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Selling the Sight/Site of Sound

Broadcast Advertising and the Transition from Radio to Television

Bibliographic Data

ID8905322
AuthorsJames Schwoch (0000-0003-4021-986X, corresponding author)
Year1990
Volume30
Issue1
Pages55-55
Publication date1990-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCinema Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-7101 • E-ISSN: 1527-2087
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1224850
OpenAlexW2329591490
LanguageEN
Citations received3

The American home in 1935 probably had a radio set in at least one room of the house.' That set proved a continuous source of information, entertainment, and shared consciousness for families and individuals. Radio had in fifteen years moved from a curiosity to a luxury, and finally, to an indispensable apparatus of modern life. Nearly 600 stations broadcast within the United States, usually relaying one of the four major radio networks. NBC ran two networks-the flagship NBC-Red and its secondary Blue Network (later to become ABC)while CBS and Mutual also provided coast-to-coast coverage. In addition, one might listen to any of the powerful independent stations such as WLW Cincinnati or WGN Chicago; several million homes also occasionally tuned in to short-wave programming transmitted from a number of European nations. By 1955, the number of radio stations in the United States had increased nearly ninefold. Yet radio was no longer considered the center of the American family's attention. Television had arrived to replace the words of wisdom offered by radio with a series of consuming visions centered on a new shared American consciousness. Of course, television did not suddenly appear one day; radio audiences (indeed, the entire American public) had been hearing that television was coming soon since the mid-1930s. And in fact the structure and performance of commercial radio broadcasting in the United States was an indispensable foundation in the establishment of televison as a force in American industry and American culture. The radio networks all tried to launch television networks, and most succeeded (with Mutual failing2); along with the networks, major individual radio station owners often built and programmed television stations. Radio performers and stars now found themselves appearing not only before the mike, but also the cameras, lights, and larger production crews. Ad agencies and commercial sponsors explored the vagaries of commercialism in the new broadcast medium, and the various audience measurement services, such as A. C. Nielsen, were eager to try their hand at counting television viewers as effectively as they had radio listeners

Acoustics · Advertising · Art · Astronomy · Business · Commercial broadcasting · Physics · Public broadcasting · Sight · Sound (geography · Telecommunications · Transition (genetics · Computer Science · Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media

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Unique citing works3
Citations per year0,09
Citation span1993 - 2020 (28)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3

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