[SFDXA] Highlights of Radio Tech History

Bill bmarx at bellsouth.net
Sun Jan 28 17:35:31 EST 2024


/From Tony N2MFT:

/


  January Highlights of Radio Tech History

What were radio people talking about 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago this 
month?

BYJAMES E. O'NEAL <https://www.radioworld.com/author/jameseoneal>

PUBLISHED: JANUARY 8, 2024

/This is the first story in a recurring series that will explore radio 
technology from years past, noting advancements and historical moments 
month by month. /

------------------------------------------------------------------------

With January 2024 well underway, let’s look back at “the way we were” 
25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago. What developments were helping to shape 
radio broadcasting at each of those temporal waypoints?

100 Years Ago — January 1924:The radio craze that began three years ago 
is showing no signs of slowing down. Broadcasters are wondering how they 
can cash in on the boom, as are receiver manufacturers and distributors, 
service shops and suppliers of tubes and other components. The idea of 
broadcasting commercial messages appears too crass for this new medium 
(such advertising is better left to the newspapers and magazines), and 
some are now proposing a government-mandated tax, albeit a small one, to 
put broadcasting on a paying basis.

As voiced by one tax proponent listener, Raymond F. Yates:/“It goes 
without saying that those who are shouldering the responsibility of 
broadcasting are entitled to some revenue, but under what method are 
they going to collect it? They have a moral right to charge for their 
programs, but as yet there is no way in which they can collect. They are 
not so much in love with the ‘dear public’ that they are giving this 
entertainment out of the kindness of their hearts.”/

75 Years Ago — January 1949:Following in the footsteps of CBS’s debut of 
33-1/3 rpm vinyl microgroove records, RCA introduces its own microgroove 
format, the 7-inch 45 rpm “little record with the big hole.” While 
having no real technical advantage over the larger CBS discs, the 
issuance of popular music on 45s does spell the beginning of the end for 
78-rpm shellac records, which have been around since the 1880s, and do 
much to spur “disk jockey” record show programming and associated 
“record hops.”

<https://www.radioworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/rw-HISTORY-JAN_1-scaled.jpg>While 
the 45-rpm vinyl records provided better quality audio than conventional 
78s, their 1949 arrival presented problems for radio stations, as 
commercial turntables only offered 33-1/3 and 78 rpm speeds. This led to 
the jerry-rigging of consumer players at some stations to accommodate 
the new discs.

50 Years Ago — January 1974:With the appearance of a number of new radio 
dramas (including the heavily promoted “CBS Radio Mystery Theater”) and 
a reprise by NBC of its 1950s science fiction series (“X Minus One”), it 
appears to some that major radio networks (CBS, Mutual and NBC) may be 
moving away from news-only programming for their affiliates. However, 
despite heavy promotion, there’s little buy-in from sponsors, and many 
stations balk at clearing network programming as it “doesn’t fit our 
format.”

25 Years Ago — January 1999:Digital radio is beginning to dominate the 
news, with reporting of the successful launch of the first of three 
Worldspace satellites for delivering digital audio broadcasts to Africa 
and the Middle East. Terrestrial digital service in North America is 
also in the news, with an NRSC subcommittee delivering a 60-page 
guideline to assist broadcasters and equipment makers in lab testing of 
the proposed IBOC hybrid digital audio broadcasting technology.

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Avatar photo

JAMES E. O'NEAL <https://www.radioworld.com/author/jameseoneal>

James E. O’Neal has more than 50 years of experience in the broadcast 
arena, serving for nearly 37 years as a television broadcast engineer 
and, following his retirement from that field in 2005, moving into 
journalism as technology editor for TV Technology for almost the next 
decade. He continues to provide content for TV Technology, as well as 
sister publication Radio World, and others. He authored the chapter on 
HF shortwave radio for the 11th Edition of the NAB Engineering Handbook, 
and serves as editor-in-chief of the IEEE’s Broadcast Technology 
publication, and as associate editor of the SMPTE Motion Imaging 
Journal. He is a SMPTE Life Fellow, and a Life Member of the IEEE and 
the SBE.

https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/roots-of-radio/january-highlights-of-radio-tech-history 


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