-
2. The Fourth Dimension of Advertising: The Development of Commercial Broadcasting in the 1920s
- Fordham University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
2 The Fourth Dimension of Advertising The Development of Commercial Broadcasting in the 1920s According to adman Charles Hull Wolffe, advertising has always been available ‘‘on the air’’: ‘‘In the haze of prehistory, a savage beat out tomtom signals along a jungle-lined river and caused the magic of sound to rouse a distant audience of tribesmen.’’1 Commercial radio, implied Wolff, was rooted in human history and behavior. And in the United States, radio carried promotional messages almost from the outset: For example, a broadcast sold radio equipment over the air in 1915.2 As early as 1922, one observer noted, ‘‘Concerts are seasoned here and there with a dash of advertising paprika.’’3 However, the commercialization of radio was not an unavoidable outcome, the irresistible result of our need to rouse our tribesmen with tom-tom signals. Broadcasting in some other countries, such as the United Kingdom, developed as tax-funded, government-controlled communication systems with far different goals.4 The American system, commercially controlled and funded, developed because of specific political decisions and particular economic incentives, a few of which I touch on here. Although some in the United States proposed that radio programming be funded with taxes or license fees paid by set owners, advertising, particularly indirect advertising, seemed a simpler and less politically fraught way to pay for programming .5 Once it was established that broadcasting would be supported by advertising rather than taxes, the radio networks, in search of backers , turned to members of the advertising industry to advertise radio advertising to advertisers. 34 | The Development of Commercial Broadcasting The Origins of Broadcast Commercialism Initially the business of radio was not advertising but the manufacturing and sale of radio equipment. As radio use increased after World War I, spread in part by radio-trained war veterans, commercial and noncommercial interests struggled over who was to have access to the airwaves. Commercial interests blamed amateur ‘‘hams’’ for airwave congestion;6 and in 1922, ignoring the broad use of radio by amateurs, schools, and churches, the federal government defined broadcast stations as commercial entities and assigned them to the purview of the Department of Commerce. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover set priorities by assigning the best and strongest frequencies to stations with commercial interests. The rationale was that commercial entities would be more responsible and accountable to the public than individual amateurs or those with a particular political viewpoint the government did not want to be perceived as supporting. Broadcasting was thus constructed as a ‘‘promotional medium’’ for the likes of retailers, newspapers, and manufacturers, who invested in stations to promote themselves.7 Investment in radio technology was nonetheless risky in the early years, and turnover of station ownership was high. Businesses often found radio’s public relations function too expensive to maintain, at tens of thousands of dollars a year, and some began to wonder how else the medium might be used commercially.8 An important step in commercializing broadcasting was the development of ‘‘toll broadcasting’’ in 1921 by the largest telephone company , American Telephone & Telegraph. AT&T held radio patents, but because none of them concerned the manufacturing of radio sets, it was forced to look for other sources of revenue to profit from radio. So it decided to try selling radio facilities for public use, like telephone booths of the air. And like a telephone call, AT&T imagined, the cost of the broadcast should be borne by the originator.9 Because only a limited number of broadcast licenses were available, according to former AT&T employee Mark Woods, ‘‘the Telephone Company decided they would have one central station which they would lease to advertisers and others for sales with certain restrictions, rules and regulations .’’10 That station was WEAF, based in Manhattan. AT&T’s strategy, [44.222.249.19] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:02 GMT) The Development of Commercial Broadcasting | 35 then, was to centralize and regulate the commercial messages that had already been going out on the air from various locally owned stations, often for free. ‘‘Toll broadcasting’’ was conceived initially as a way to send out a message. The sales staff at WEAF sought clients who would pay $50 or so to speak about their business for fifteen minutes. Most famously, the Queensboro Corporation promoted its new cooperative apartments in the uncongested New York borough of Queens in August 1922: ‘‘The cry of the heart is for more living room, more chance to unfold, more opportunity to get near to Mother Earth, to...