Radio

No one expected radio to revolutionize the world, but more than 100 years ago that is exactly what happened. On March 1, 1893 Nikola Tesla, the father of modern communication technology, gave his first public demonstration of radio at the National Electric Light Association in St. Louis, paving the way to further innovations and uses of his new technology (Cheney, 2011). Tesla held more than 700 patents, including wireless communications, cellular communications, robotics, remote control, radar, and many other communication technologies that we still use today. Although many have credited Guglielmo Marconi with the invention of radio, Marconi combined the inventions of Tesla and others to advance already established radio technologies. In 1943 the U.S. Patent office restored credit for the original radio patents back to Nikola Tesla (Coe, 1996).

Source: Public Domain

The first radio transmission of actual sound came on December 24, 1906 from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Massachusetts when Reginald Fessenden played O Holy Night on his violin and then read a passage from the Bible to wireless operators on ships at sea. The ships had been advised to be listening at 9pm on that Christmas Eve and they were amazed to hear music and voices—something that had never been heard before (O’Neal, 2006). That first live broadcast laid the foundation of the live music and programming format. The first radio news program began in 1920 in Detroit at WWJ, which remains an all-news radio station to this day (Douglas, 2004).

After a ban on radio during World War I, department stores, universities, churches, and entrepreneurs started their own radio stations in the early 1920s. In just four years’ time the number of commercial radio stations in the U.S. rose from 34 to 378 stations (Scott, 2008). By the 1930s, radio was in its Golden Age, exerting influence around the world and marking its prominence in mass media. Radio captivated America with live drama, comedy, and music shows that challenged the imagination. By the end of the 1930s, more than 80% of Americans owned a radio (Craig, 2006). Radio connected individuals to the world and allowed listeners to have a front-row seat to the boxing match, hear first-hand the news from around the world, and experience politics and culture like never before—live. It was a powerful mass medium and the only communication technology that was accessible to most, which continues today with the vast majority of Americans listening to the radio each week (Nielsen, 2017).

One of the main reasons radio was so successful through the Great Depression of the 1930s was because there was no competition that compared to radio until the introduction of television. By 1949, television’s popularity had risen to a level that caused many to predict the demise of radio. Television eventually replaced radio’s prime-time dominance as many popular radio shows moved to television; regardless, radio penetrated places of isolation that television could not go, namely, the automobile. Nevertheless, radio was able to maintain a captive audience as the industry adjusted by shifting its programming to what it still does best—music (Cox, 2002). By the 1950s, the radio DJ was born, and America’s Top 40 format ruled the airways (Brewster, 2014).

During the counterculture of the 1960s, young people looked to music to speak to the culture of the day. They began to reject the over-commercialization of the AM dial and turned to FM radio for better sound quality and less commercialization. Radio was their source for new music. By the 1970s, FM technology was widespread as audiences sought out better reception and high-fidelity stereo sound (Lule, 2014). It was that shift of purpose for radio that redefined it. Consumers wanted quality-sounding music, and radio was their free, go-to source.

At the same time that FM radio was surging, digital audio technology was being developed. By the late 1980s and 1990s, Compact Discs (CD) came into mainstream use, ending the long standing analog era of music recordings. In the meantime, radio technology languished, with no real innovations until Hybrid Digital (HD) radio nearly two decades later. To understand this part of radio’s history, it is important to know the difference between analog and digital signals.

Analog vs. Digital

The difference between analog and digital audio is in how the audio is reproduced. Sound is represented as a wave. A radio wave is an electromagnetic wave transmitted by an antenna. Radio waves have different frequencies; by tuning a radio receiver to a specific frequency, listeners can pick up that distinct signal.

Analog recordings make an equivalent physical representation of sound waves on a physical object such as a disc (record) or magnetic tape (cassette tape) (Elsea, 1996). When played back, the audio player reads the physical information on the disc or tape and converts the patterns to sound we can hear. For radio, similar principles apply. Sound wave energy is converted into electrical patterns that imitate a sound wave. These electrical patterns are then superimposed on a carrier wave and transmitted to receivers (radios), which convert the electrical patterns into music, speech or other sounds we can enjoy. While the quality of sound has been refined over the years, one of the marked innovations in the transmission of radio waves was in the split of the waves to create a stereo sound (McGregor, Driscoll, & McDowell, 2010). For the physical radio (hardware), shrinking the size of radios allowed portability, and related developments refined the sound quality (Scannell, 2010).

