio was not yet firmly established and these special networks were created for one time only and ceased to exist after the event. It wasn’t until November 15, 1926, that networks Broadcasting Company NBC) began serving 25 members of its network. The Columbia Broadcasting System came into existence with 16 stations eight months later in September 1927. With the rising popularity of radio and its ability present on-the-spot reports of news events, newspapers began to suffer from look of advertising revenue. Potential advertisers soon realize that radio was attracting large number of faithful listeners who were potential buyers of their products. To try and stem this shift of audience and advertising, newspaper owners got together with three press associations United Press, Associated Press, and the International News Service) to establish a restrictive news policy against radio. The competition between print and broadcast got so cutthroat at one point that all three services refused to sell any of their news to radio.

World War II provided the motive and the raw material for broadcast news to sharpen its newsgathering abilities and techniques. Spot reports, live interviews, commentary and other current practices all came into being under the heat of battle and were tempered by the demands of the war coverage. Many of the today’s wellknown names in broadcast journalism gained their first experience what the electronic media during the war years. Television in its early days merely borrowed many of the proven radio programming and production techniques. Radio on the other hand, had to painfully experiment and develop on its own, as there was no precedent to lead the way. But television even with its full color broadcasting instant replays communications satellites and all its other expensive hardware cannot compete with radio in four respects. First radio is more immediate. Because of the technical complexities in television broadcast, radio is able to begin broadcasting from the scene of an event immediately after the arrival of the reporter. Television, on the other hand, must delay coverage until cameras, microphones, cables and other equipment's are sent by truck and it may be over 30 minutes before everything is ready to go. Second, because of greater schedule flexibility, radio is able to present more news reports during the broadcast. Television with its highly structured schedule often holds news reports unit as its regularly scheduled news programmes. Radio on the other hand can interrupt its format at a moment notice for whatever time it takes to present the details on a fast breaking story. Third, radio can devote more of its attention to local news. This advantage is more apparent in relatively small markets where the nearest television station might be away while the radio station is operating within the city limits. Technological innovations in the early 1970s saw the introduction of light-weight portable video recording equipment that increases the ability of television journalists to cover an event quickly. Electronic news Gathering ENG involves the use of battery-powered recorders that permit instant replay of news events without the time-consuming process normally required to develop and edit 16mm film. While ENG is still largely restricted to metropolitan areas because of equipment costs, some smaller TV stations are finding the new videotape technology an inexpensive way to provide more visual coverage in newscasts. People turn to television for extensive coverage of news events, but an overwhelming percentage of the potential audience turn on their radio to find out the first reports of a news story.