Radio: History and Production

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Radio History and Production
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Guglielmo Marconi
Inventor of Wireless Telegraphy
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In the beginning

• 1896 Marconi sends a wireless telegraphic signal
  across his Italian estate
  
• 1901 He transmit the letter S across the
  Atlantic Ocean
  
• 1906 Reg Fessenden broadcasts music from his
  wireless station near Boston
  
• 1920 Radios first broadcast station KDKA
  goes on the air in Pittsburgh

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• 1922 Radio arrives in SD. WCAT, SDMT, Rapid
  City
  
• 1922 WGY begins broadcasting radio drama
• 1926 NBC links 20 radio stations from Portland
  ME, to Washington, DC to Kansas City, KS.

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Radios First Stars
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Radios first hitAmos n Andy

• 1927 Two white actors, Freeman Gosden and
  Charles Correll begin their daily 15 minute
  black sitcom on WMAQ in Chicago
  
• 1929 Amos n Andy join the NBC network
• 1938 Production moves to California
• 1943 The show becomes a weekly, 30 minute
  comedy
  
• 1960 The show leaves the air

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Dramatic Programming

• Series A continuing set of characters and a
  different plot each week
  
• Serial A continuing set of characters and a
  continuing, never ending plot line. A soap opera
  
• Anthology A different set of characters and a
  different plot each week

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Elements of Radio Drama

• Narration Lays the ground work. Used to describe
  the action and setting
  
• Dialogue
• Music Identify the program. Bridge scenes.
  Underscore dramatic moments
  
• Sound Effects Establish the environment

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Orson Welles directing Mercury Theatre on the Air
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Radios Most Famous Broadcast

• Program Mercury Theatre on the Air
• Episode War of the Worlds
• Date October 30th, 1938
• Director and Star Orson Welles
• Audience Reaction They believed what was
  happening on the radio was real. The United
  States was being invaded by Martians.

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Why did they believe?

• The show was presented in a news style format A
  music program interrupted by news bulletins
  
• Many joined the show late, after the opening
  credits. They first listened to the opening
  monologue on the Edgar Bergen / Charlie MaCarthy
  Show Radios 1 program in 1938.

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The result of the broadcast

• FCC says You will never do that again
• Mercury Theatre on the Air gets a sponsor
• Orson Welles is fired from The Shadow
• Orson Welles and his company of actors is given a
  picture contract by RKO.
  

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Radios Man of Mystery
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Radios Perfect Hero

• The Shadow
• Why? He was only a voice.
• Who was the Shadow? Lamont Cranston, a wealthy
  man-about-town who had learned in the Orient how
  to cloud mens minds
  
• Who originally played the Shadow? Orson Welles

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The Death of Radio Drama

• 1948 Radio begins to loose its prime time
  audience to television
  
• 1954 Most radio drama is replaced by programs of
  recorded music.
  
• 1960 Gunsmoke, radios last great dramatic
  series goes off the air
  
• 1974 CBS attempts to reintroduce radio drama
  The CBS Mystery Theatre, a nightly one hour
  anthology program. It goes off the air in 1982.

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Radio Drama Today

• A few stations broadcast Old Time Radio (OTR)
  programs late at night.
  
• WMAQ, 780 in Chicago, airs When Radio Was, an
  OTR series, starting 5 minutes after midnight,
  Monday through Friday
  
• Radio drama is a regular element of NPRs Prairie
  Home Companion
  
• Many OTR recordings are available on the Internet.