Digital recordings, on the other hand, are made by taking thousands of “samples” of an analog signal, with a number for each sample representing the size or strength of the signal at that moment. The thousands of samples can be put together to approximate the original wave with the “stairstep” pattern in Figure 8.3 representing what happens when you put these digital samples together to recreate the analog wave. The more samples you take, the smoother the wave—and the more accurate the sound reproduction. The numbers created for digital audio are created through binary code, or a series of 0s and 1s which creates a code that instructs the digital player on what to play (Hass, 2013).

Source: Campbell & Sparks

In the early 1980s, digital audio hit mainstream in the form of the compact disc (CD), which was marketed as small (“compact”) and virtually indestructible with near perfect sound. (Sterling & Kittross, 2001). This compared to the cassette tape that disintegrated in heat, or to vinyl records that could scratch, break, or warp. Consumers quickly embraced CD technology as prices dropped and the music industry transitioned to a digital era in CD music production. The public was hooked, and the radio industry had to adjust to higher expectations from consumers who demanded clearer sound. However, converting analog radio to digital radio would be a complex process that would take decades to accomplish.

There were several issues the radio industry had to overcome in the transition from analog to digital. In the 1980s the cost of storing and broadcasting digital signals was exorbitant. In 1983, 1MB of storage cost $319 and would hold about one quarter of one song (Komorowski, 2014). The speed at which audio could be broadcast was so slow that it was inconceivable to move to a digital broadcast system. In order for digital technology to be practical, the size of the files had to be decreased, and the bandwidth had to be increased.

Digital audio technology advanced with the introduction of codecs that shrunk digital audio into sizes that were more manageable and enabled faster transmission of the audio data. The compression of audio is important for digital radio broadcasting because it affects the quality of the audio delivered on the digital signal. The codec that emerged as a standard was the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly known as MP3. MP3 compressed the audio to about one-tenth the size without perceptibly altering the quality of the sound for FM listeners (Sellars, 2000). While the MP3 standard compresses audio data to a lower audio standard than was being used before digital audio was standardized, the basic technology of binary code and audio compression were being developed for digital radio broadcasting.

The Shift to Digital Audio Broadcasting

European broadcasters beat American broadcasters in adopting digital transmission with their development and adoption of the Eureka 147 DAB codec, otherwise known as MP2 (O’Neill & Shaw, 2010). The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) was very interested in Eureka 147 DAB in 1991; however, broadcasters eventually lobbied for the proprietary iBiquity IBOC codec designed to deliver a high-quality audio with lower bit rates (or bandwidth) than the Eureka system.

Source: Manimecker

iBiquity’s proprietary In-band On-channel (IBOC) digital radio technology layers the digital and analog signals, allowing radio broadcasters to keep their assigned frequencies and simply add the digital conversion hardware to upgrade their current broadcast systems (FCC, 2004). Known as HD Radio (Hybrid Digital), this technology also allows for metadata transmission including station identification, song titles and artist information, as well as advanced broadcasting of services such as breaking news, sports, weather, traffic and emergency alerts. The IBOC technology also allows for tagging services allowing listeners to tag music they want to purchase. Ultimately, this technology gives more control to the consumer and engages them in a way that traditional analog radio could not (Hoeg & Lauterbach, 2004).

The FCC approved iBiquity’s HD Radio system of digital radio delivery in 2002, and radio stations began broadcasting the HD signals in 2004, delivering CD quality audio for both AM and FM frequencies (HDRadio, 2004). HD radio is free to listeners but requires users to purchase an HD ready radio.

HD radio also opens up the amount of spectrum available to broadcasters, allowing single radio stations to split their signal into multiple digital channels offering more options in programming, otherwise known as multicasting. For example, a radio station may primarily be a country music formatted station (95.5 FM) but offer a news-talk station on the split frequency (95.5-2) and a Spanish language music station on a third channel (95.5-3) (HD Radio, 2004).

While alternative music delivery systems and the lack of consumer knowledge about HD Radio is a barrier to this technology succeeding, the major barrier is found in the automotive industry. In 2015, the audio technology company DTS acquired iBiquity with promises to expand the HD radio market; however, they had a major setback with General Motors cutting the feature from a number of models. While HD Radio is not expected to fail anytime soon, if HD Radio is not standardized in vehicles, this radio technology will not survive.

Radio Automation

Radio automation is the use of broadcast programming software to automate delivery of pre-recorded programming elements such as music, jingles, commercials, announcer segments, and other programming elements. Radio automation is used in both traditional terrestrial radio broadcasting as well as streaming radio stations on the web.

Radio automation also allows for better management of personnel allowing announcers to pre-record their segments in a way that sounds like they are live on the air when in reality they may have recorded the segment hours or even days before. Radio personalities such as John Tesh or Delilah, whose nationally syndicated radio shows draw in millions of listeners, pre-record their programs in a way that sounds like they are live on the air.

