ELECTRONIC MEDIA:

RADIO & THE RECORDING

INDUSTRY
LESSON 6
 HISTORY OF RADIO

• The idea of radio started in 1887 when Heinrich Hertz, a German physicist detected and sent radio
waves.
• Later, Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian, used Hertz’s efforts to build a wireless communication device that
could send Morse Code – dots and dashes – from a transmitter to a receiver. Radio invention is credited
to Marconi.
• His development came under the background of James Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz who
discovered that signals went through the air without wires.
• His earlier experimental designs allowed him to send and receive telegraph codes over long distances
by 1896. He received financial and technical help from the British, and this enabled him to transmit
across the English Channel in 1899 and across the Atlantic in 1901.
 HISTORY OF RADIO

• Reginald Fessenden, in 1906, invented the liquid barretter (the first audio
device permitting reception of wireless voices. First listeners were ships at
sea and newspaper offices that were equipped to receive the transmission.
• Lee DeForest was an American who invented the audion tube, a vacuum
tube that improved and amplified the wireless signals. This made the
transmission of human voices and music more of a reality.
 HISTORY OF RADIO

• Marconi and other earlier pioneers of radio had viewed it as a point-to-point

device of communication, but DeForest saw it as a device for broadcast. So
in 1907, several broadcasters began to use radio.
• The ability to do sound recording began in the late 1800s. Alexander
Graham Bell’s telephone company had a subscription music service in major
cities of the US.
 HISTORY OF RADIO

• Introduction of broadcasting to a mass audience did not materialize until two

decades later due to patent fights and lawsuits between DeForest and
Fessenden.
• After World War I, the audience had grown. To aid the war effort, the
government took over the patents relating to radio and continued to improve
radio for military use. By the end of World War II, radio was an entertainment
and commercial giant.
 RADIO BROADCASTING IN KENYA

• According to UNESCO, Kenya was the first British colony to have a

broadcasting service (Natesh, 1964). Broadcasts began in Kenya in 1927. It
served the British colony.
• In 1931, the Kenya government gave a 25-year old charter to Imperial and
International Communications Ltd. Later, this was taken over by Cable and
Wireless Ltd., who provided English and Asian services.
 RADIO BROADCASTING IN KENYA

• African and Arabic broadcasting began during World War II. The Information Department
distributed thousands of radio sets to Africans around this time.
• In 1956, Kenya Broadcasting Service, controlled by the government, started to operate.
• 1962 saw an independent Kenya Broadcasting Corporation begin operations. On 1st July
1964, after independence, this service came under the new government and was
renamed the Voice of Kenya.
• Television in Kenya began in October 1962. Programmes were in English and Hindu.
 RADIO AND ITS AUDIENCES

• Radio has more than survived; it has prospered by changing the nature of its
relationship with the audiences.
• 95% of Kenyans are using radio as their primary source of news and
information (Ipsos, 2018). 38% of the stations broadcast in vernacular while
62% broadcast in English and Kiswahili.
• The stations have grown form 139 in 2014 to 173 in 2018.
SCOPE AND NATURE OF RADIO INDUSTRY

• FM, AM, and Non-Ecommercial Radio

The FM (frequency Modulation) signal is wider, allowing the broadcast not only of
stereo but also of better fidelity to the original sound than the narrower AM
(Amplitude Modulation) signal. As a result, people attracted to music , a radio
staple, gravitate toward FM. People favoring news, sports and information tend to
find themselves listening to FM.
 SCOPE AND NATURE OF RADIO INDUSTRY

• Radio is Local
No longer to compete with television for the national audience in the 1950s, radio began to
attract the local audience. Because it cost much more to run a local television station than a
local radio station, advertising rates on radio tend to be much lower than on TV. Local
advertisers can afford radio more easily than they can television, which increases the local
flavour of radio.
SCOPE AND NATURE OF RADIO INDUSTRY

• Radio is Fragmented
Radio stations are widely distributed throughout Kenya and in the United
States. In the US, virtually, every town, even those with only a few hundred
residents, has at least one station. The number of stations licensed in an
area is a function of both the population and proximity to other towns.
SCOPE AND NATURE OF RADIO INDUSTRY

• Radio is Specialized

When radio became the local medium, it could no longer program the
expensive, star – filled genres of its golden age. The problem now was how to
program a station with interesting content and do so economically. But
stations soon learned that a highly specialized audience of particular interest
to certain advertisers could be attracted with a specific type of music.
SCOPE AND NATURE OF RADIO INDUSTRY

• Radio is Personal
With the advent of television, the relationship of radio and its audiences
changed. Whereas families had gathered around the radio set to listen
together, people now listen to the radio alone. We select personally pleasing
formats, and we listen as an adjunct to other personally important activities.
SCOPE AND NATURE OF RADIO INDUSTRY

• Radio is Mobile
The mobility of radio accounts in large part for its personal nature. We can
listen to it anywhere, at any time. By 1947 the combined sale of car and alarm
clock radios exceeded that of traditional living- room receivers, and by 1951,
the annual production of car radios exceeded that of home receivers for the
first time. Today, we have radios in our mobile phones as well.
 SCOPE AND NATURE OF RADIO INDUSTRY

• Satellite and Cable

The convergence of radio and satellite has aided the rebirth of the radio
networks. Music and other forms of radio content can be distributed quite
inexpensively to thousand of stations. As a result, one network can provide
very different services to its very different affiliates.
SCOPE AND NATURE OF RADIO INDUSTRY

• Digital Technology
In the 1970s, the basis of both recording and radio industries changed from
analog to digital recording. That is, sound went from being preserved as
waves, whether physically on a disc or tape or through the air.

