Radio Broadcasting
In the 1920s, music enters the home live for the first time.
Related
Time and place
In November 1920, KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast election returns, usually taken as the start of commercial radio. Britain's BBC was founded in 1922, NBC followed in 1926, CBS in 1927, and the receiver moved into the living room.
What happened
Radio turned music into a public stream on a timetable. Stations needed to fill hours, so dance bands, singers, orchestras and choirs were brought into studios; the microphone made quiet singing possible, and the three-minute song fitted a slot. In the late 1920s American networks went national, sponsors bought programmes, and jazz and dance music travelled from cities to farms. Toscanini's NBC Symphony broadcasts reached millions.
What changed
Listening moved from buying a ticket to turning a switch, and the home became a new auditorium. Radio turned local styles into national taste, and a singer's fame depended on a nightly programme rather than touring. Broadcast made copyright and performance rights an industry issue, as stations, labels and publishers bargained over licences. Conductors became media stars.
Listen to the turn
Turina's Radio Madrid puts the medium in its title, treating the city's broadcast sound as material. Gershwin's The Man I Love, a 1924 song, spread through radio and dance halls, becoming an early national standard. Swanee, his 1919 hit, shows the melody radio carried into thousands of homes.
Related
This turn belongs to Modern; see Record Label, Performing Rights Organization and Syncopation.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- Barnouw, A Tower in Babel — A History of Broadcasting in the United States（Oxford, 1966），用于核对美国广播网的形成
- Grove Music Online 的 Radio 与 Broadcasting 条目，用于交叉核对广播与音乐产业的关系
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.