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1460 Apr 19

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  • Advances in electricity
    • Pre ww1
      • Electricity use was more for civic, industrial
      • Gas lamps > electricity
      • 1906 San Francisco Earthquake 9.4
        • Buildings collapsed
        • Water Mains broke
        • Gas mains broke; fires spread and couldn’t be contained
        • Had to tear down grounds to stop fire
        • Breaking things underground
        • Causes every city in America to rapidly change from gas lamps to electricity
      • StreetCars / Trolleys
        • Electricity for rail propellant instead of horses
      • New Change in Building
        • New York ran out of room; need to build vertically
        • Elevator technology
          • Otis created first elevator; Otis elevator company
          • Made skyscrapers possible; made them practical
        • Glass / concrete / steel built into buildings
          • Chrysler / Edison buildings
      • Factories
        • Wanting electric lights to be able to run 24/7
        • Machines on electricity, no steam power necessary
    • POST WW1 and effects of electricity
      • Electricity available in private sector; for individual consumption
      • Homes become healthier
        • Prior Urban heating systems required coal
        • Many individual rooms to get heated up
        • People spent a lot of time alone during those times due to heating processes
      • Electricity eliminated fumes, need for wallpapers,
      • building costs went up
        • Indoor plumbing started to be integrated at same time as electricity
        • Elimination of many small rooms due to no need for coal heating process
        • Introduction of family room; better social dynamics
      • Christmas trees would be safer w/o having candles
  • Innovations and significant consumer items
    • Washing machine
    • Vacuums
      • Wall to wall carpeting becomes popular; especially in colder areas
    • Sewing machines
    • Kitchen appliances
      • Blenders, mixers, electric egg beaters, coffee percolators,
    • Electric irons
    • Refrigerators
      • More common WW2 and post
      • 1920s versions weren’t the best
    • Radio
      • Came out in 1920
      • Tesla technically created
      • Marconi accredited for creation
      • KVKA Pittsburgh was first radio station
        • First commercial radio broadcast covering Presidential election
          • Warren G Harding v Cox
      • End of 1930s 41 million radios operating in America
        • Average of >1 per household
      • Make national audience possible
        • Advertisers become ig part of radio expansion
      • July 1921 ; not even one year
        • Sports broadcast World Heavyweight Broadcast
        • Jack Dempsey v George
        • 300,000 listened
      • October 1921
        • World Series; all games broadcast on radio; all fantastic listening audience
      • December 1921
        • 10 radio stations at end of year
      • June 1922
        • 100 stations operating
      • December 1922
        • 350 stations operating
      • Radio Sales
        • 1922 60 million dollars spent on radios / radio parts
        • 1923 125 million
        • 1924 358 million
      • MUSIC
        • Would later become major staple of radio; was not initial purpose
        • Radio stations didn’t always broadcast on same exact place on radio path; would have to find spot on dial
        • Therefore people would play music before their broadcasts for people to find stations before main broadcast i.e. Sports, radio program
        • People would find that people would listen to music rather than program
        • Led to exclusive music radio stations
        • First music played
          • Symphony and opera
            • Elites typically were only those who would listen to these
            • Rise of people interested in playing instruments;
            • Rise of music programs
        • Jazz music
          • Associated w/ immorality
          • Alcohol illegal, partying, flappers, black people music, women smoking etc.
          • 1930s finally on the radio
          • 30-40s be very popular
          • City folk music
        • Country music rise 1920s
          • Gospel music / Bluegrass / folk music / rural type music
            • All these types popular; mix of all is country
          • Radio broadcasting of church music / services
            • Sunday’s turn from attending church to tuning into church on radio
            • Radio becomes powerful tool for religion; radio evangelists
        • Radio was chaotic
          • No uniform standards, some stations blasting at different frequencies / powers in order to overpower other stations
          • Radio industry would beg government to regulate
  • Federal Radio Act 1927
    • Created America
    • FRC - Federal Radio Commission; Federal Communications Commission
      • Set standards for all broadcasters
      • Good and bad news
        • FRC / FCC only listened to those that had money (Bigger stations)
        • Biggest stations got prime stations near center of dial;
        • Smaller programmers near end of dials;
        • Commercial interested forwarded and thrived
        • Brought order to industry
  • 1926 - Radio Corporation of America (RCA)
    • Link with ATT
    • American Telephone and Telegraph (ATT)
      • Link radio programs w/ telephone lines
      • Creation of Radio networks
        • National broadcasting company (NBC) first big network ever
      • Average estimated listening audience for first broadcast
        • 4 hours long
        • music/ comedy etc.