In an effort to better allocate resources, radio stations and networks across the globe have moved to automated operations.

Revenue Boom: $1.1 Billion

In 2017, digital audio was the fastest growing advertising format, representing a 42% increase in just one year, which surpasses the growth rate of search and digital video advertising. Radio station digital revenues were up 13.4% in 2017. In fact, 85% of radio advertisers bought some form of digital advertising; however, digital audio ad revenues account for only 2% of the $1.1 billion in digital advertising revenue. With more unlimited data plans being offered from cellular companies, revenues are expected to grow as more consumers tune to digital audio on their mobile devices (IAB, 2017).

The Streaming Music Revolution

Top streaming services earn their money through subscriptions and the subscriber numbers are increasing. In 2017, revenues from streaming music services such as Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and Google represented a 48% jump to $2.5 billion in just one year (RIAA, 2017). The leader in streaming music, Spotify, boasted more than 70 million paid subscribers globally in 2017, and Apple hit 30 million subscribers at the same time.

While CD sales plummeted, the music industry saw a 5.9% growth in 2016 due to the continued growth of streaming music. Consumers are buying into streaming to access more than 40 million songs; the widest diversity of music offering in history (IFPI, 2017). As older music technologies die out, digital music technologies will continue to grow and innovate.

Source: Spotify

On-Demand vs. Live-Streaming

On-demand music streaming services such as Spotify and Google Play Music allow users to specify a particular song or artist and immediately hear it. Much like the old jukebox, on-demand services allow listeners to build a playlist with the exact songs and artists they would like to hear. On-demand also offers the uploading of owned music to a “locker room” which stores that music online, allowing access to that music even if the service doesn’t offer those song choices or artists. On-demand music streaming also offers an offline listening experience, meaning users can tag their favorite songs and listen to them whenever they like. The only limitation is the storage capacity of the smartphone or music playing devices being used.

Live-streaming is the real-time transmission of music or programming over the Internet. This is often done through automation software that creates a stream of pre-recorded music, but there is a trend of transmitting actual live audio or video feeds to users. Streaming companies such as Pandora are music services that allow the user to create a personalized channel of music based on songs, artists, music genres or even moods of music they like.

These streaming services use an algorithm of listeners’ indications of what they “like,” “don’t like,” or “skip.” The service then selects other songs or artists that are similar in style to the ones specified. Just like on-demand music services, there are no DJs on livestreaming. The only speaking voices users hear is the occasional company identification and advertising announcements. “Premium” users can pay a subscription fee and eliminate advertising on their streaming service for uninterrupted music and can often download music for offline listening.

Podcasting

Podcasting continues to grow in popularity as more than 24% of Americans claimed to have listened to a podcast in the last month (Edison, 2017). Podcasts are digital audio recordings of music or talk, available for download onto a mobile device or computer. Pod-casts are typically produced as a series which is available as individual downloads or automatic subscription downloads. Radio broadcasts converted to podcasts are some of the most popular, with radio programs such as This American Life, TED Radio Hour, and Fresh Air, popular NPR radio shows leading the charge of weekly shows converted to podcasts. This American Life, an hour long themed journalistic, informational, and sometimes comedic radio program, had more than five million downloads every month of their popular podcast (PODTRAC, 2017).

Podcasts can be listened to when an individual has the time, making podcasting a convenience-medium for those who listen to them. Anyone with a computer or mobile device and an Internet connection can create a Podcast. In 2016, 4.6 billion podcasts were downloaded from the podcast hosting service, Libsyn, which was an increase of 2 billion downloads in just two years. The number of listeners is the key statistic to podcasting, and that number is slowly growing. Pew research reports that in 2016, 40% of Americans had listened to a podcast and that number was up by eleven percent from the year before (Vogt, 2017).

Copyright Royalties

Since 2005, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), comprised of three U.S. judges, has set rates and terms for copyright statutory licenses, including music licensing. A significant part of determining webcasting royalties for streaming music was the CRB’s designation of record labels as the entity of “willing seller” of licensing, with broadcast and webradio as the “willing buyers” (Cheng, 2007). This designation gives the music industry a powerful role in lobbying for ever-higher royalty rates for both radio broadcasting and online streaming music services. In 2015, the CRB substantially increased streaming music rates for the period 2016-2020, when the Webcaster Settlement Act expired. Most small webcasters could not survive, with the outcome being what one veteran webcaster called “Bloody Sunday” with the massive expiration of tens of thousands of webstations (Hill, 2016).

Music Artists Say ‘No more!’

