"Selling the Sight/Site of Sound: Broadcast Advertising and the Transition from Radio to Television"

Abstract

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.