        • 12 million people
          • Only 10 broadcasts
    • 1927
      • NBC covered Lindberg flight
      • Over 30 million tuned to follow Charles Lindberg
      • First radio superstar; celebrity based on radio
  • Serial Romantic Dramas
    • Women love these type of shows
    • Sponsors would flock to these b/c of popularity w/ women
    • Ivory soap sponsored these serial dramas
    • Would become known as Soap Operas!
      • Associate products w/ that particular drama
  • Toll Broadcast
    • If you had something I wanted to broadcast, could buy airtime
  • Cigarette Companies
    • Geniuses in advertising
    • Lucky Strike (biggest cigarette company in America)
      • Social stigma w/ women smoking in public
      • Lucky Strike would look to attack stigma; go after female market
      • Opera
        • Opera singers from Europe to tie into their products
        • Europeans stigma of higher class / upper echelon class people smoke these
      • “This will help you keep a slim figure”
  • Radio blurring boundaries of segregation
    • Amis and Andy show
      • Many prejudices, negative stereotypes
      • Solid listening audiences in both black and white audiences
      • Show about experiencing culture shock
        • 2 men from Georgia that move up to Chicago
        • Experiencing big city for first time
        • Go through highly amusing / entertaining cultural clashes
      • Radio audience blurs race lines; culture starts to mix in certain ways
      • Sets tone for innovations that come later
  • 1930s
    • Hitler’s use of radio
      • Ability to talk and sell his ideas; advertisement of thoughts; teaches others how to propagandize
      • Government propaganda;
      • Heavily influences FDR’s use of radio
    • Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt
      • Depression at lowest point; people desperate
      • FDR understands people’s need to talk to people
      • Creates Fireside Chats
        • Weekly radio show
        • Poses as friendly neighbor; fellow American
    • News Programming
      • Required a lot of funding
      • People desperate to hear what is happening
      • What’s going on in the world:
        • Soviet Union on rise during great depression
          • Seems to be only country in World that seems to do well
        • Hitler revitalizing Germany; invading
        • Mussolini in Italy; inciting violence
        • Franco in Spain
        • Japan Spreading Greater East Asia Pro Prosperity Sphere in Eastern Pacific
      • 1938 - one of most significant news radio programs ever
        • Citizen Kane Orson Wells
        • Orson Wells wants to put out pseudo news program; that comes out of nowhere
        • Alien Invasion - War of the Worlds
          • Begins w/ disclaimer;
            • What you are about to hear is not true
          • Causes massive hysteria
          • Beginning of science fiction movie genre
  • Urban vs Rural
    • Urban people look at rural people at living in a past era; stuck in past unable to change
      • Contributed to urban people’s reaction to Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee

Rough Transcript

Probably going to finish about a week early on YouTube talking about the innovations that are coming about in the early 20th century about cars and so it's become a real big part of American culture but electricity was one of the big driving forces of 20th century consumerism and remains so electricity industrial application for example the original street lights when major cities were built were gas lamps in 1906 something big happened does anybody know what happened in 1906? Do you impact in the United States. an earthquake. biggest on record: 9.4m  up the the earthquake cause buildings to start falling but the underground means were ruptured for water lines which means San Francisco which really had one of the most state of the art fire fire systems were really really good but ultimately they couldn't get the buyers put out because the warming pool and when the gas means went up the fire spread throughout the city and they could not be contained they had to actually but the vast majority of San Francisco is either gutted by the earthquake or a firm to the ground and from that point on every city in America is going to rapidly try to get over onto electric lamps for their street lights the propellant for the rail so the electric rail cars become very common in cities another big thing that happened was a new changing building out anymore up and Technology made that possible because of electricity we have the technology to build these buildings 100 years ago 200 years built skyscrapers back in the early 1800s no problem but we didn't why why didn't you want a skyscraper back in the 1800s invented the elevator and even created a company that is still very much alive today we Otis Elevator companies to elev ators the world but down payment skyscraper Hospital s made them practical Saturdays the Empire State Building this time the Chrysler Building is built during this time also you see electric lights because now they can run 24 hours a day 7 days a week they don't have to shut down the machines are often using electricity too no longer are they using steamhouse you're starting to move over to Alexa electricity starts finding its way if you try to special comes more individual can't become the greatest lubricant for consumerism American has never seen electricity change the pattern of how Society functions on every level no longer are you high people talk about burning the fossil fuels carbon footprint and whatnot so we know that burning fossil fuels is not a good thing to retirement what do you know why you taking a class on environmental stud ies if you haven't I highly recommend you do what is the big thing about what is it released carbon monoxide requirements to people so it's an incredibly un healthy thing to burn coal in your house have those fumes go all over the place and be breathing in that carbon monoxide on a regular basis also has anybody ever burned Cold War yeah okay what's the residue like is it dry and ashy like wood okay there's a big difference between them Ash is nice and powdery you can brush it away it doesn't really make that big of a mess you can clean it up soot once you burn it it's this oily film that