Introduction to Media and Communication

INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
COM 167

RADIO

NAME : ANIS NASYUHA BINTI YUZAMRI
MATRIC CARD NO : 2013827476
CLASS : 1 A
NAME OF LECTURER : MR. WAN HASRIDZAL BIIN WAN ABU BAKAR

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION 3 1 DISCUSSION ON TOPIC PERTAINING COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA VALUES 7 1.1 ADVANTAGES OF RADIO 7 2 IDENTIFY PROBLEM AND CONFLICT OF RADIO 9 2.1 DISADVANTAGES OF RADIO 9 3 RECOMMENDATION 11 4 CONCLUSION 13 5 REFERENCE 15 6 APPENDIX 16

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* INTRODUCTION

The radio has been the first device to allow for mass communication. It has enabled information to be transferred far and wide, not only nationally wide but internationally as well. The development of the radio began in 1842 with Samuel Morse’s invention of the telegraph, which was important precursor to radio. Then, Guglielmo Marconi developed wireless telegraph. The early uses of the radio were mainly for maintaining contact between ships out a sea. However, this initial radio was unable to transmit speech, and instead sent Morse code messages back and forth between ships and stations on the land. During time of distress, a sinking ship would use a radio messaged nearby vessels and stations on the land to ask for aid. The law required ships at sea to leave their radio on 24 hours a day and required federal licensing of all radio transmitter ( RADIO ACT OF 1912 ). Edwin Armstrong made an early radio used amplitude modulation ( AM ), which have static and poor sound quality for music. Frequency modulation ( FM ) had less static but better sound quality for music. The radio also saw a surge of use during the First World War. Both sides used the radio to relay messages to troops and top officials as well as people not on the battle front. At the end of the war, President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points was sent to Germany via use of the radio. After the war’s end, with the growth of radio receivers, broadcasting began in Europe and The United States.
Europe’s most famous broadcasting station, the British Broadcasting Company or BBC, began following in 1922. In fact, Marconi was one of the founding members along with other prominent leaders in the field of wireless manufacturers. Broadcasts began locally in London, but by 1925 it has spread to most of the United Kingdom. The station aired plays, classical music and variety programs. However, the newspaper industry maintained a strong hold over the new. In 1926 this all changed due to a newspaper strike in England. With no news being published it fell on the BBC to supply the information for the public. In 1927 the BBC became the British Broadcasting Corporation when it was granted it a Royal Charter. When the Second World War began all the television stations shut down and it fell on the shoulders of the radio to cover the war.
Following the war radio saw its greatest advancements and a turn towards its more modern form. The devastation of Britain made its citizens look for an outlet in radio entertainment. People enjoyed listening to the music, plays and discussion that the BBC played. During the 1960s with the expansion of radio to FM more programs were played and local BBC stations opened up across England. Radio in Europe continued to expand and in the 1990s new radio stations, like Radio 1, 4 and 5 began broadcasting with genres like sports and comedy appealing to new audiences. As the BBC entered into the new millennium its popularity continued to grow. Its broadcasts of “The Century Speaks”, an oral history of the 20th century and a reading of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” helped to gain more listeners. In 2002 the BBC expanded to the digital market and saw its greatest expansion as new stations like 1Xtra, 5 Live, Sports Extra, 6 Music and BBC 7 were launched and World Service were made available to domestic listeners. The history of radio broadcasting in the United States followed a similar path.
Radio broadcasting in the United States started with the Westinghouse Company. The company asked Frank Conrad, one of their engineers, to start regularly broadcasting of music, while they would sell radios to pay for the service. Westinghouse applied for a commercial radio license in 1920, and started their station KDKA, the first officially government licensed radio station. The station’s first broadcast was the election returns of the Harding-Cox presidential race. Westinghouse also took out ads in the newspaper advertising radios for sale to the public. Soon, thousand of radio stations emerged that played a wide variety of broadcasts and reached people across the country that had bought or built their own receivers. The home building of receivers created a problem in the market, since people could simply build their own radios rather than going out to buy them and the government was forced to step in. To curb this a government-sanctioned agreement created the Radio Corporation Agreements, RCA, was formed to manage the patents for the technology of the receiver and transmitter. Companies like General Electric and Westinghouse were allowed to make receivers while Western Electric was allowed to build transmitters. Also in the agreements, AT&T was made the only station that was allowed to engage in toll broadcasting and chain broadcasting. This paved the way for the next step in radio development in America, radio advertising.
WEAF, an AT&T station in New York broadcasted the first radio advertisement in 1923. Even with the RCA agreements, other station began radio advertising. Most of the other radio stations were owned by private businesses and were used exclusively to sell that company’s products. The RCA agreements did create a problem though, it gave AT&T a monopoly over toll broadcasting and therefore radio advertisements. To break the monopoly, NBC and CBS were created and became the first radio networks in the late 1920s era. Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow became the first radio journalists, and by the end of the decade the radio had become an important source for news in America. In the next decade war in Europe again broke out and it fell on the radio to cover it. The radio acted to pacify and assuage the worries of a confused and scared public. More importantly the radio helped to pull together the nation’s moral and backing of the war effort. With the end of the war in 1945 television saw its rise to prominence and radio began to go on a slow but steady decline. But in the 1950’s thanks to Rock and Roll the radio saw new life.
Following the Second World War the radio turned into its more recognizable for of musical entertainment. AM stations played a top-40 time and temperature format, which meant they played popular three minute songs in constant rotation. All programming and music became aimed at a target audience of ages twelve to thirty five, newly emerging “middle class”. The sixties and seventies also saw the rise of FM radio. The new music that FM aired began to pose a threat to the old top-40 music AM stations still played in rotation, and the growing music of the hippie and psychedelic generation took over the FM airwaves. Through the 80s and 90s radio broadcasting continued to expand. Thousands of more stations sprung up playing all different kinds of music, world, pop, rock, jazz, classical, etc… However, in the 21st century the radio has reached its greatest heights.
With the year 2000 the radio expanded into the satellite and internet markets. The need for live DJ’s is dwindling since everything can be done via a computer all the editing and broadcasting can be done using hard drive of a computer. Jobs that used to take hours to do can now be done with the simple click of a mouse. Car companies have paired up with satellite radio stations like XM radio to offer special deals on satellite radios which offer every kind of music, news, and entertainment stations one could ask for. From a tiny receiver that could transmit only sounds to a complex device with satellites in space and wireless systems in cars, the radio has seen tremendous development. The purpose of the radio, however, has remained constant. From its inception the radio was created to communicate messages in mass for. Whether it be strictly news stories like in its early days, or binging new music to fans across the nation information is always being shared via this device. In almost every country radios are present, and in some it is a primary means for communication. Without its invention our world would be vastly different, it offered the first true means of mass communication and allowed leaders and people alike to impart valuable information to each other with the ease and efficiency.

DISCUSSION ON TOPIC PERTAINING COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA VALUES

ADVANTAGES OF RADIO

The most important advantage radio offers is its ability to reach specific audiences through specialized programming. In addition, radio can be adapted for different parts of the country and can reach people at different times of the day. For example, radio is the ideal means of reaching people driving to and from work. Known as drive time, these radio time slots provides the best audience for many advertisers.

Radio offers advertisers flexibility. Of all media, radio has the shortest closing period. Copy can be submitted up to airtime. This flexibility allows advertisers to adjust to local market conditions, current news events, and even weather. For example, a local hardware store can quickly implement a snow shovel promotion the morning after a snowstorm. Radio's flexibility is also evident in its willingness to participate in promotional tie-ins such as store openings races, and so on.

Radio may be the least expensive of all media. And because airtime costs are low, extensive repetition is possible. In addition, the costs of producing a radio commercial can be low, particularly if local station announcers read the message. Radio's low cost and high reach of selected target groups make it an excellent supporting medium. In fact, the most appropriate role for most radio advertising in a supportive one.
Without the radio and radio waves, we wouldn't have such quick communication. The naval forces have one, all ships have one (ever since the titanic, each radio has two operators.) It's a universal medium and it's enjoyed by all. As stated in previous answers, it's great for business advertisement because of its low cost and repetition. All in all, the radio has and probably always will be an important and helpful innovation.

IDENTIFY PROBLEM AND CONFLICT OF RADIO

DISADVANTAGES OF RADIO

One of the biggest disadvantages of radio advertising is the lack of visual stimulation. All that radio advertising is able to offer is audio, like voices and music. Television advertising, on the other hand, has an added visual element. Many experts agree that this added visual element is often more effective at worming its way into a potential consumer's mind.Suggest Edits
Radios are commonly used for background noise in many places, including homes, offices, stores, and vehicles. This usually means that listeners are not usually actively listening to the radio. This can also result in one of the major disadvantages of radio advertising — listeners will often not even hear most radio commercials. If they do not listen and hear them, they are typically less likely to patronize those particular businesses
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The inability to study an advertisement at the listener's leisure is another one of the major disadvantages of radio advertising. Readers are able to go back and read a newspaper advertisement, for instance, but they are unable to do this with a radio advertisement. If listeners miss some important information in a radio advertisement, they usually have to wait until the advertisement comes on again By that time, however, they may have either forgotten or lost interest. Suggest Edits
Many studies show that most people listen to their radios at certain times of the day. Many people listen to the radios in their vehicles during morning commutes to work and afternoon commutes home, for instance. Only a certain amount of time is devoted to advertising, and there are a limited number of these time slots available each day. These sought-after time slots will often be taken very quickly and they can be very expensive
Another reason is the limited range of a radio signal. Even a powerful radio signal is only capable of reaching receivers within a specific geographic region, requiring that a vast network of radio stations be set up to communicate effectively to a large or spread-out group of receivers. Radio signals are also susceptible to interference from atmospheric conditions and other broadcasts. In addition, it can be hard to receive a clear signal from certain locations, such as areas shielded by mountains.

RECOMMENDATION

Over its 30-year history, the radio has achieved an outstanding record of success. Among the system’s strengths has been the creation of programs that make a real difference in the quality of listeners’ lives and that are generating continuing in increases in audience and financial support in order to sustain such success, the radio system must overcome several industry-wide weaknesses, particularly the historically thin operating margins at many station.
Gathering and organizing listener data becomes priority one. While radio has historically been about broadcast, at the center of current digital development, from mobile to social media to streaming to advertising, is the unique user. That disconnect will start to be addressed by broadcasters in 2011. Gathering, identifying, and communicating with radio listeners at a one-to-one level will be the centerpiece of radio’s — indeed, all of media’s — future.
Local advertisers start to demand digital accountability. More than anything, this will focus radio’s attention on digital. John Wanamaker’s famous quote “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half” will start to haunt radio in 2011. Why? Because digital publishers and ad networks are saying you don’t need to guess anymore — and local advertisers are listening. They’ll only pay for the half which works. Radio’s shotgun approach to advertising will look more and more inefficient and not worthy of premium rates.
User-level ad targeting starts to redefine the value of streaming. This is closely related to trends number one and two. Digital agencies have completely ignored streaming through 2010 and traditional agencies offered marginal CPMs (cost per thousand impressions). The addition of user-level ad targeting will take CPMs to compelling levels thanks in part to digital agencies, who will finally be seeing a similar ad environment to what they see in display — ads targeted to specific users based not only on demographics, but their actual interests and behavior.
Digital agencies finally notice radio. As radio embraces more digital strategies to remain relevant to their existing advertisers, a positive side effect will be that digital agencies will turn their attention to radio. This will be a huge boon for the industry as ad revenue continues to erode from traditional agencies and move to digital. Key drivers will be the continued growth of streaming, local digital initiatives like daily deals, improved user-level targeting, and direct digital marketing via things like email and texting.
Radio starts to significantly embrace location-based mobile services. Radio somehow got left behind when services like Foursquare and Gowalla were out looking for media partners, but that will change in a big way in 2011. The ability for radio to go to an advertiser and utilize a digital platform to send their huge reach into stores is a huge opportunity.

CONCLUSION

Radio is a fast and easy advertising medium that has the ability to speak to your customers on a personal level and is able to reach large numbers of people in many different environments right throughout the day. By selecting the right station, the right time and season and combining it with the right mix of other media, you can create a radio advertising campaign that is cost effective, flexible, easy to design and implement and gain maximum impact
When we look at the state of radio, we find a medium that is stable though often overlooked. The stability is a testament to the fact that each technology has its own enduring strengths. In the case of radio, its resilience is traceable in part to the fact that listening to it has become so much a part the daily routine of most people that it has faded into the background. The radio is something that comes on when the bedside alarm goes off, when the car is started, when you walk into the gym.
At the same time, it is hard to calculate the full impact of the changes the medium has undergone, especially the loss of localness in news. There is merit to the argument that it is beneficial for more stations to broadcast news. It means that people going to the radio for music, talk or religious guidance are also getting information about public life. On the other hand, the evidence clearly suggests that news on the radio, particularly in small towns, smaller cities or even regions, is increasingly something from far away — national headlines, CBS News, NPR. The distribution of news from central newsrooms, as opposed to newsrooms in the stations themselves, might seem to argue against social fragmentation. People getting the same news are brought together. But radio once stood out as a local news medium, like newspapers, and that, in a growing number of communities in America, is no longer the case. While there are more outlets, or more spots on the dial, the diversity of sources actually producing the news has shriveled. Even more important, the events in one’s town, knowledge of local institutions, the ability to rally around local crises, even awareness of local people, charities and problems, are all eroded.
The implications are subtle but far-reaching. The political culture, like the music, becomes homogenized. The adage that all politics is local becomes less true. The ability to deal with local problems becomes more difficult as an important mediating institution in town, local radio, disappears.
Media and especially Community Radio - can give people a voice and offer a forum for dialogue between communities and government. Community Radio takes up this responsibility and ensures vulnerable groups in society are included and represented in their programming.
Community Radio stations educate, sensitise and inform these local audiences about issues that effect their lives: health, education, water, human rights, etc. This way, Community Radio is a genuine tool for local development.

REFERENCE

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10 advantages of streaming radio/internet radio & online music. (n.d.). Retrieved from 977 music internet radio: http://977music.com/blog/2010/10/10-advantages-of-streaming-radio/
About Radio. (n.d.). Retrieved from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/radio advantages & disadvantages of adio advertising. (n.d.). Retrieved from chron web site: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-amp-disadvantages-radio-advertising-40629.html front side. (n.d.). Retrieved from just how important is radio?: http://www.fontsideradio.com
History of radio. (n.d.). Retrieved from wikipedia: http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_radio introduction to media and communication com167. (n.d.). the disadvantages of radio communication. (n.d.). Retrieved from ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/list_6181295_disadvantages-radio-communication.html what are the disadvantages of a radio? (n.d.). Retrieved from ask.com: http://www.ask.com/question/qhat-are-the-disadvantages-of-a-radio

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