History of Radio

There are three waves of radio

1st wave-

This was in the 1920's when radio's first went into households. Families often sat down as a family to listen to the radio together. The radio mostly consisted of the news on the war, live music and music by Louie Armstrong "the king of jazz" at the time.

2nd wave-

This happened in the 1950's when TV was created. As this was invented the popularity of radio slowly declined but didn't completely wipe radio out as televisions were very expensive. There became a rising growth in pirate radio, but then the pirate radio law was introduced. These pirate radios mostly played rock n roll such as The Beatles and Elvis. When the law was introduced rock n roll started to be played on proper radio stations to stop the listeners numbers dropping.

3rd wave-
The third wave happened when Radio 1 was established in 1967 by the BBC. Radio 1 is still going strong today and have many listeners every day. Since 1967 the BBC have introduced many more radio stations such as radio 2,3,4 and 5. Then DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) radios were introduced and the first were sold in the UK in 1999. DAB radios worked differently because they enabled you to access the radio electronically.Most people see DAB as alot better than ordinary radios because the signal is stronger and you can access more stations.

Commercial vs PSB-
Commerical broadcasting is radio stations which advertise.

Commercial radio licences are awarded by Ofcom and need to be approved by them for the radio station to go ahead. Some commercial radios are Classic FM, Kiss and Heart FM. You can find all of these radio stations on DAB.

PSB (Public Service Broadcast) is broadcasting intended for the public benefit not commercial use. All of the BBC's radio stations are PSB's and have to adhere to Ofcom's requirements to carry the licence.

Music vs talk Radio-
Most people think the radio just consists of music, but there are many types of radio stations out there that differ, there are radio stations which specify to sport, religon etc. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation which is normally done by phone-ins.