coats everything it's nasty okay so the soot now have you ever seen like Victorian era late 1800s homes and what they look like inside they have this really were heavy wallpaper dark oppressive color being in there feels like the house is going to fall on you you just feel the pressure of the darkness right you ever noticed that well there's a reason they put up those kinds of wallpaper on the walls it was to hide the corset if you have white balls they will turn gray faster than you can possibly imagine and good luck getting that stuff off the walls once it's there you can't get it off what's more you can't really paint over it because it's so oily you try putting paint on that it'll don't peel off thank you thank you okay so the suit is a problem also when you heat it a house by cold it would get warming up but it has a whole bunch of smaller more contained rooms now think about your house today he might have what a 3 or 4 bedroom house something like that go back then it wasn't uncommon to have a house about the size of a three or four bedroom house but they would have 8 to 10 bedrooms or room size things that they could kind of Niche off and why do they do that smaller so they're easier to heat up and the way you would do it as you'd get the coal burning and then you open up the doors one at a time to let the room heat up and then you close them and people would spend their time in those rooms but that meant there was a lot of family isolation people spend a lot of time alone electricity will change that for one thing once you start heating with electricity well first of all you don't have the fumes it's healthier also you don't need that really heavy oppressive wallpaper off the walls to paint your walls white it's light it's open you can breathe it's a whole lot better environment but the problem is building costs went up Not only was electricity coming into the house into the house at the same time indoor plumbing both of these were being integrated into Home Design at the same time and because of that the building costs of a large house Skyrocket because you're not just paying for the construction of the wall anymore now inside that wall you have to take the time to drill the holes pull the pipes weld them run cable put in plugs you have to do all that kind of stuff now so the the labor costs have gone up the supply cost you have to buy the pie chip to buy the wire you have to buy everything so the cost of home construction is going up dramatically so how do they keep the cost a little lower will you remember how they had all of these little individual rooms they get rid of those they don't need them anymore they were using those in order to hold the heat in from when you were feeding with Cole but now with electric heat you can use your rooms and keep it heated and fewer rooms fewer walls let's building material so This Is How They control keeping the heat so what does that do for the family people are used to being in their own little area aren't they and all of a sudden you get something called a family room a place where the family is now congregating like it or not those people are spending a lot more social time together so the families are interacting a lot more than they were social interaction goes up and so does Healthy Living also the new technology is being used for different types of Technology Appliance advances electricity Thomas Edison was brilliant at creating all sorts of consumer goods that make people's lives better and other start picking up on it too among these Innovations one of the first ones they pick is similar to what you have today but not quite the same if you look at washing machine back then you go oh my gosh they look like that basically it was a big tub on a frame like this and the tub spin but is that really so different from what we have you take off the outside casing on your washing machine that's kind of what it looks like now they had to fill it up manually and they had to drain it manual also there was no spin cycle to pull all the water out they just had to pull it up and ring it up but they didn't have to spend hours scrubbing it with the scrubber the washboards easy they cut hours of work down 2 minutes of work and that is a big big benefit for a lot of people another big one who's vacuums what do vacuums enable you to do now here in California it's not a big deal lots of people have hardwood floors we like them they're actually even more common than carpeting is in most places but let's say you're up in some place like Vermont or Colorado do you want hardwood floors in Colorado maybe if you've got a good heating system but if you're heating system you just don't run into the heat all the time and at night it might get cool what happens to the floor you ever get out of floor out of bed and put your feet on the floor and go ahead stuck so cold stuck to the floor at least you kind of feel that way well a lot of people in the colder climates are saying man these new vacuums are great I can cover my floor with the carpet and so they don't just have area rugs now that's what they use before the area rugs they didn't have vacuum cleaners before that's what they would do you heard of spring cleaning right well every spring they would take those area rugs out hang them over a clothesline and beat them with the stick until all the desk was out and then they part of their cleaning process now they don't have to do that they have a vacuum cleaner that can take care of cleaning so it makes that a whole lot easier but it makes the Advent of wall-to-wall carpet possible so another change in home design we'll do all carpeting becomes something that is very popular especially in the golden crimes another way that Home Design becomes safer with electricity Christmas time what do people bring into their homes at Christmas trees yes do you know how they decorated Christmas trees candles candles plus a dried out Christmas tree with needles falling all over the place may not be the best combination unless of course you're okay with burning your house down because that happened a lot so people had to be real careful with those sandals and there were a lot of house fires Merry Christmas you just burn down your house sound like fun that's me not to them either and electricity made Christmas a whole lot safer