An interesting step back in history – worlds 1st radio commercials
The first paid radio commercial was developed by WEAF in New York by American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) in August of 1922. The book “The WEAF Experiment” by an (AT&T) employee describes the concept of “toll broadcasting” as it related to sponsorship of whole programs. (The first sponsor, and hence commercial – according to AT&T – came from the Queensboro Corporation of New York, to sell real estate. The set of five programs over five days starting 8/28/22 cost $50, plus the long distance access fee.) However, it appears other radio stations may actually have sold advertising before WEAF. As early as May 1920, an amateur radio broadcaster leased out his “station” in exchange for $35 per week for twice-weekly broadcasts. And, in Seattle, Washington, Remick’s Music Store purchased a large ad in the local newspaper advertising radio station KFC, in exchange for sponsorship of a weekly program, in March 1922. Additionally, on April 4, 1922, a car dealer, Alvin T. Fuller, purchased time or WGI of Medford Hillside, Massachusetts, in exchanges for mentions.
The BBC was formed in 1922 in U.K. as a number of radio manufacturers came together to promote the new medium. The government of the day worried that broadcasting was too important to be left to the market and set up an enquiry. In giving evidence to the 1926 Crawford Committee, John Reith – then Managing Director of the British Broadcasting Company – stated that “Broadcasting must be conducted in the future as it has been in the past, as a Public Service with definite standards.” The government accepted the findings of the committee and, in 1927 the BBC became a public corporation under a new Royal Charter, which set out its remit and governance structure.
In 1973, some 18 years after the BBC faced its first commercial competition in television, commercial radio launched (then known as Independent Local Radio or ILR). Stations were licensed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and were local, generally covering cities or counties. There was only one station per area, except in London, where there were two with different remits: Capital, broadcasting entertainment, and LBC, broadcasting news and information. The rest of the commercial local stations around the country offered a broad range of programming – from news and chat, through pop music to classical music and religion – and were all locally owned and run. Localness has, therefore, been an important feature of commercial radio since its inception.
First official advertisement on British radio was of “Birds eye frozen food” which was broadcast on 8th October 1973, as part of the launch of LBC (London Broadcasting Company) – the UK’s first ever commercial radio station! Here is one of its audio clip
From the adverts played at the very end it is clear that there is not much change in the dialogue delivery over the years as we still experience similar formats ads.
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According to Radio Joint Audience Research, the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK 52% of the nation are now tuning in to the radio using a digital platform, an increase of 15% from last year. 43% of 15-24 year olds, and 24% of adults have listened to the radio on their mobile phone, illustrating the growing trend in online radio. With such high percentages of listeners tuning in on their mobiles there is clearly a growing market for internet radio broadcasting.
Evolution of the car radio
September 19, 2013
Where it all began:
The first car radio was introduced in 1922 by Chevrolet. It cost a whopping $200 and with an antenna that covered the entire car roof, needed batteries that barely fit under the front seat and had two mammoth speakers attached behind the seat. It was about as convenient as taking a live orchestra along for a ride.
In 1930, the Galvin Corporation introduced one of the first commercial car radios, the Motorola model 5T71, which sold for between $110 and $130 (2009: $1,700) and could be installed in most popular automobiles. This product was such a huge success that the founders Paul Galvin and Joe Galvin changed their company’s name to ‘Motorola’, which was a blend of ‘Motor’ and suffix -ola used with audio equipment of the time. Here is the first Motorola brand car radio: Music in motion
In 1930, laws were proposed in Massachusetts and St. Louis to ban radios while driving. Even the Auto Club of New York agreed. In their 1934 poll, 56 percent deemed the car radio a “dangerous distraction.” According to automotive historian Michael Lamm, “Opponents of car radios argued that they distracted drivers and caused accidents, that tuning them took a driver’s attention away from the road, and that music could lull a driver to sleep.” Arguing the other side was the Radio Manufacturers Association, who pointed out that car radios could be used to warn drivers of inclement weather and bad road conditions, as well as keeping them awake when they got drowsy.
Blaupunkt became the first maker to offer FM receivers in 1952. This enabled Ford to introduce the “seek” function which allowed tuning from one station to another at the push of a button. By 1963, 50 million cars,over 60 percent, were outfitted with radios. By then, over one third of American radio listening occurred in the car. In the same year the first all transistor car radio was also launched by Becker Monte Carlo which was smaller in size and used lesser energy compared to the traditional vacuum tube radio.
Over the years there was tremendous improvement in the technical aspects of in-car radio to reduce its size, make it more energy efficient and improve the audio via better antenna, amplifiers and woofer.
Where we are now:
Currently brands like Kenwood, Pioneer, JVC, Sony, etc. rule the market of in-car audio systems. These systems include features like CD player, blue-tooth, microphone, AUX/USB input, MP3 compatibility, iPod/Android control. The media formats supported include AM/FM, MP3, AAC, WMA, Satellite radio, HD radio.
What the Future looks like:
The Future of in car audio system looks bright and attractive, with Toyota becoming the first auto-maker to offer a touch-screen audio system across an entire vehicle line as standard equipment. Buyers of the 2014 Scion will get a 6.1-inch touch-screen that includes HD Radio. Drivers willing to fork out an extra $1,198 will get the Scion BeSpoke Premium Audio system. Most notably it includes navigation, integrated social media apps, geo-located POIs and Harman Aha Radio dashboard platform with access to 30,000 free audio stations, including content from such providers as CBS Radio News, NPR, Educational Media Foundation, Slacker and AccuRadio. The 2014 Tundra, Corolla, Sequoia, 4Runner, and Tacoma are the first Toyota vehicles to launch integrated audio and real-time traffic and weather services using Clear Channel’s Total Traffic HD Network (TTN) and HD Radio Technology. The 2014 Toyota Corolla, Tundra and Sequoia are now available with the 4Runner, with Tacoma arriving in dealerships later this month.
Automakers are rushing to add Internet radio apps such as Pandora, iHeartRadio, Spotify and Aha to their infotainment systems. Although Internet radio trails its more established rivals, it has gained a foothold among motorists, according to a February survey by Arbitron Inc. and Edison Research.
CISCO on the other hand sees opportunity in infotainment data. Motorists want latest music, navigation and other infotainment features. But in addition, data collected from infotainment services might generate significant revenue, said Andreas Mai, a director of product management at Cisco Systems Inc. Data harvested from an infotainment system reveals a motorist’s usage patterns, such as which radio stations he listens to, how he uses his on-board navigator, how he drives his car and where he parks it. Mai estimated that data from one car’s infotainment system could generate a total of $1,400 a year in revenue and savings for the motorist, app developers, auto-makers and dealerships.
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