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The State of Radio circa 1955 ~ Replace "TV" with "Web"

H

H82BL8

Time Magazine, May 09 1955,

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,861466,00.html?iid=chix-del

"Says Richard Buckley, manager of Manhattan's WNEW:'1954 was the biggest year in billings and profits in our history. Sales ran 42.7% ahead of 1948, the last pre-television year.' Some local stations never had it so good. Non-network time sales rose from $276 million in 1948 to $402 million in 1954, an alltime high. The number of radio stations almost tripled from 1,004 in 1946 to 2,745 in 1955.Then, only six years ago, TV arrived. Overnight, radio lost its glamor. It also lost listeners, advertisers and talent. It began to look, and sound, half dead."
 
H82BL8 said:
Time Magazine, May 09 1955,

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,861466,00.html?iid=chix-del

"Says Richard Buckley, manager of Manhattan's WNEW:'1954 was the biggest year in billings and profits in our history. Sales ran 42.7% ahead of 1948, the last pre-television year.' Some local stations never had it so good. Non-network time sales rose from $276 million in 1948 to $402 million in 1954, an alltime high. The number of radio stations almost tripled from 1,004 in 1946 to 2,745 in 1955.Then, only six years ago, TV arrived. Overnight, radio lost its glamor. It also lost listeners, advertisers and talent. It began to look, and sound, half dead."
Click to expand...

And NBC's "Monitor" started that year.
Nice article--thanks!
 
That's an interesting article. It points out that what revived radio in the TV age was portability. The invention of the transistor made radio portable. It was no longer a piece of furniture. It was a personal device. Like a cell phone.

I believe that Marconi originally intended to invent a wireless phone, and instead came up with radio. Once inventors found a way to cram a transmitter into a portable device, radio was in trouble, because it's only a one-way device.

So what led to the radio boom in the 50s and 60s no longer applies. Radio needs a new advantage.
 
TheBigA said:
That's an interesting article. It points out that what revived radio in the TV age was portability. The invention of the transistor made radio portable. It was no longer a piece of furniture. It was a personal device. Like a cell phone.

So what led to the radio boom in the 50s and 60s no longer applies. Radio needs a new advantage.
Click to expand...

Maybe the broacast industry should push for legislation that would require every mobile phone to be equiped with an AM/FM receiver for emergency purposes, of course.
 
If survival by legislative bailout is all you have to sustain your business, you've really got no reason to remain in business, IMO.
 
Oh! There's plenty of reasons to sustain the busines...if for no other reason then to witness all the new products that are created that validate the business. Now, for about $100 I can finally get a cell phone wrist watch with touch screen and; a 1.3 mega pixel camera, a MP3 and MP4 player and FM radio receiver. I remember dreaming about someday having a watch like Dick Tracy when I was a kid.
http://www.cellphonesbuying.com/cellphones/cell-phones-fm-radio.aspx
 
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