and a lot more colorful too one thing that it also does it starts widening the gap between urban and rural when we were talking about like the Scopes Monkey Trial and how far the urban versus rural Gap had gotten it wasn't just a gap it was the Grand Canyon at this point it was a chasm between urban and rural electricity causes that to expand all of those benefits that people in the cities get with electricity and people in the countryside aren't getting at least not yet now gradually they will get it but there is a growing gap between urban and rural and the urban people are looking at the rural people as people who are stuck in a previous pre-modern Society whereas the cities are moving ahead that's one reason that they had such contempt for the people in Tennessee when the Scopes trial is going on they looked at him as backwards they're stuck in the past they're unwilling to change and they need to be brought into the modern world that was the interpretation of the people in the cities World War II excuse me World War I sorry what's the big Turning Point and the personalization and from that point on you start getting a lot of different appliances so we talked about washing machines and vacuum cleaners those are certainly big sewing machines are another big one before that you had a trundle machine which is he had a foot pedal that you rocked back and forth that would sell so it was all mechanical Power based on you but once you have electricity you can simply hit a button and the thing starts going so that is a great Advantage for people using sewing machines and a lot of people made their own clothes back then so that wasn't uncommon a lot of people wanted that kitchen appliances were also very popular blenders mixers Electric coffee percolators another huge one electric iron to iron your clothes before that they have basically a piece of Steel that is more or less shaped like an iron but it has a wooden handle on it and you put it on top of a stove top and Let It Go problem here is if it gets too hot it'll burn your clothes if it doesn't get hot enough it won't get the wrinkles out so it was a real chore to get it just the right temperature and then once it was you immediately start ironing as quick as you can because it's cooling off as you speak and then you have to sit there and wait for it to heat back up again well electric irons made it possible for you to Simply set a thermostat exactly where you wanted it plug it in wait for it to heat up and then you can just fire all your stuff all at once no pausing no waiting and you never have to worry about it being too hot or too cold the iron is exactly the right temperature all the time that was a big bonus for people that made a huge difference in in the lives of people let's talk about refrigerators refrigerators were not really a 1920s thing they started coming out in the 30s but they still weren't very good it was really the World War II era where you start seeing Refrigeration become a lot more common and after the war refrigerators took off like crazy everybody wanted a new picture so World War II is really the turning point for electric refrigerators one of the most significant things to come out as a consumer item that will change America forever and continues to even to this day was something that was put out in 1920 now initially it was Nikola Tesla who came up with the idea behind this but he is not really credited with the invention The Invention instead was credited to a man named Marconi and that invention is the radio 1920 was The Big Year for radio that's when it came out first radio station was KDKA Pittsburgh you think that the first radio station are probably been in New York nope Pittsburgh Pennsylvania the first commercial radio broadcast that they put out was in November of 1920 what do you think it might have been what happens in November Christmas nope there's something else that happens in November yeah Thanksgiving does happen think earlier and think every two to four years 19 the presidential election they're covering the presidential election between Warren G Harding who won at Cox the guy who didn't this was the first partial radio broadcast covering the presidential election however to give you an idea of how long it will take for America to be fully inundated with radio by the end of the 1930s just before World War 2 there are 41 million radios operating in America that's more than an average of one per household that's huge that's a lot of radios that are out there so a lot of people own two or more radios radios are significant because they make a truly National listening audience possible you can reach an entire nation worth of people with radios that's the real power of this and think of that from a consumerism standpoint who takes advantage of being able to reach that many people you want to sell stuff what do you need commercials advertising advertisers are going to be a big part of the rapid expansion of radio okay so the first broadcast came out in November of 1920 a little over half a year later in July of 21 you have another type of broadcast happen the first one was Politics the second one will be Sports and the Sports Broadcast that was huge was the world heavyweight boxing championship between Jack Dempsey and George Carpentier the boxing match reached the largest listening audience up to that point 300,000 listeners approximately that was pretty good considering radio's been around for not even a year 300,000 people were able to tune in and listen to that by October we were at July there we jump forward October just a few months later what big sporting event happens in October 10th and Amy Sports bands out there no Sportsman you guys suck not football World Series yes please he can balance your checkbook while you're watching baseball okay so baseball the World Series was hugely popular and it had a great success in being broadcast all the games of the World Series were broadcast on radio and they all had fantastic listening audience by December of 1921 so good first radio broadcast is offering so over the course of a year it went from 1 to 10 that's not bad for the first year considering people have to get started they have to get set up and they have to start broadcasting 6 months later by June of 22 100 stations are operating by December of that year 350 radio stations are operating see what's happening the significance of radio was very very fast to explode this is at a time when it took time for people to do things well that's changing the speed at which change is being embraced is remarkable during this period of time and the sales of radio and radio Parts also dramatically sure you just how big of a financial impact this has in America from a consumerism in 1922 alone 60 million dollars and that was $60 million back then so that's a huge amount of money 60 million was spent in 1922 on radios and radio parts the next year 1923 125 million it doubled it's blowing up in here now is there anybody in here who does not have a radio you don't have a radio you have a car huh it's not really your car okay but you're driving it right so it's basically your radio okay we all got them there's radios all around us all the time so this is something that is still very much part of current American society well this is when it really kicks into the year so we've talked about politics and then sports but it's not long before they figure out the signific ance now up to this point music is not what their programming for but if I were to ask you why do you turn on the radio today do you do it for the news do you do it for any entertainment shows novelty acts dramas that you're listening to what do you listen to music yeah music it becomes the major staple of radio but early on that's not what it was used for you see before you have dialed on your radio now where you can tune into an exact frequency digitally they didn't have that they had a little knob that you moved back and forth and you just have to kind of kind of nudge it a little bit to dial it in so it's nice and clear get rid of the static as much as possible it's something you just kind of had to bust with but radio stations didn't always broadcast on the same exact place on the radio band so one day it might be over here the next day it might be here the next day it might be here and you have to go find their spot on the dial so how do you do it well then I'll tell you we're going to be playing the World Series on the radio here well people want to be there for the start of the game right if you want to be there for the start you have to be able to tune in early so they would play music before the event that they are scheduling so that people can tune in and listen to the music and then when the event starts they're already in place that's what they were using music for but pretty soon a lot of radio broadcasters found that people were actually listening to the music program started they would switch stations and listen to another one that was using the lead in music and they go people are really listening to the music rather than the program and this game rise to stations playing exclusive music well that's all they did music over the radio brings a big change to America the music that they first start playing are Symphonies and operas now you probably go oh gosh that's boring well for people who are not used to listening to music at all who gets position to Symphonies and and operas wealthy the elite they're the ones who go to Carnegie Hall and listen to the New York Symphony and fill our mind they're the ones who go here La Boheme the Opera being performed they're the ones who can afford that the upper middle class can make their way into that below that it really falls off quick and unless you're an absolute fanatic and you save up a lot to go most people don't have access to that for radio suddenly crosses the money boundary introducing Opera and Symphony to people who have never really had a chance to appreciate it and they love it what's more they're inspired by it they hear it and they go wow I want to do some of that this is cool and so it gives rise to people learning how to play instruments ordinary people that normally wouldn't up to now who learned how to play instruments like the piano or the violin yeah oh you're going I did yeah but up to that point only the wealthy could afford to do that that's a big benefit the 1920s are known especially for what kind of music jazz good yes it's known as the Jazz Age but Radio broadcasters typically avoid Jazz why what were the negative associations with jazz black people there's a racism component okay who listens to Jazz the kids the young adults and what are they doing when they're listening to Jazz exactly they're sinning with an ending yes they are dancing lasciviously with each other they're wearing scanty clothes of flappers all of this is associated where are they doing it the plugs where they are serving what alcohol is illegal prohibition they're drinking alcohol and good girls who shouldn't be smoking in public are lighting up so jazz is associated with immorality on a big scale and it really isn't until the late 20s and early 30s where you see Jazz start moving on to the radio by 30s it will be the big type of music that is on the radio big bands emerge in the 1930s and people love it it catches on so do the 30s and 40s Jazz will become the most popular type of music that is being broadcast but it doesn't appeal to everybody there are people in other places of the country that don't like jazz or whatever reason maybe they just don't like the sound of it maybe it doesn't speak to them as a matter of fact they don't like Symphonies because it's hoity toity they don't like offer because hey they're singing in a different language and I can't even understand them okay they don't like jazz well that's the city folks what do they like they like gospel they like bluegrass they like Hill Music they like both music they like local types of music that speak to their individual culture in their little locality and all of these little rural types of music combined with gospel start coalescing into one main type of music has a lot of different ways it is expressed but it's all grouped together and called country in 1920s so country music becomes incredibly popular but as part of that gospel is also very popular you hear a lot of religious programming during this period time Gospel Music and on Sundays they will start broadcasting church services now you remember how when we were talking about 20s during during the religion section how we said a lot of people stop attending church and I said there's more reasons than just people becoming anti-religious well this is the other reason the radio starts broadcasting church services and a lot of people start waking up on Sunday going oh man I don't want to get ready and go down to church or I'm not feeling that well I just want to listen to church on the radio and so they'll go down to their living room tune in the radio and listen to church there so rather than going to church church comes to them so it's not that so many people are becoming anti-religious although there are a lot of them in the twenties you do but a lot of those numbers of defining Church attendance is due to the radio the radio has a big impact and in fact the radio becomes a very powerful tool for religion ministers who suddenly went from local revivalist preachers to evangelists like William Jennings Bryan Billy Sunday are there still our televangelists still on TV oh yeah they're there you go down to the South and you'll see a lot of those programs that's big there okay so there's a lot of different types of radio programming that's coming out but one big problem was that it was absolutely chaotic it was crazy stuff was all over the place Radio broadcasters would free would change frequencies like people change clothes one day they're over here the next day they're over there people don't know where to find them on the dial also some broadcasters are only putting out maybe 10,000 watts of power others are coming in broadcasting it 100,000 watts of power and then somebody comes along and his broadcasting at 5 million watts of power blowing out everybody anywhere near their frequency they know over other people they mow over those other stations and the radio industry starts doing something that is very very rare in American Business they are begging the government to regulate governments don't businesses typically don't like the government messing with their business they want them to stay out of that well this is one case where you actually see the industry ask for that regulation because it needed it desperately and the government was very quick to respond to that the federal radio app the radioactive 1927 was a very significant piece of legislation because he created America's regulatory body or radio waves and that was the Federal radio Commission later on the federal radio commission will be expanded and renamed to the Federal Communication Commission bfcc and the SEC is still the regulatory body for any kind of aired material they set new standards for all broadcasters this was good news but it was also bad news because the people they listen to are the people with money the big high-powered radio stations that have lots of money they were the ones who got things their way which means the little smaller more independent ones the big radio stations got the prime spots in the center of the dial if you were a small broadcaster you were pushed out to the margins let me ask you something do they still do that kind of yeah you see a lot of the other less popular ones wind up somewhere down around 87.3 or up around 107.9 or 108.1 if you have 108 you know you're really French that's way out there on the diet and that's where these smaller stations are being relegated to whereas the big ones are kept in the middle so the middle of the dial tended to be where people would look and they very rarely went that hurt the smaller programs so this is forwarding business interest s commercial interests would be forwarded and they would Thrive under this system but the one thing it does do it brings necessary order to an absolutely crazily chaotic now in 1926 shortly before this regulation was put in there was an interesting innovation in the world of radio the big radio company at this point in time was radio Corporation of America RCA and RCA teams up with another big company to produce a company jointly that they both own a pizza that other company that they came up with is American Telephone and Telegraph AT&T still around today what it does AT&T do what's their business team up with a telephone line company they can link up radio stations over telephone lines over bass distances and broadcast the same program nationally yeah they create what becomes known as a radio network and that Network that they created the National Broadcasting Company NBC NBC the first big Network not just in the United States we did it first here the first lash up that they create was a 4-Hour program they advertise it locally then it's going to be at a certain time and they encourage people to tune in as much as they were hoping they got far more than they ever dreamed the average estimate estimated this audience for that broadcast it was 4 hours long it had a lot of different components music comedy various various different programs in there 12 million people there's never been an audience that big before that was not possible before Radio Networks and this was only their first attempt they only had 10 stations linked up with this 12 million can you imagine what they can do if they start linking up more well they found out the next year 1927 something very significant happened in the world have you heard of Charles Lindbergh he's the guy who first solo piloted across the Atlantic Ocean that's what he's famous for well NBC covered the flight they used a massive radio Lasha over their Network they linked more than 50 radio stations in 24 States which was more than half of the United States that one over 30 million people tuned in to follow Charles Lindbergh and something happened because of that we got our first radio Superstar celebrity based on radio this it already seen movie stars approach but this is the first big Radio Star who emerged from Radio something else that happens is that stuff to people who want to buy stuff consumers find that this is an advertising dream come true being able to reach 30 million people and captive audience like NBC can do can you imagine what advertisers are thinking the profits that they are imagining pill comparison to the reality of what they're actually achieving they're dreaming here they're achieving here they soon learn the incredible power of advertising over Radio Networks advertising Begins by sponsoring individual shows if you have a product you want to sell you try to Target your audience based on a particular type of show if you're trying to sell cleaning products to Housewives you want to Target a show that Housewives listen to make sense and so Men start coming up with these ideas well what is it that women want to listen to I bet they'd like shows on child care tips gardening and the women are going really you're joking right what is it that women wanted to listen to and once they figured that out sponsors started blocking to them because they were hugely popular with women and the companies that really associated with those Ivory so Ivory sponsored these kinds of Serial dramas and so did other cleaning company so much popularity came out of it they came they soap operas that's where the term soap opera comes from stop being so they still call him soap operas still very much alive call broadcasts we're also something that we're very popular if you had something you wanted to broadcast but you didn't want to actually start a station you just wanted to put out a show you can pay for airtime there were stations that would sell airtime to you so you could do that as well however the big Advertiser who really figured out how to do it right leave it to the cigarette company they are the Geniuses when it comes to advertising and we will see that time and again cigarette companies know how to sell a product and the company that really figures it out during this period of time was a company called Lucky Strike which was pretty much the biggest cigarette company in America very popular he can still get up what is it their app well men there's no problem with them smoking but there's a social stigma against women smoking in public right this is what they want to take on if they can get rid of that stigma it means women will be buying cigarettes as much as men do and that means they sell more cigarettes they make more money so they want to go after the female Marketplace or cigarettes so the first thing they do is say well we need to take away this stigma to make it not be a negative thing for women to smoke so how do we do that Opera had become very popular in America by this point people knew the opera stars by name they were famous they were International celebrities and most of the big opera singers were from Europe in America Europeans have something sort of like a an era of sophistication that people in America just feel it left and so when you tap into European ideas they tend to have a little bit more refinement they're a little more highbrow and so by getting opera singers from Europe to endorse their products they are tying into that idea well these are people of High Society they are people who are good decent upper echelon and their opera singers which means they make their living singing so clearly if they're smoking there must be nothing wrong with it it's perfectly safe and it's clearly not something that is to be ground on morally if the elites over there or upper singers are smoking it must be okay and that starts changing some attitudes but were they really strike gold they sell cigarettes to women by saying this will help you want to maintain your figure you want to keep the weight off smoke Lucky Stripes does that work now how many of you have smoked and I'm not talking about the guns yes it works why because cigarettes aren't oral fixation so instead of picking up something to eat you light up a cigarette you're not taking in calories you ask any smoker who has ever gone through the problem of breaking the addiction and quitting as soon as they quit cigarettes they say man I gave 20 pounds in a month on something that's why somebody got smokers are constantly too gum it's so that they're not eating something because it's just packing on the pounds so yes cigarettes do deal with that also cigarettes have some kind of a chemical reaction in your brain that tends to lessen your cravings for food have your oral fixation cigarettes do that you know what you crave with cigarettes coffee that's what you think and coffee unless you're putting all kinds of crap in it is not terribly happening drink it black you're fine so very effective for that other things that we're significant Radio starts blurring boundaries that have traditionally been maintained for racial lines segregated black and white are on different sides segregation is very much part of America but an interesting radio program comes along and I will say from the get-go that if you were to listen to this radio program today you would be offended it is very racially off cold okay there's a lot of prejudices in there there's a lot of negative stereotypes in there but at the same time it has a solid listening audience in both the black and white communities alike why the program now keep in mind the 1920s When the Ku Klux Klan was rising and there was so much violence being directed toward African Americans fleeing from that a lot of them will move out of the South up to Northern cities or out west in California and when they do that they experience something of a culture shop and Amos and happy it's two men from Georgia who move up to Chicago and when they get there experiencing the big city up North for the first time they go through all sorts of Highly amusing very entertaining cultural classes you know it's it's a they don't quite understand everything and so a lot of the culture of the South is involved a lot of the stereotypes of blacks are involved but enough of them can identify with the humor that despite the racism and keep in mind they're used to the racism they get it every day when they're out there people are always looking down on them because of their race so they're used to that but they can identify with the situation that these two guys remember that yeah and all of a sudden you have a listening audience finish Crossing racelands this is starting to blur the line between white culture and Black Culture they're starting to mix in certain ways this is going to set the still set the tone for some of the innovations that come later World War II isn't far off and World War II really kicks the Civil Rights Movement into high gear that's the picture when we enter the 1930s we see something else happen out in Germany there's this guy named Hitler and Hitler is one of the most genius users of radio the world had ever seen he can sell the big lie so effectively that he teaches other people how to sell by his very approach of selling his ideas to people government propaganda propaganda is nothing more than a sales pitch by your government to get people to buy an idea that's what they're doing they're advertising thought how you think propaganda becomes bit well killer is using it in a very negative and destructive way but he is heavily influencing somebody else in our country Franklin Delano Roosevelt Roosevelt is a is elected in 1932 when the Great Depression was at its very lowest point people were desperate and Roosevelt understands the need to communicate with the people not just to talk at them not to talk above them not to give speeches the people don't need that and Roosevelt delivers them he creates a weekly radio show called the Fireside Jets and hey I'm just your friendly neighbor another fellow American just like and I'm coming here to talk with you today about what your country this week we were working on fixing the banking system so that when you put your money in the bank you know it's going to be safe that's what we're trying to do we're working to figure you and then the next week hey we came up with two new jobs programs there are now 7 million more jobs available in the country because of this and if you are out of work you should look into this people finally felt reconnected the Great Depression demoralized America everybody was wondering if this is the downfall of the country maybe capitalism maybe modernity maybe America as a whole just isn't going the right direction look at all the great Great Depression brought just a huge impact into people's lives in a very negative way but Roosevelt restored their faith the New Deal program that he came out with that was meant to fix the Great Depression get improved things but it wasn't the New Deal that got America out of the depression before too but was it successful anyway yes and the reason because of the Fireside Chats the Roosevelt was using to sell his ideas to the American people he got them not to give up to maintain hope to stay focused on what their government was trying to do for them and that they work ignoring the problems of the masses they knew that there were problems and they were actively working to help them Roosevelt convinced them that that help was coming and it kept America in one piece they didn't give up and Chuck it all another big thing that came out the third that was huge and still is huge today news programming news programs were not done in the 20 first of all to run a news program effectively it takes money a lot of money because you got to go out and get that news you have to gather it you have to organize it then you have to broadcast and that takes a lot to ever hind you had to have a lot of funding behind but in the 1930s people are nervous about what's going on in the world think about this the Soviet Union is on the rise during the Great Depression the Soviet Union looks like the only country in the world that actually is working everybody else is disastrous but here you have a communist country going like crazy and then Hitler comes in he starts modernizing Germany even more and he starts ignoring all the treaty provisions and people are going hey this guy sounds like he's pretty good and then he starts invading people taking up bits and pieces of their country they're going and then they see mussoline and he's giving these big bombastic speeches and setting people out to conduct violence on others to get the government doing what he wants to do and then there's Franco in Spain another fascist dictate people are standing wow what's happening and at the same time you have Japan spreading the greater East Asia cup Prosperity spear cross the Eastern Pacific and a lot of people are gone what's happening we need to know what's going on the news people are desperate to hear what's happening now and news programming becomes huge to show you how huge it got in 1938 one of the most significant radio programs of all time was air there was a filmmaker a guy who is famous for creating what Hollywood typically consid greatest movies ever made does anybody know what Hollywood considers that movie you're on the right direction well Orson Welles comes up with he wants to put out a pseudo news program but he wants to tell it as a story kind of like it's breaking news what is the story he's telling aliens are invading America an alien invasion this is a story he's telling and the name of that program was called War of the Worlds it is arguably the most famous single radio program of all time that's how significant that works now he starts out with the disclaimer he tells people what you were about to hear is for entertainment purposes only this is not a real news broadcast so please do not take it seriously it's 100 but if you tune in just a little late you tune into a news broadcast it's talking about aliens coming in oh my gosh they just blew up the White House oh there goes to Capital and people freaked it caused a massive hysteria across the country people are going oh my gosh but afterwards Hollywood found something that they really like I mean they'd already made a couple science fiction movies but after this science fiction movies are going to be big people love them because they're fascinated with aliens is that still true do we still have movies talking about aliens lots of them so he definitely Taps into something here but it also demonstrates just how significant news broadcast had been in people's lives they relied on that information they needed it news programming was trustable is it anymore not right now not in this climate they put out what they want people to hear not necessarily what is actually happening so take news programs with a grain of salt these days there's post people on multiple sides of multiple issues all trying to convince you to think of things their way News broadcasting was reliable it was trustable because people needed that news and so they tried to do it as well as they could possibly do it somewhere along the line we lost track of that and it was probably about 2004 2008 somewhere in there we're become less and less reliable so that is a good place to stop and on Monday we will move into World War II have a good weekend I'll see you then