History of broadcasting in the United States. To 1933, A: Volume 1: A Tower of Babel. To 1933

367 Pages·1966·23.608 MB·English

by  Barnouw, Erik

A TOWER IN BABEL
A HISTORY OF BROADCASTING IN THE UNITED STATES
VOLUME I A TOWER IN BABEL
VOLUMES II AND III — IN PREPARATION
A TOWER IN BABEL
A History of Broadcasting
in the United States
Volume I—to 1933
ERIK BARNOUW
New York OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1966
Fifth printing, 1978
Copyright © 1966 by Erik Bamouw
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 66-22258
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Introduction, 3
1 VOICES, 7
The black box, 9 On native soil, 18 Voices in the night, 19
Mission in the ether, 21 The greatest bunch of junk, 28 Builders, 33
2 WAR, 39
The big ones, 41 Cloak and dagger wireless, 50 Golden sunset, 52
Watching the ramparts, 57 Covenants quietly arrived at, 58
Ferment, 61 Decision in Pittsburgh, 64
3 TOWERS, 75
Up a ladder in Newark, 83 Chicago, city of opera, 88
The euphoria of 1922, 91 Phone booth of the air, 105 Discord, 114
Shade of the potted palm, 125 Explorations: 1923-24, 135
Washington gifts, 160 Dear, dear friends, 162 Crisis in the air, 172
4 WEB, 189
Upstart, 193 A law is made, 195 The Coolidge hour, 202
Birth of the FRC, 211 Pluck and luck, 219 Ain't dat sumpin'?, 224
Upward, 231
5 PANIC, 235
But first, 237 Come in, world, 245 Ghosts, 253 Arena, 257
November deadline, 266 God and Mammon, 269 Chat, 283
APPENDIX A: Chronology, 287
APPENDIX B: Laws, 291
The Radio Act of 1912, 291 The Radio Act of 1927, 300
BIBLIOGRAPHY, 317
INDEX, 329
This page intentionally left blank
A TOWER IN BABEL
This page intentionally left blank
INTRODUCTION
And they said . . . "Let us build us a city and a
tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us
make us a name . . ." Genesis 11, 4
Every medium of information has made names—and meanwhile, values.
New media have meant new values. Since the dawn of history, each new
medium has tended to undermine an old monopoly, shift the definitions of
goodness and greatness, and alter the climate of men's lives.
In ancient Egypt the transition from stone—as in the pyramids—to pa-
pyrus as transmitter of truth, prestige, and doctrine seems to have brought
on or encouraged many other changes. Because papyrus was portable, it
helped rulers exercise authority over wide areas. But the power now had
to be shared with armies of copyists, and the literate became a privileged
class. Because papyrus was scarce, control of its production became cru-
cial, and again this meant a sharing of royal power, in this case with man-
agers of productivity. All this meant a shift away from absolute monarchy,
a dispersal of authority, that is said to have penetrated deeply into Egyp-
tian life.1 Papyrus begat bureaucracy.
Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the arrival of paper in Europe
began to undermine a church monopoly of knowledge, which had been
based on the scarcity of parchment and on the skills of monastery copyists.
Ample supplies of paper now encouraged the development of printing,
and spread written communication to new fields and ideas. It became an
instrument in the growth of trade, the rise of the vernacular, and the
spread of heretical ideas via tract, story, and image. It reinforced the rise
of merchant, lawyer, explorer, scientist. The chain reactions echoed
through centuries.
1. Innis, Empire and Communications, pp. 17-19, 118.
3