Convergence with computers and the Internet offers other challenges and
opportunities to the radio and recording industries.
 THE BUSINESS OF RADIO

• Radio is an Advertising Medium

Advertisers enjoy the specialization of radio because it gives them access to
homogeneous groups of listeners to whom products can be pitched.
• Radio is an attractive advertising medium for reasons other than its delivery of a
homogeneous audience. Radio ads are inexpensive to produce and therefore can be
changed, updated, and specialized to meet specific audience demands.
 Trends and Convergence in the Radio Industry

• Today, radio has moved to the Internet. There is a global app that grants
access to anyone on the globe to tune in by merely touching a screen.
• Almost all the radio stations in Kenya have an online presence from fan
pages,to actual online transmissions.
 THE KENYAN CONTEXT

• According to the Communications Authority of Kenya, Kenya has 173 radio stations (See
2018/2019 report).
• The Media Council of Kenya has accredited 166 stations, listed on the website. Refer to
https://www.mediacouncil.or.ke/en/mck/index.php/mck-accreditation/kenya-broacasters-
2018/radio
• According to BBC, radio is flourishng and entertainment, music and phone-ins dominate
their output.
 THE KENYAN CONTEXT

• According to GeoPoll data nationwide from February 1-14 2019, Radio Citizen was the
leading station with a 13% share followed by Radio Maisha with 10% and Radio Jambo in
third place with 9% share.
• According to the GeoPoll survey, both males and females spend most of their radio time on
Radio Citizen, with 13% share amongst males and 12% share amongst females. Radio
Jambo is ranked second amongst males, with 10% share, whereas Radio Maisha had the
second highest share amongst females with 10% share as well. Classic FM is ranked third
amongst females with 8% share and in joint 4th place nationally with 4% share.
 THE KENYAN CONTEXT

• Kiswahili stations in the top 10 list nationally had a cumulative 39% share
nationally amongst people aged 15+ years.
• English stations Classic 105, Kiss FM, Hot 96, and KBC English Service also
appear in the top 10 stations.
 THE KENYAN CONTEXT

• Kiswahili remains the preferred language of broadcast nationally, and across

different age groups, with 46% of radio share for listeners aged 35 years.
• Vernacular stations command the second highest listenership amongst
older listeners aged 35 years and over, having a 38% share. Only 16% of
those aged 35 and older listen to English stations.  By contrast, 33% of
audience share for the youth age group (15-24 years old) is for English-
language stations.
 The Kenyan Context

• The popularity of radio has grown over time and opened a window of
immense opportunities in the socio-economic spheres reaching out to
Kenyans who cannot afford television sets and other media.
• The vernacular radios that spread into the most remote parts of the country
are empowering Kenyans on the socio-economic and political discourse. The
ordinary farmers in far-flung villages can now get tips on best crops for a
particular soil type and advice on livestock rearing through the vernacular
radio stations (Business Daily, 2018).
 The Kenyan Context

• There is a growing concern, however, that the vernacular stations had been
used to fuel ethnic intolerance, especially during the electioneering periods.
• “Most of the stations are promoting local cultures and languages. We,
however, have isolated cases where some are being used to malign other
communities especially during the electioneering period,” (Mr Omwoyo of
MCK in The Business Daily)
 The Kenyan Context

• Professionalism, governance and funding are the biggest challenges facing

the vernacular radio stations. Mr Omwoyo adds that this leaves the medium
vulnerable to people who use their financial clout to exploit the vernacular
radio stations to drive their selfish agenda.
• Consequently, the council is developing a policy that will ensure an even
distribution of the government’s advertising revenue.
 THE RECORDING INDUSTRY

• In 1877 prolific inventor Thomas Edison patented his “talking machine,” a device for
duplicating sound that used a hand-cranked grooved cylinder and a needle.
• The problem with this technology is that the cylinder could not be duplicated.
• In 1887 that problem was solved by German immigrant Emile Berliner, whose
gramophone used flat, rotating, wax-coated disc that could easily be copied or
pressed from a metal master.
• Berliner also developed a sophisticated microphone and through his company, RCA
Victor Records, he imported from Europe recordings of famous opera stars.
 HISTORY OF THE RECORDING INDUSTRY

• The next advance was the introduction of the two-sided disc by the Columbia
Phonograph Company in 1905. Soon, there were hundreds of Phonographs and
Gramophone companies in many western countries. Public acceptance of the new
medium was enhanced by the development of electromagnetic recording in 1924 by
Joseph P. Maxwell at Bell Laboratory.
• The significance of parallel development of radio and sound recording systems is
that for the very first time radio allowed people to hear the words and music of
others who were not in their presence, some which were created even years before.
 ASSIGNMENT

• Select any one local radio station that you have not listened to before and
listen for one week. The station's language should be Kiswahili and answer the
following questions:
a) The history of the station/ownership/genre
b) The advantages and disadvantages
c) Audiences and advertising revenue
d) What trends and convergence are evident?
 Discussion Question

• What are some of the characteristics that distinguish radio from other
media?