A golden era

Radio has been influencing society since the late 19th Century, with the advent of the wireless telegraph and the telephone. By the early 20th Century, those forms of communication had given birth to the radio.

For decades, prior to television, radio was not only a source for news and music, but also for dramas, comedies, and variety shows. Outside of the motion picture show, it was society's main basis for entertainment. From the 1930s to the 1950s, families all across America would gather around their radios to listen to such programs like Jack Benny and The Shadow. Those decades are generally referred to as the Golden Age of Radio.

Despite the advancement of other media technologies, radio continues to be a popular medium. It has moved from the lone AM stations to include FM stations, and what were once stations that offered general entertainment have evolved into specific target audience programming: Pop, rock, oldies, country, jazz, R&B, sports, and talk are just a sampling of the the variety of stations found up and down the dial of today's radios. Many of the stations also are broadcast on digital and satellite stations.

One reason for radio's popularity is because for the most part, it remains free for its listeners. Another important reason is its portability. It is easily piped into cars, bars and stores, making it easy for advertisers to reach not only their target audiences but anyone within the listening area. Target audiences for radio are generally considered to be 18 to 54, but it is narrowed down considerably depending upon the programming of each individual station. Still, it is an ideal advertising medium for both large and small businesses. In a single week, radio reaches more than 228 million Americans. That is 94 percent of everyone age 12 and older, according to Arbitron (Gordon, 2007).

What does the future hold for radio development? Could it be a device that also lets you browse photos, read the news, check the weather, and connect you to your friends through Facebook or Twitter - all while listening to your favorite tunes? Probably not, but while we may wish for advancements in radio technology to be defined in terms of what is on the dial (i.e., new stations or high definition), it's infinitely more likely that advancements will constitute feature and interface transformations that push the boundaries of what "radio" means rather than slide alongside the same bounds where listeners find AM and FM. In other words, consider the possibility that radio for the Facebook generation is likely to be a different type of radio.

Reference

Gordon, K. (2007, April 13). 4 keys to radio advertising. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/.