Jun 30 2011 01:45 am
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Radio in 1920s
During the 1920s, digital technology became to influence people’s life. Radio brought the new world of entertainment and advertising directly into urban homes in the 1920sThe first commercial radio station began broadcasting in 1919, and during the 1920s, the nation’s airwaves were filled with musical variety shows and comedies.
Radio drew the nation together by bringing news, entertainment, and advertisements to the households. In 1926, a network of stations was formed by the national broadcasting corporation and in 1927, the federal government created the federal radio commission which distributed broadcasting licenses and frequencies among 412 cities. National radio broadcasting linked people living distant from one another in new ways, making listeners to share a common experience with each other, and radio advertising brought the message of consumption into every listening household.
Also radio disseminated racial and cultural caricatures and derogatory stereotypes. The nation’s most popular radio show, “Amos ‘n Andy,” which first aired in 1926 on Chicago’s WMAQ, spread vicious racial stereotypes into homes whose white occupants knew little about African Americans. Other minorities fared no better. The Italian gangster and the tightfisted Jew became stock characters in radio programming.