While many radio professionals and hobbyists accuse the music industry of a money grab by its aggressive enforcement of increased licensing and royalty rates for web radio, a different perspective is represented by Taylor Swift’s famous 2014 action of not allowing Spotify to stream her then-new album, 1989. Swift’s label asked Spotify to add some conditions to the streaming service: 1) to listen for free, the consumer must be outside the U.S., and 2) if the consumer was based in the U.S., the consumer must pay a subscription fee to listen to the music. After Spotify refused to budge on both demands, Swift’s music was pulled from the service and wasn’t heard (on that platform) until June 2017. Taylor Swift continues to limit releases on streaming services to help drive fans to pay to download her albums on buy them on CD.

In a personal letter to the CEO of Spotify, Swift accused the company of undervaluing the artists they played. According to Swift, while Spotify was reaping huge profits, it gave back relatively little to the musicians who created the music. On average, artists on Spotify earn a fraction of a cent per play, or between $0.006 and $0.0084 (Spotifyartists.com, 2016). But the real amount the artist receives is far less, given that more than 70% of Spotify’s revenue goes to the record label, the publishers and distributors (Linshi, 2014). Swift was emphatic in her opposition: “I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music” (Prigg, 2015).

The music industry is finally tapping in to the digital revolution and subscription based streaming services are growing in popularity creating a new track of revenue for the music industry.

Satellite Radio

SiriusXM satellite radio is a subscription-based radio service that uses satellite technology to deliver its programming. Subscribers purchase a radio equipped with a satellite receiver and can listen to their favorite stations wherever they are in the U.S. This service uses geosynchronous satellite technology to deliver its programming, meaning no matter where users are in the U.S., they can hear their favorite SiriusXM station (Keith, 2009). Satellite radio comes standard in most new and many pre-owned cars and trucks but requires a subscription activation. Satellite radio services have been offered since 2001 and have seen slow but steady growth in subscriptions. There were more than 27.5 million satellite radio subscribers in 2010. That figure has steadily grown to more than 32.7 million subscribers in 2017, making satellite radio a real growth industry as radio technology progresses. Most recently, SiriusXM has opened channels in emergency situations for people who do not have subscriptions (SiriusXM, 2018).

Shifts in ownership in the radio industry are as frequent as shifts in music tastes among the public. For example, Sirius and XM started as competing services before merging in 2008. Then in 2017 Sirius/XM purchased a 19% share in Pandora. As this book is going to press, the finances of the two largest radio station owners in the U.S. are in question, and additional ownership changes in radio are likely before you read this paragraph.

Source: SiriusXM

FM Radio in Smartphones

Most smartphones today are equipped with an FM radio receiver already built into the phone; however, at the time this was written, most cellphone carriers or manufacturers had not activated the chip. While smartphones have access to Internet radio streaming, using the FM radio receiver in your smartphone uses less battery power than streaming and also does not use cellular data. When cell towers are down, this chip would still receive FM radio signal, making it an important device during emergency situations. The FCC has urged cellphone manufacturers to activate the feature; however, it is not yet mandatory in the United States (FCC, 2017). The National Association of Broadcasters has also lobbied for all cellphone manufacturers and cellular carriers to enable usage of the FM chip in their phones. NAB Labs has created an app that users can download which allows users to tune to local radio stations using their smartphone’s unlocked built-in FM radio chip (NextRadio, 2018).

Radio Turns to Video

Most radio stations have an interactive website that connects with social media and includes, of all things, video. Many prime time radio shows offer live video streamed from the radio studio for people to watch online. Formats such as news-talk stations populate their websites with local news videos to attract a video-craved audience, while music driven formats feature their own radio personalities interviewing popular artists or relating video human interest stories which connect with their audience. Ultimately, many stations are trying to brand themselves as an entertainment package complete with video, audio, and social media.

In an effort to engage more with the audience, many radio stations have live video streaming on social media. Streaming on Facebook Live or YouTube Live allows stations to connect with their audiences to enhance their radio programming and visually engage the audience by connecting them with celebrity guest interviews, contests, or connecting with concerts or community events at remote broadcasts away from the radio station (Zarecki, 2017).

Localism

With an overabundance of music and programming choices available to the digital media consumer, there is still one thing that radio offers that digital algorithms cannot satiate, and that is connectedness. While people may gravitate towards digital audio content tailored to their current whim, local radio has the opportunity to draw the audience in with content that connects them with their community.

The radio industry is still going strong with 271 million Americans listening to radio every week (Nielsen, 2017). With the technological advances in digital audio and the many options available to listen to music and programming, radio is still the go-to source for listening pleasure; however, the radio industry cannot be complacent. If the radio industry is to survive, it must continue to innovate and adapt to the technology of today and the innovations of tomorrow.

Career Opportunities in Radio & Digital Audio: