Copyright © 2015 Bert N. Langford (Images may be subject to copyright. Please send feedback)
Welcome to Our Generation USA!

Below, we cover Radio,  including  FM and AM, Talk vs. Music (in all popular musical formats), Land or Satellite, with Commercials vs. Paid Radio, focusing on the United States

​
​

Radio Stations in the United States, including a List by State
as well as a Listing of Radio Formats

YouTube Video of KSHE 95 Morning Show DJ Lern being interviewed
​YouTube Video: Mark and Brian (KLOS DJs) talk with Keith Richards
YouTube Video: Howard Stern and Madonna - Exclusive Video Highlights

Pictured Below, Top to Bottom:
KSHE 95 FM (St. Louis) radio morning rock show (L-R) DJs Lern, UMan and Carl the Intern
KLOS 95.5 FM: (Los Angeles) "Breakfast with the Beatles" host Chris Carter in the KLOS-FM studio in 2008.
WDHA 105.5 FM (New Jersey): Terrie Carr, left, and fellow WDHA deejay Curtis Kay are familiar voices to North Jersey rock fans.

​​Click here for a listing of Radio Stations by State within the United States.

Radio broadcasting in the United States is a major mass medium. Unlike radio in most other countries, American radio has historically relied primarily on commercial advertising sponsorship on for-profit stations.

The arrival of television in the 1950s forced radio into a niche role, as leading participants moved into the much larger field of television. In the 21st century, radio has been adjusting to the arrival of the Internet and Internet radio.

For a Listing of Radio Formats by format, click on any of the following blue hyperlinks:








​

Golden Age of Radio
YouTube Video of the Golden Age of Radio
YouTube Video: War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast | PBS America

The old-time radio era, sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of Radio, was an era of radio programming in the United States during which radio was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium.

It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early 1920s and lasted until the 1950s, when television superseded radio as the medium of choice for scripted programming. The last few scripted radio dramas and full-service radio stations ended in 1962.

During this period radio was the only broadcast medium, and people regularly tuned into their favorite radio programs, and families gathered to listen to the home radio in the evening. According to a 1947 C. E. Hooper survey, 82 out of 100 Americans were found to be radio listeners. 

A variety of new entertainment formats and genres were created for the new medium, many of which later migrated to television: radio plays, mystery serials, soap operas, quiz shows, talent shows, variety hours, situation comedies, play-by-play sports, children's shows, cooking shows.

Since this era, radio programming has shifted to a more narrow format of news, talk, sports and music.

Origins:

The broadcasts of live drama, comedy, music and news that characterize the Golden Age of Radio had a precedent in the Théâtrophone, commercially introduced in Paris in 1890 and available as late as 1932. It allowed subscribers to eavesdrop on live stage performances and hear news reports by means of a network of telephone lines. The development of radio eliminated the wires and subscription charges from this concept.

Boy learning how to build his own radio circa 1922.On Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden is said to have broadcast the first radio program, consisting of some violin playing and passages from the Bible. While Fessenden's role as an inventor and early radio experimenter is not in dispute, several contemporary radio researchers have questioned whether the Christmas Eve broadcast took place, or whether the date was in fact several weeks earlier.

The first apparent published reference to the event was made in 1928 by H.P. Davis, Vice President of Westinghouse, in a lecture given at Harvard University. In 1932 Fessenden cited the Christmas Eve 1906 broadcast event in a letter he wrote to Vice President S.M. Kinter of Westinghouse. Fessenden's wife Helen recounts the broadcast in her book Fessenden: Builder of Tomorrows (1940), eight years after Fessenden's death.

The issue of whether the 1906 Fessenden broadcast actually happened is discussed in Donna Halper's article "In Search of the Truth About Fessenden" and also in James O'Neal's essays. An annotated argument supporting Fessenden as the world's first radio broadcaster was offered in 2006 by Dr. John S. Belrose, Radioscientist Emeritus at the Communications Research Centre Canada, in his essay "Fessenden's 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast."

It was not until after the Titanic catastrophe in 1912 that radio for mass communication came into vogue, inspired first by the work of amateur ("ham") radio operators. Radio was especially important during World War I as it was vital for air and naval operations.

World War I brought about major developments in radio, superseding the Morse code of the wireless telegraph with the vocal communication of the wireless telephone, through advancements in vacuum tube technology and the introduction of the transceiver.

After the war, numerous radio stations were born in the United States and set the standard for later radio programs. The first radio news program was broadcast on August 31, 1920 on the station 8MK in Detroit; owned by The Detroit News, the station covered local election results.

This was followed in 1920 with the first commercial radio station in the United States, KDKA, being established in Pittsburgh. The first regular entertainment programs were broadcast in 1922, and on March 10, Variety carried the front-page headline: "Radio Sweeping Country: 1,000,000 Sets in Use." A highlight of this time was the first Rose Bowl being broadcast on January 1, 1923 on the Los Angeles station KHJ.

Radio networks:

Several radio networks broadcast in the United States, airing programs nationwide. Their distribution made the golden age of radio possible. The networks declined in the early 1960s; Mutual and NBC both closed down their radio operations in the 1990s, while ABC lasted until 2007 when it was bought by Citadel Broadcasting, which was in turn merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.

As of November 14, 2013, Mutual, ABC and NBC's radio assets now reside with Cumulus Media's Westwood One division through numerous mergers and acquisitions since the mid-1980s. CBS still operates its network as of 2016, which is expected to close down mid 2017 as its radio assets are in the process of being integrated with Entercom as of February 2, 2017.

The major networks were:
Types of programs:

During the Golden Age of Radio, new forms of entertainment were created for the new medium, which later migrated to television and other media, including: 
In addition, the capability of the new medium to get information to people created the format of modern radio news: headlines, remote reporting, sidewalk interviews (such as Vox Pop), panel discussions, weather reports, farm reports.

​The earliest radio programs of the 1920s were largely unsponsored; radio stations were a service designed to sell radio receivers. By the late 1920s, radio had reached critical mass and saturated the market, necessitating a change in business model. The sponsored musical feature soon became most popular program format.

Most early radio sponsorship came in the form of selling the naming rights to the program, as evidenced by such programs as The A&P Gypsies, Champion Spark Plug Hour, The Clicquot Club Eskimos, and King Biscuit Time. Commercials as they are known in the modern era were still relatively uncommon and considered intrusive.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the leading orchestras were heard often through big band remotes, and NBC's Monitor continued such remotes well into the 1950s by broadcasting live music from New York City jazz clubs to rural America.

Classical music programs on the air included The Voice of Firestone and The Bell Telephone Hour. Texaco sponsored the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts; the broadcasts, now sponsored by the Toll Brothers, continue to this day around the world, and are one of the few examples of live classical music still broadcast on radio.

One of the most notable of all classical music radio programs of the Golden Age of Radio featured the celebrated Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, which had been created especially for him. At that time, nearly all classical musicians and critics considered Toscanini the greatest living maestro. Popular songwriters such as George Gershwin were also featured on radio. (Gershwin, in addition to frequent appearances as a guest, also had his own program in 1934.) The New York Philharmonic also had weekly concerts on radio.

There was no dedicated classical music radio station like NPR at that time, so classical music programs had to share the network they were broadcast on with more popular ones, much as in the days of television before the creation of NET and PBS.

Country music also enjoyed popularity. National Barn Dance, begun on Chicago's WLS in 1924, was picked up by NBC Radio in 1933. In 1925, WSM Barn Dance went on the air from Nashville. It was renamed the Grand Ole Opry in 1927 and NBC carried portions from 1944 to 1956. NBC also aired The Red Foley Show from 1951 to 1961, and ABC Radio carried Ozark Jubilee from 1953 to 1961.

Radio attracted top comedy talents from vaudeville and Hollywood for many years, including:
Situational comedies also gained popularity, including: 
Radio comedy ran the gamut from the small town humor of Lum and Abner, Herb Shriner and Minnie Pearl to the dialect characterizations of Mel Blanc and the caustic sarcasm of Henry Morgan.

Gags galore were delivered weekly on Stop Me If You've Heard This One and Can You Top This?, panel programs devoted to the art of telling jokes.

Quiz shows were lampooned on It Pays to Be Ignorant, and other memorable parodies were presented by such satirists as Spike Jones, Stoopnagle and Budd, Stan Freberg and Bob and Ray. British comedy reached American shores in a major assault when NBC carried The Goon Show in the mid-1950s.

​Some shows originated as stage productions: Clifford Goldsmith's play What a Life was reworked into NBC's popular, long-running The Aldrich Family (1939–1953) with the familiar catchphrases "Henry! Henry Aldrich!," followed by Henry's answer, "Coming, Mother!"

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit, You Can't Take It with You (1936), became a weekly situation comedy heard on Mutual (1944) with Everett Sloane and later on NBC (1951) with Walter Brennan.

Other shows were adapted from comic strips, including
Bob Montana's redheaded teen of comic strips and comic books was heard on radio's Archie Andrews from 1943 to 1953. The Timid Soul was a 1941–1942 comedy based on cartoonist H. T. Webster's famed Caspar Milquetoast character, and Robert L. Ripley's Believe It or Not! was adapted to several different radio formats during the 1930s and 1940s. Conversely, some radio shows gave rise to spinoff comic strips, such as My Friend Irma starring Marie Wilson.

The first soap opera, Clara, Lu, and Em was introduced in 1930 on Chicago's WGN. When daytime serials began in the early 1930s, they became known as soap operas because many were sponsored by soap products and detergents.

The line-up of late afternoon adventure serials included 
Badges, rings, decoding devices and other radio premiums offered on these adventure shows were often allied with a sponsor's product, requiring the young listeners to mail in a boxtop from a breakfast cereal or other proof of purchase.

Radio dramas were presented on such programs as the following:
Orson Welles's The Mercury Theatre on the Air and The Campbell Playhouse were considered by many critics to be the finest radio drama anthologies ever presented. They usually starred Welles in the leading role, along with celebrity guest stars such as Margaret Sullavan or Helen Hayes, in adaptations from literature, Broadway, and/or films.

They included such titles as Liliom, Oliver Twist (a title now feared lost), A Tale of Two Cities, Lost Horizon, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It was on Mercury Theatre that Welles presented his celebrated-but-infamous 1938 adaptation of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, formatted to sound like a breaking news program. 

Theatre Guild on the Air presented adaptations of classical and Broadway plays. Their Shakespeare adaptations included a one-hour Macbeth starring Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson, and a 90-minute Hamlet, starring John Gielgud. Recordings of many of these programs survive.

During the 1940s, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, famous for playing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in films, repeated their characterizations on radio on The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which featured both original stories and episodes directly adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle's stories.

None of the episodes in which Rathbone and Bruce starred on the radio program were filmed with the two actors as Holmes and Watson, so radio became the only medium in which audiences were able to experience Rathbone and Bruce appearing in some of the more famous Holmes stories, such as "The Speckled Band". There were also many dramatizations of Sherlock Holmes stories on radio without Rathbone and Bruce.

During the latter part of his career, celebrated actor John Barrymore starred in a radio program, Streamlined Shakespeare, which featured him in a series of one-hour adaptations of Shakespeare plays, many of which Barrymore never appeared in either on stage or in films, such as Twelfth Night (in which he played both Malvolio and Sir Toby Belch), and Macbeth.

Lux Radio Theatre and The Screen Guild Theater presented adaptations of Hollywood movies, performed before a live audience, usually with cast members from the original films. Suspense, Escape, The Mysterious Traveler and Inner Sanctum Mystery were popular thriller anthology series.

Leading writers who created original material for radio included: 
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about The Golden Age of Radio:




​

​

FM Radio Broadcasting
YouTube Video: How a Radio Station Works
Pictured: FM Broadcasting Studio

​FM Radio broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM) technology.

Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, it is used worldwide to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio.

FM broadcasting is capable of better sound quality than AM broadcasting, the chief competing radio broadcasting technology, so it is used for most music broadcasts. FM radio stations use the VHF frequencies.

The term "FM band" describes the frequency band in a given country which is dedicated to FM broadcasting.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about FM Radio Broadcasting:
​






​

AM Radio Broadcasting
YouTube Video of the First Radio Broadcast (1906)
YouTube Video of Jack Benny radio show 5/23/43 Parachute Jump
​Pictured: “650 WSM AM Broadcasting from the Ryman.” (Nashville, TN)

AM broadcasting is a radio broadcasting technology, which employs amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmissions, but also on the longwave and shortwave radio bands.

​The earliest experimental AM transmissions were begun in the early 1900s. However, widespread AM broadcasting was not established until the 1920s, following the development of vacuum tube receivers and transmitters.

AM radio remained the dominant method of broadcasting for the next 30 years, a period called the "Golden Age of Radio", until television broadcasting became widespread in the 1950s and received most of the programming previously carried by radio.

Subsequently, AM radio's audiences have also greatly shrunk due to competition from FM (frequency modulation) radio, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), satellite radio, HD (digital) radio and Internet streaming.

AM transmissions are much more susceptible to interference than FM and digital signals, and often have limited audio fidelity. Thus, AM broadcasters tend to specialise in spoken-word formats, such as talk radio, all news and sports, leaving the broadcasting of music mainly to FM and digital stations.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about AM Broadcasting:
​







Radio Formats, including a List of Formats
YouTube Video: Welcome to the KSHE 95 Real Rock Museum

A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station.

In countries where radio spectrum use is legally regulated (such as by OFCOM in the UK), formats may have a legal status where stations are licensed to transmit only specific formats.

Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and are subject to frequent change. Music radio, old time radio, all-news radio, sports radio, talk radio and weather radio describe the operation of different genres of radio format and each format can often be sub-divided into many specialty formats.

List of formats:

Formats constantly evolve and each format can often be sub-divided into many specialty formats. Some of the following formats are available only regionally or through specialized venues such as satellite radio or Internet radio.

Music-oriented formats:

Pop/Adult Contemporary:
Rock/Alternative/Indie:
Country:
Urban/Rhythmic:
Dance/Electronic:
Jazz/Blues/Standards:
Easy Listening/New Age:
Folk/Singer-Songwriters:
  • Folk music

Latin:
International:
Christian/Gospel:
Classical:
Seasonal/Holiday/Happening:
Miscellaneous:
Spoken word formats:







List of Radio Stations in the United States by Format
YouTube Video: Best Kept Secret in Radio | Lulu Miller | TEDxCharlottesville
Pictured: Station Logos by Format -- Clockwise from Upper Left: Country Music, Hip Hop Music, News/Sports/Talk, and St. Louis Cardinals Radio Network

Below, you will find an alphabetical List of Radio Stations in the United States by Format:

A C F G H J O P R S T V






​

Radio Personalities including a List of Most-listened to Radio Personalities
YouTube Video of Howard Stern Interviews John Stamos
* -- Howard Stern Show
Pictured Clockwise from Upper Left: Steve Harvey Morning Show; NPR’s Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep; Chris Thile (Prairie Home Companion) ; Don Imus


A radio personality (American English) or radio presenter (British English), commonly referred to as a "disc jockey" or "DJ" for short, is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting.

A radio personality that hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host. Radio personalities who introduce and play individual selections of recorded music are known as disc jockeys. The term has evolved to also describe a person who mixes a continuous flow of recorded music in real time. Broadcast radio personalities may include talk radio hosts, AM/FM radio show hosts, and satellite radio program hosts.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Radio Personalities: ___________________________________________________________________________

List of the Most Popular Radio Personalities:

In the United States, the most popular radio listeners is gauged by Nielsen and others for both commercial radio and public radio. Nielsen and similar services provide estimates by regional market and by standard daypart, but does not compile nationwide information by host.

Because there are significant gaps in Nielsen's coverage in rural areas, and because there are only a few markets where the company's proprietary data can be compared against competing ratings measurers, there is a great deal of estimation and interpolation when attempting to compile a list of the most-listened-to radio programs in the United States. Nielsen itself admits the task of measuring individual shows would be too complicated and difficult for them to manage.

Talkers Magazine, an American trade publication focusing on talk radio, formerly compiled a list of the most-listened-to commercial long-form talk shows in the United States, based primarily on Nielsen data and estimated to the nearest 250,000 listeners. In addition to Talkers' independent analyses, radio companies of all formats include estimates of audience in news releases. The nature of news releases allows radio companies to inflate their listener totals by obscuring the difference between listeners at any given time, cumulative listenership over a time frame, and potential audience.

Popular radio shows in the United States:

The total listenership for terrestrial radio as of January 2017 was 256 million, up from 230 million in 2005: 
Until the development of portable people meters, Arbitron (Nielsen's predecessor in the radio measurement business) did not have the capability to measure individual airings of a program the way Nielsen Ratings can for television, and as such, it only measures in three-month moving averages each month. Portable people meters are currently only available in the largest markets Arbitron serves. Thus, it is impossible under current survey techniques to determine the listenership of an individual event such as the Super Bowl.

For most of its existence, Talkers Magazine compiled Arbitron's data, along with other sources, to estimate the minimum weekly audiences of various commercial long-form talk radio shows; its list was updated monthly until the magazine unceremoniously dropped the feature in 2016, then resumed publication in 2017.

The 2017 reintroduction also incorporates off-air distribution methods (particularly those that are Internet-based) but not satellite radio, as Talkers could not access data for that medium; as a result, the estimates for most shows increased dramatically when compared to the 2015 methodology. NPR and APM compile Arbitron's data for its public radio shows and releases analysis through press releases.

Included is a list of the most-listened-to radio shows in the United States according to weekly cumulative listenership, followed by a selection of shows of various formats that are most-listened-to within their category. (Unless otherwise noted, the Talkers "non-scientific" estimate is the source.

Click here to view the List of Most Popular Radio Shows




​



[Web Host: The following first of three FM radio stations is the stations I have listened to over the years, depending. KSHE95 is my "companion" as I work on this project, probably averaging 5-8 hours a day. As for DJs, I have no favorites as they are all great! KSHE's musical format is very close to my own musical tastes. AND, frequently they will play a musical artist/group that reminds me to add them to the "Popular Musical Artists"web page! KSHE recently celebrated its 55th anniversary!]

KSHE 95, "Real Rock Radio"
YouTube Video: KSHE 95 Lauren "Lern" Elwell of KSHE'95
YouTube Video: Movin On Original Recording KSHE Classic Really Cool Stuff
Pictured: KSHE's Logo

Click here for "Real Rock Museum" Video.
Click here for Current Airstaff.
Click here for Real Rock News.
​Click here for Concert Calendar.
Click here for KSHE Schtuff Store

KSHE95 is a mainstream rock radio station licensed to Crestwood, Missouri which serves the Greater St. Louis area. KSHE transmits on 94.7 MHz and currently uses the slogan "KSHE 95, Real Rock Radio".

The station's studios have been located in the Powerhouse building at St. Louis Union Station since the 1990s, while the transmitter is located in Shrewsbury. KSHE is owned by Emmis Communications and has been since 1984.

KSHE recently announced its first HD Radio subchannel, which will broadcast a 24-hour version of longtime personality John Ulett's "KSHE Klassics" show.

History:

​After working as an engineer for 20 years with the Pulitzer stations, KSD and KSD-TV, Ed Ceries invested his life savings and his considerable engineering efforts in building his own FM station, which he called KSHE. He literally built some of the equipment himself, and on February 11, 1961, the station signed on from the basement of the Ceries' home in suburban Crestwood.

The station called itself "The Lady of FM," and had a classical music format. For a while, all the announcers were women. Most of the basement was used for the station operations, with the Associated Press Teletype installed next to the clothes washer. The record library room doubled as an administrative office where Mrs. Ceries also did her ironing. Listener loyalty was strong, and at times they would come to the station with copies of classical selections they thought were better than the ones being played on KSHE.

Unfortunately, advertisers were not convinced FM radio—particularly classical music on FM radio—had much of an audience. After the first year, the format was adjusted to contain about 90% middle-of-the-road music and 10% classical, with nine daily news broadcasts. In 1964, the station was sold to Century Broadcasting.

New general manager Howard Grafman was convinced by his friend Ron Elz to adopt a new format that Elz had heard on a trip to San Francisco on KMPX: album-oriented rock, with high latitude given to individual DJs as to what to play.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, KSHE was influential in the growth of many midwestern bands such as Styx, Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon and Head East. KSHE had a wide and varied play list, which popularized such rock artists as Lake from Germany, Stingray from South Africa, and rising bands from Australia and New Zealand like Midnight Oil and Split Enz, as well as playing the classics from the more well-known rock legends. The very first song played on KSHE in 1967 was Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit".

KSHE sometimes played music nonstop for hours without station identification, which eventually was brought to the attention of the FCC and warnings from the agency to identify as required.

In late 1967, '68 and most of '69 they would play whole albums in the late afternoon and late at night any day of the week. Albums played in their entirety included such titles as The Firesign Theatre's Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him, The Who's Tommy, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's Let's Make Up and Be Friendly, Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, and Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, just to name a few.

KSHE would frequently play concept albums in their entirety, as well as entire album sides from favorites such as Rush. Sunday evenings were dedicated to playing seven albums from seven different artists on a show called the Seventh Day starting in the late 1970s, a program that continues to this day. The albums usually were played from 7:00 pm until after midnight. The Seventh Day concept was later used by other stations around the country.

It's rumored that on a Saturday in 1969, Bob Seger hitchhiked from Detroit to St. Louis to perform an hour-long concert which was simulcast on KSHE and the then-new UHF TV station KDNL, after which he hitchhiked back to Detroit.

Instead of the broadcast convention of reading news ripped from the Associated Press or United Press International wire machine ("rip and read"), early KSHE newscasts introduced news topics by preceding the story with rock music excerpts that had lyrics introducing or commenting on the topic.

KSHE created a virtual museum on its website as a way of celebrating its 40th birthday. It contains video clips, audio clips, pictures and memorabilia. The first inductees (2007) were Rush, Kiss, Ted Nugent, and REO Speedwagon.

In March 2010, KSHE held its annual March Bandness—the third-longest version of this contest in the US. Along with the typical classic rock, KSHE's format also includes standard modern rock.

KSHE also has various sub-genres for various times of day, such as:  Hair Band Doran (DJ: Mike Doran) from 8pm-9pm weekdays (previously called '80s at 8 under the previous DJ, Katy Kruze) and Monday Night Metal with Tom "Real Rock" Terbrock on Tuesday nights from 9 pm to midnight (originally on Monday night at 10 pm with Radio/Radical Rich from the mid-'80s until 1987 when it was moved to Tuesday night, until it was canceled in the mid-'90s; returning with Terbrock in the summer of 2006). At 5 pm each weekday, KSHE plays "The Daily Dose", two Led Zeppelin songs presented with trivia about their creation or notable performances of the songs.

Mascot:

The station mascot is a sunglasses-and-headphones-wearing pig named "Sweetmeat," the likeness of which originally appeared on the cover of Blodwyn Pig's 1969 album 'Ahead Rings Out'.

The cover of Blodwyn Pig's 1969 debut album, "Ahead Rings Out," which inspired the Sweetmeat character.Like the pig pictured on the LP cover, Sweetmeat first appeared with a joint in his mouth. This "controversial" detail disappeared in the early '80s in favor of an updated, cartoon "rocker" pig. In recent years, the station has returned to using the original image, along with the original KSHE-95 text logo.

At top, the cartoon Sweetmeat used in the 1980s; at bottom, "vintage" Sweetmeat used as of June 2013.Sweetmeat also inspired the name of Austin, Texas Christian Punk/Thrash band One Bad Pig.

See Also:


​




​American comedy radio programs
​YouTube Video of Mel Blanc, "The Man of a 1000 Voices", on the David Letterman Show
​Pictured: Amos & Andy and George Burns & Gracie Allen

Presented alphabetically, this category contains American radio programs mostly devoted to comedy, either routines performed by the host or guests or recorded comedy material presented by the host.​








Radio Shock Jocks
YouTube Video of the Best of Howard Stern
YouTube Video: Mark and Brian - LIVE In LA
Pictured Below Shock Jocks (L) Howard Stern (R) Don Imus

A shock jock is a type of radio broadcaster or disc jockey who entertains listeners or attracts attention using humor and/or melodramatic exaggeration that some portion of the listening audience may find offensive.

The term is usually used pejoratively to describe provocative or irreverent broadcasters whose mannerisms, statements and actions are typically offensive to many members of the community. It is a popular term, generally not used within the radio industry.

A shock jock is considered to be the radio equivalent of the tabloid newspaper, for which entertaining readers is as important as, or more important than, providing factual information. Within the radio industry, a radio station that relies primarily on shock jocks for its programming is said to have a hot talk format.

The term has been used in two broad (but sometimes overlapping) contexts:
  1. The radio announcer who deliberately makes outrageous, controversial, or shocking statements, or does boundary-pushing stunts to improve ratings.
  2. The political radio announcer who has an emotional outburst in response to a controversial government policy decision.

Background:
​
The idea of an entertainer who breaks taboos or who is deliberately offensive is not a new one. Despite the claims of decency activists, blue comedians have existed throughout history; notoriously offensive performers (George Carlin, Petronius, Benny Bell, Le Pétomane, Redd Foxx and Lenny Bruce for example).

African-American Ralph Waldo Petey Greene (1931–1984), who started broadcasting in 1966, has been called the original radio shock jock by some, although the term was not used until 1986, two years after Greene's death. Greene was an influence on Howard Stern, whose radio shows in the 1980s led to the first widespread use of the term "shock jock".

Shock jocks also tend to push the envelope of decency in their market, and may appear to show a lack of regard for communications regulations (e.g., FCC rules in the U.S.) regarding content.

But nearly all American broadcasters have strict policies against content that is likely to draw indecency forfeitures, and air personalities are often contractually obligated to avoid broadcasting such content. Indecency fines are, in fact, rarely issued by U.S. regulators—no broadcaster has been issued a forfeiture for indecent content since 2003, although several earlier cases are in appeals court.

Popular envelope-pushing subjects for shock jocks include sexual (especially kinky) and/or scatological (toilet humor) topics, or just unabashed innuendo. Shock jocks may have sex workers as guests.

Many shock jocks have been fired as a result of such punishments as regulatory fines, loss of advertisers, or simply social and political outrage. On the other hand, it is also not uncommon for such broadcasters to be quickly rehired by another station or network.

Shock jocks in the United States have been censored under additional pressure from the United States government since the introduction of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, which increased the fines on radio stations for violating decency guidelines by nearly 20 times.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Shock Jocks:







Howard Stern, "Shock Jock"Pictured below: Howard Stern Says 'Moron' Trump Supporters Should 'Live in Russia'
​Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, The Howard Stern Show, which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1986 to 2005. He has broadcast on Sirius XM Satellite Radio since 2006.

Stern landed his first radio jobs while at Boston University. From 1976 to 1982, he developed his on-air personality through morning positions at:
Stern worked afternoons at WFAN in New York City from 1982 until his firing in 1985. In 1985, he began a 20-year run at WXRK in New York City; his morning show entered syndication in 1986 and aired in 60 markets and attracted 20 million listeners at its peak. In recent years, Stern's photography has been featured in Hamptons and WHIRL magazines.

From 2012 to 2015, Stern served as a judge on America's Got Talent.

Stern has won numerous industry awards, including Billboard's Nationally Syndicated Air Personality of the Year eight consecutive times, and he is the first to have the number one morning show in New York City and Los Angeles simultaneously.

Stern became the most fined radio host when the Federal Communications Commission issued fines totaling $2.5 million to station owners for content it deemed indecent. Stern became one of the highest-paid radio figures after signing a five-year deal with Sirius in 2004 worth $500 million.

Stern has described himself as the "King of All Media" since 1992 for his successes outside radio. He hosted and produced numerous late-night television shows, pay-per-view events, and home videos. Two of his books, Private Parts (1993) and Miss America (1995), entered The New York Times Best Seller list at number one and sold over one million copies.

The former was made into a biographical comedy film in 1997 that had Stern and his radio show staff star as themselves. It topped the US box office in its opening week and grossed $41.2 million domestically. Stern performs on its soundtrack, which charted the Billboard 200 at number one and was certified platinum for one million copies sold.

Stern's third book, Howard Stern Comes Again, was released in 2019.

For more about Howard Stern, click here.








Sirius XM RadioPictured below: SiriusXM Platinum Plan Trial Subscription Features & Benefits for Lincoln Vehicles
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, merging them into SiriusXM Radio.

The company also has a 70% equity interest in Sirius XM Canada, an affiliate company that provides Sirius and XM service in Canada. On 21 May 2013, Sirius XM Holdings, Inc. was incorporated, and in January 2020, Sirius XM reorganized their corporate structure, which made Sirius XM Radio Inc. a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Sirius XM Holdings, Inc.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. on 29 July 2008, 17 months after the companies first proposed it. The merger created a company with 18.5 million subscribers, and the deal was valued at US$3.3 billion, not including debt. 

The proposed merger was opposed by those who felt it would create a monopoly. Sirius and XM argued that a merger was the only way that satellite radio could survive.

In September 2018, the company agreed to purchase the streaming music service Pandora, and this transaction was completed on 1 February 2019. Since then, SiriusXM has grown to be the largest audio entertainment company in North America

As of 11 April 2021, Sirius XM had approximately 34.9 million subscribers.

Sirius XM Radio is a primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Sirius XM Satellite Radio:









List of Most Listened-To Radio ProgramsPicture below:  What Do People Listen To While Driving?
​In the United States, radio listenership is gauged by Nielsen and others for both commercial radio and public radio. Nielsen and similar services provide estimates by regional market and by standard daypart, but do not compile nationwide information by host.

Because there are significant gaps in Nielsen's coverage in rural areas, and because there are only a few markets where the company's proprietary data can be compared against competing ratings tabulators, there is a great deal of estimation and interpolation when attempting to compile a list of the most-listened-to radio programs in the United States.

In 2009, Arbitron, the American radio industry's largest audience-measurement company at the time (since subsumed into its television counterpart Nielsen), said that "the job of determining number of listeners for (any particular program or host) is too complicated, expensive and difficult for them to bother with." 

In contrast, because most UK radio broadcasts are distributed consistently and nationwide, the complications of measuring audiences that are present in American radio are not present for British radio.

Talkers Magazine, an American trade publication focusing on talk radio, formerly compiled a list of the most-listened-to commercial long-form talk shows in the United States, based primarily on Nielsen data.

In addition to Talkers' independent analyses, radio companies of all formats include estimates of audience in news releases. The nature of news releases allows radio companies to inflate their listener totals by obscuring the difference between listeners at any given time, cumulative listenership over a time frame, and potential audience.

​Worldwide broadcasts:
Popular radio shows in the United States:

The total listenership for terrestrial radio in the United States as of January 2017 was 256 million, up from 230 million in 2005. Of the 121 million listeners in markets served by portable people meters in 2021, an average of 7.5 million are listening to a radio at any given time, up slightly from 2020. 

68 percent of homes have at least one radio, with the average home having 1.5 radios as of 2020, both figures being steep declines from 2008. An estimated 12% of listenership to FCC-licensed AM and FM radio stations comes from means other than the actual AM or FM signal itself, usually an Internet radio stream.

Sirius XM Radio has a base of 34.3 million subscribers as of 2020. American Top 40 attracts over 20 million listeners per week. The late Rush Limbaugh's show was the number-one commercial talk show from 1987 until Limbaugh's death in February 2021.

NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered are the two most popular news programs. Tom Kent self-estimated his listenership in 2014 at over 23 million weekly listeners over all of his network's programs, which span the classic hits, adult hits and hot adult contemporary formats. 

NPR has an overall listenership of 57 million listeners weekly across all shows and platforms as of 2020, with a growing proportion of that figure coming from off-air platforms.

Until the development of portable people meters, Arbitron (Nielsen's predecessor in the radio measurement business) did not have the capability to measure individual airings of a program the way Nielsen Ratings can for television, and as such, it only measures in three-month moving averages each month.

Portable people meters are currently only available in the largest markets Arbitron serves. Thus, it is impossible under current survey techniques to determine the listenership of an individual event such as the Super Bowl.

For most of its existence, Talkers Magazine compiled Arbitron's data, along with other sources, to estimate the minimum weekly audiences of various commercial long-form talk radio shows; its list was updated monthly until the magazine unceremoniously dropped the feature in 2016, then resumed publication in 2017. 

The 2017 reintroduction also incorporates off-air distribution methods (particularly those that are Internet-based) but not satellite radio, as Talkers could not access data for that medium; as a result, the estimates for most shows increased dramatically when compared to the 2015 methodology. NPR and APM compile Arbitron's data for its public radio shows and releases analysis through press releases.

​Included is a list of the 20 most-listened-to radio shows in the United States according to weekly cumulative listenership, followed by a selection of shows of various formats that are most-listened-to within their category. (Unless otherwise noted, the Talkers "non-scientific" estimate is the source.)

The following is an image of the most listened-to radio programs: Click on the image to be taken to the actual List so that you can click on any item in blue therein, for additional information:
​Note on broadcast time: because of the effects of time on North American broadcasting, nationally syndicated shows that air live will end up on different dayparts in different time zones. The above list makes note of this. Note that although shows such as Beck's and Levin's are listed under "West Coast" drive times, that their shows are based on the East Coast (and thus air in early midday and early evening time slots there). Their dayparts are indicated as such for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

The pay service Sirius XM Radio was monitored directly by Arbitron from 2007 to early 2008. The final numbers available, from early 2008 (prior to when XM and Sirius merged) had The Howard Stern Show being the most listened-to show on either platform, with Stern's Howard 100 channel netting a "cume" of 1.2 million listeners and Howard 101 (the secondary and replay channel) netting an additional 500,000 listeners. 

Among formats common to both platforms (all of which have since merged into singular channels), the contemporary hit radio channels, with a combined 1.6 million listeners, ranked highest, with classic rock, hot country music, 1970s and 1980s music channels each netting approximately 1 million listeners combined. Sirius had 8.3 million total subscribers in early 2008 (the Arbitron ratings were measured against a 7-million subscriber base compared to 10 million for XM), and now has more than 30 million. 

Eastlan Ratings, a service that competes with Arbitron in several markets, includes satellite radio channels in its local ratings; Howard 100 has registered above several lower-end local stations in the markets Eastlan serves, the only satellite station to do so.

Virtually all of the most-listened-to radio programs in the United States are in English. Other than English, only Spanish has an audience large enough to establish national networks; data for shows in Spanish are much more limited. Other languages (Chinese, Polish, Korean, various languages of India, and French) are broadcast only on a local level.

Past top programs in the United States:

Beginning with the 1930–31 radio season, three ratings services measured radio listener totals. The Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting did so from 1934 to 1935.

From 1935 to 1936 and 1948–49, the bulk of radio's "golden age," C.E. Hooper monitored the numbers, which were popularly called "Hooperatings."

The A.C. Nielsen company, which continues to measure television ratings today, took over American radio's ratings beginning with the 1949–50 radio season and ending in 1955–56. During this era, nearly all of radio's most popular programs were broadcast on one of three networks: NBC Red, NBC Blue, or CBS’ Columbia network.

The top-rated radio programs on American radio from each season:
At his peak in the late 1930s, commentator Charles Coughlin was renowned for his large and passionate listener base. Because his show was not a network broadcast, but was instead syndicated on 36 stations, determining how many listeners he had has proven difficult. Some modern estimates peg his listenership at approximately 30 million listeners. 

President Franklin Roosevelt's irregularly scheduled fireside chats, simulcast on all of the major networks, consistently reached over 50 percent of the listening audience during his last five years in office.

In the 1980s, the Larry King Show was the most-listened-to program in the United States, before The Rush Limbaugh Show supplanted it. During the early 1990s, Chuck Harder was Limbaugh's most prominent rival among talk shows discussing sociopolitical issues.

Though radio listenership totals collapsed dramatically in the 1950s with the advent of television, some radio programs attracted large audience for decades later:
  • notably Howard Stern. Before moving to satellite radio in 2006, The Howard Stern Show peaked at 20 million listeners on syndicated terrestrial radio. Unlike the above programs, Stern's radio show was broadcast daily, for 4–5 hours per day. 
  • Paul Harvey, at his peak, drew an estimated 25 million listeners to his 15-minute daily program. 
  • At his peak in the 1990s, The Rush Limbaugh Show was drawing as many as 20 million listeners a week; as of 1998, Stern, Limbaugh and then-first-place Dr. Laura Schlessinger were drawing between 17 and 18 million listeners according to Talkers estimates.
  • At the time of both shows' departure from Talk Radio Network in fall 2012, The Savage Nation was estimated to have an audience of 9 million listeners and The Laura Ingraham Show was estimated at 6 million listeners. The later revivals of both of those shows were much smaller, each only registering an estimated 3 million listeners as of April 2013; Savage's estimate has since rebounded.
  • Prior to his retirement, Neal Boortz registered approximately 5.75 million listeners.
  • The public radio series Car Talk with Click and Clack had approximately 4 million listeners immediately prior to ending its original run, ranking it among the most-listened-to weekend radio programs in the United States; individual affiliates noted that the hour of highest listenership on their stations were during Car Talk, hence why it was kept in reruns for five years afterward (Car Talk had the benefit of not usually being simulcast on multiple stations in a market at the same time as higher-ranking shows such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered often were). 
  • Talk of the Nation registered at 3.2 million listeners prior to its cancellation in 2013. Immediately prior to Blair Garner's departure from the show in July 2013, After Midnite was quoted as drawing 2.7 million listeners, the most of any country music show for which listenership estimates are made available.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Most listened-to Radio Programs:​






​
National Public Radio (NPR)Pictured below: Kinsey Wilson and the npr.org crew at the 69th Annual Peabody Awards 
(Courtesy of The Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45115747
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American privately and publicly funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. 

NPR differs from other non-profit membership media organizations such as Associated Press, in that it was established by an act of Congress, and most of its member stations are owned by government entities (often public universities). It serves as a national syndicator to a network of over 1,000 public radio stations in the United States.

NPR produces and distributes news and cultural programming. The organization's flagship shows are two drive-time news broadcasts: Morning Edition and the afternoon All Things Considered, both carried by most NPR member stations, and among the most popular radio programs in the country. 

As of March 2018, the drive-time programs attract an audience of 14.9 million and 14.7 million per week, respectively.

NPR manages the Public Radio Satellite System, which distributes its programs and other programming from independent producers and networks such as American Public Media and Public Radio Exchange, and which also acts as a primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System.

NPR's content is also available on-demand online, on mobile networks, and in many cases, as podcasts. Several NPR stations also carry programs from British public broadcaster BBC World Service.

Name:

The organization's legal name is National Public Radio and its trademarked brand is NPR; it is known by both names. In June 2010, the organization announced that it was "making a conscious effort to consistently refer to ourselves as NPR on-air and online" because NPR is the common name for the organization and the tag line "This ... is NPR" has been used by its radio hosts for many years. However, National Public Radio remains the legal name of the group, as it has been since 1970.

Click on the following hyperlinks for more about National Public Radio (NPR):







Amateur ("Ham") Radio Pictured below: A typical layout of a Ham Shack with a variety of radio communication equipment, peripherals, test-instruments and station computers.
​Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communications. 

The term "amateur" is used to specify "a duly authorized person interested in radioelectric practice with a purely personal aim and without pecuniary interest;" (either direct monetary or other similar reward) and to differentiate it from commercial broadcasting, public safety (such as police and fire), or professional two-way radio services (such as maritime, aviation, taxis, etc.).

The amateur radio service (amateur service and amateur-satellite service) is established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) through the Radio Regulations. National governments regulate technical and operational characteristics of transmissions and issue individual station licenses with a unique identifying call sign, which must be used in all transmissions. 

Amateur operators must hold an amateur radio license which is obtained by passing a government test demonstrating adequate technical radio knowledge and legal knowledge of the host government's radio regulations.

Radio amateurs are limited to a small set of frequency bands, the amateur radio bands, allocated throughout the radio spectrum, but within these bands are allowed to transmit on any frequency using a variety of voice, text, image, and data communications modes. This enables communication across a city, region, country, continent, the world, or even into space.

In many countries, amateur radio operators may also send, receive, or relay radio communications between computers or transceivers connected to secure virtual private networks on the Internet.

Amateur radio is officially represented and coordinated by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), which is organized in three regions and has as its members the national amateur radio societies which exist in most countries.

According to an estimate made in 2011 by the American Radio Relay League, two million people throughout the world are regularly involved with amateur radio. About 830,000 amateur radio stations are located in IARU Region 2 (the Americas) followed by IARU Region 3 (South and East Asia and the Pacific Ocean) with about 750,000 stations. A significantly smaller number, about 400,000, are located in IARU Region 1 (Europe, Middle East, CIS, Africa).

​History:
Main article: History of amateur radio

​The origins of amateur radio can be traced to the late 19th century, but amateur radio as practiced today began in the early 20th century. The First Annual Official Wireless Blue Book of the Wireless Association of America, produced in 1909, contains a list of amateur radio stations. This radio callbook lists wireless telegraph stations in Canada and the United States, including 89 amateur radio stations.

As with radio in general, amateur radio was associated with various amateur experimenters and hobbyists. Amateur radio enthusiasts have significantly contributed to science, engineering, industry, and social services.

Research by amateur operators has founded new industries, built economies, empowered nations, and saved lives in times of emergency. Ham radio can also be used in the classroom to teach English, map skills, geography, math, science, and computer skills.

Ham radio:
Main article: Etymology of ham radio

The term "ham" was first a pejorative term used in professional wired telegraphy during the 19th century, to mock operators with poor Morse code-sending skills ("ham-fisted").

This term continued to be used after the invention of radio and the proliferation of amateur experimentation with wireless telegraphy; among land- and sea-based professional radio operators, "ham" amateurs were considered a nuisance. The use of "ham" meaning "amateurish or unskilled" survives today sparsely in other disciplines (e.g. "ham actor").

The amateur radio community subsequently began to reclaim the word as a label of pride, and by the mid-20th century it had lost its pejorative meaning. Although not an acronym, it is often mistakenly written as a backronym, with "HAM" in capital letters.

Within Australia, the term "HAM" is sometimes used as an backronym for the words Hobby Amateur.

Activity and practice:
​
The many facets of amateur radio attract practitioners with a wide range of interests. Many amateurs begin with a fascination with radio communication and then combine other personal interests to make pursuit of the hobby rewarding.

Some of the focal areas amateurs pursue include: 
Amateur radio operators use various modes of transmission to communicate. The two most common modes for voice transmissions are frequency modulation (FM) and single sideband (SSB). FM offers high quality audio signals, while SSB is better at long-distance communication when bandwidth is restricted.

Radiotelegraphy using Morse code, also known as "CW" from "continuous wave", is the wireless extension of landline (wired) telegraphy developed by Samuel Morse and dates to the earliest days of radio.

Although computer-based (digital) modes and methods have largely replaced CW for commercial and military applications, many amateur radio operators still enjoy using the CW mode—particularly on the shortwave bands and for experimental work, such as Earth–Moon–Earth communication, because of its inherent signal-to-noise ratio advantages.

Morse, using internationally agreed message encodings such as the Q code, enables communication between amateurs who speak different languages. It is also popular with homebrewers and in particular with "QRP" or very-low-power enthusiasts, as CW-only transmitters are simpler to construct, and the human ear-brain signal processing system can pull weak CW signals out of the noise where voice signals would be totally inaudible.

A similar "legacy" mode popular with home constructors is amplitude modulation (AM), pursued by many vintage amateur radio enthusiasts and aficionados of vacuum tube technology.

Demonstrating a proficiency in Morse code was for many years a requirement to obtain an amateur license to transmit on frequencies below 30 MHz. Following changes in international regulations in 2003, countries are no longer required to demand proficiency.

The United States Federal Communications Commission, for example, phased out this requirement for all license classes on 23 February 2007.

Modern personal computers have encouraged the use of digital modes such as radioteletype (RTTY) which previously required cumbersome mechanical equipment. Hams led the development of packet radio in the 1970s, which has employed protocols such as AX.25 and TCP/IP.

Specialized digital modes such as PSK31 allow real-time, low-power communications on the shortwave bands but has been loosing favor in place of newer digital modes such as FT8.

Radio over IP, or RoIP, is similar to Voice over IP (VoIP), but augments two-way radio communications rather than telephone calls. 

EchoLink using VoIP technology has enabled amateurs to communicate through local Internet-connected repeaters and radio nodes, while IRLP has allowed the linking of repeaters to provide greater coverage area.

Automatic link establishment (ALE) has enabled continuous amateur radio networks to operate on the high frequency bands with global coverage. Other modes, such as FSK441 using software such as WSJT, are used for weak signal modes including meteor scatter and moonbounce communications.

Fast scan amateur television has gained popularity as hobbyists adapt inexpensive consumer video electronics like camcorders and video cards in PCs. Because of the wide bandwidth and stable signals required, amateur television is typically found in the 70 cm (420–450 MHz) wavelength range, though there is also limited use on 33 cm (902–928 MHz), 23 cm (1240–1300 MHz) and shorter.

These requirements also effectively limit the signal range to between 20 and 60 miles (30–100 km).

Linked repeater systems, however, can allow transmissions of VHF and higher frequencies across hundreds of miles. Repeaters are usually located on heights of land or tall structures and allow operators to communicate over hundreds of miles using hand-held or mobile transceivers.

​Repeaters can also be linked together by using other amateur radio bands, landline, or the Internet.

​Amateur radio satellites can be accessed, some using a hand-held transceiver (HT), even, at times, using the factory "rubber duck" antenna. Hams also use the moon, the aurora borealis, and the ionized trails of meteors as reflectors of radio waves. Hams can also contact the International Space Station (ISS) because many astronauts are licensed as amateur radio operators.

Amateur radio operators use their amateur radio station to make contacts with individual hams as well as participating in round table discussion groups or "rag chew sessions" on the air.

Some join in regularly scheduled on-air meetings with other amateur radio operators, called "nets" (as in "networks"), which are moderated by a station referred to as "Net Control". Nets can allow operators to learn procedures for emergencies, be an informal round table, or cover specific interests shared by a group.

Amateur radio operators, using battery- or generator-powered equipment, often provide essential communications services when regular channels are unavailable due to natural disaster or other disruptive events .

Many amateur radio operators participate in radio contests, during which an individual or team of operators typically seek to contact and exchange information with as many other amateur radio stations as possible in a given period of time.

In addition to contests, a number of Amateur radio operating award schemes exist, sometimes suffixed with "on the Air", such as Summits on the Air, Islands on the Air, Worked All States and Jamboree on the Air.

Amateur radio operators may also act as citizen scientists for propagation research and atmospheric science.

Licensing:

Radio transmission permits are closely controlled by nations' governments because radio waves propagate beyond national boundaries, and therefore radio is of international concern.

Both the requirements for and privileges granted to a licensee vary from country to country, but generally follow the international regulations and standards established by the International Telecommunication Union and World Radio Conferences.

All countries that license citizens to use amateur radio require operators to display knowledge and understanding of key concepts, usually by passing an exam. The licenses grant hams the privilege to operate in larger segments of the radio frequency spectrum, with a wider variety of communication techniques, and with higher power levels relative to unlicensed personal radio services (such as CB radio, FRS, and PMR446), which require type-approved equipment restricted in mode, range, and power.

Amateur licensing is a routine civil administrative matter in many countries. Amateurs therein must pass an examination to demonstrate technical knowledge, operating competence, and awareness of legal and regulatory requirements, in order to avoid interfering with other amateurs and other radio services.

A series of exams are often available, each progressively more challenging and granting more privileges: greater frequency availability, higher power output, permitted experimentation, and, in some countries, distinctive call signs. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, have begun requiring a practical assessment in addition to the written exams in order to obtain a beginner's license, which they call a Foundation License.

In most countries, an operator will be assigned a call sign with their license. In some countries, a separate "station license" is required for any station used by an amateur radio operator. Amateur radio licenses may also be granted to organizations or clubs. In some countries, hams were allowed to operate only club stations.

An amateur radio license is valid only in the country in which it is issued or in another country that has a reciprocal licensing agreement with the issuing country. Some countries, such as Syria and Cuba, restrict operation by foreigners to club stations only.

In some countries, an amateur radio license is necessary in order to purchase or possess amateur radio equipment.

Amateur radio licensing in the United States exemplifies the way in which some countries award different levels of amateur radio licenses based on technical knowledge: three sequential levels of licensing exams (Technician Class, General Class, and Amateur Extra Class) are currently offered, which allow operators who pass them access to larger portions of the Amateur Radio spectrum and more desirable (shorter) call signs.

An exam, authorized by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is required for all levels of the Amateur Radio license. These exams are administered by Volunteer Examiners, accredited by the FCC-recognized Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) system.

The Technician Class and General Class exams consist of 35 multiple-choice questions, drawn randomly from a pool of at least 350. To pass, 26 of the 35 questions must be answered correctly. 

The Extra Class exam has 50 multiple choice questions (drawn randomly from a pool of at least 500), 37 of which must be answered correctly. The tests cover regulations, customs, and technical knowledge, such as FCC provisions, operating practices, advanced electronics theory, radio equipment design, and safety.

Morse Code is no longer tested in the U.S. Once the exam is passed, the FCC issues an Amateur Radio license which is valid for ten years. Studying for the exam is made easier because the entire question pools for all license classes are posted in advance. The question pools are updated every four years by the National Conference of VECs.

Licensing requirements:

Prospective amateur radio operators are examined on understanding of the key concepts of electronics, radio equipment, antennas, radio propagation, RF safety, and the radio regulations of the government granting the license. These examinations are sets of questions typically posed in either a short answer or multiple-choice format. Examinations can be administered by bureaucrats, non-paid certified examiners, or previously licensed amateur radio operators.

The ease with which an individual can acquire an amateur radio license varies from country to country. In some countries, examinations may be offered only once or twice a year in the national capital and can be inordinately bureaucratic (for example in India) or challenging because some amateurs must undergo difficult security approval (as in Iran).

Currently only Yemen and North Korea do not issue amateur radio licenses to their citizens, although in both cases a limited number of foreign visitors have been permitted to obtain amateur licenses in the past decade.

Some developing countries, especially those in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, require the payment of annual license fees that can be prohibitively expensive for most of their citizens.

A few small countries may not have a national licensing process and may instead require prospective amateur radio operators to take the licensing examinations of a foreign country.

In countries with the largest numbers of amateur radio licensees, such as Japan, the United States, Thailand, Canada, and most of the countries in Europe, there are frequent license examinations opportunities in major cities.

Granting a separate license to a club or organization generally requires that an individual with a current and valid amateur radio license who is in good standing with the telecommunications authority assumes responsibility for any operations conducted under the club license or club call sign.

A few countries may issue special licenses to novices or beginners that do not assign the individual a call sign but instead require the newly licensed individual to operate from stations licensed to a club or organization for a period of time before a higher class of license can be acquired.

Reciprocal licensing:
Further information: Amateur radio international operation
​​
A reciprocal licensing agreement between two countries allows bearers of an amateur radio license in one country under certain conditions to legally operate an amateur radio station in the other country without having to obtain an amateur radio license from the country being visited, or the bearer of a valid license in one country can receive a separate license and a call sign in another country, both of which have a mutually-agreed reciprocal licensing approvals.

Reciprocal licensing requirements vary from country to country. Some countries have bilateral or multilateral reciprocal operating agreements allowing hams to operate within their borders with a single set of requirements. Some countries lack reciprocal licensing systems. Others use international bodies such as the Organization of American States to facilitate licensing reciprocity.

When traveling abroad, visiting amateur operators must follow the rules of the country in which they wish to operate. Some countries have reciprocal international operating agreements allowing hams from other countries to operate within their borders with just their home country license. Other host countries require that the visiting ham apply for a formal permit, or even a new host country-issued license, in advance.

The reciprocal recognition of licenses frequently not only depends on the involved licensing authorities, but also on the nationality of the bearer. As an example, in the US, foreign licenses are recognized only if the bearer does not have US citizenship and holds no US license (which may differ in terms of operating privileges and restrictions). Conversely, a US citizen may operate under reciprocal agreements in Canada, but not a non-US citizen holding a US license.

Newcomers:

Many people start their involvement in amateur radio by finding a local club. Clubs often provide information about licensing, local operating practices, and technical advice.

Newcomers also often study independently by purchasing books or other materials, sometimes with the help of a mentor, teacher, or friend. Established amateurs who help newcomers are often referred to as "Elmers", as coined by Rodney Newkirk, W9BRD, within the ham community. 

In addition, many countries have national amateur radio societies which encourage newcomers and work with government communications regulation authorities for the benefit of all radio amateurs.

The oldest of these societies is the Wireless Institute of Australia, formed in 1910; other notable societies are:
(Also See Category:Amateur radio organizations)

Call signs:
Further information: Amateur radio call signs

An amateur radio operator uses a call sign on the air to legally identify the operator or station. In some countries, the call sign assigned to the station must always be used, whereas in other countries, the call sign of either the operator or the station may be used.

In certain jurisdictions, an operator may also select a "vanity" call sign although these must also conform to the issuing government's allocation and structure used for Amateur Radio call signs. Some jurisdictions require a fee to obtain such a vanity call sign; in others, such as the UK, a fee is not required and the vanity call sign may be selected when the license is applied for.

The FCC in the U.S. discontinued its fee for vanity call sign applications in September 2015.

Call sign structure as prescribed by the ITU consists of three parts which break down as follows, using the call sign ZS1NAT as an example:
  • ZS – Shows the country from which the call sign originates and may also indicate the license class. (This call sign is licensed in South Africa.)
  • 1 – Gives the subdivision of the country or territory indicated in the first part (this one refers to the Western Cape).
  • NAT – The final part is unique to the holder of the license, identifying that station specifically.

Many countries do not follow the ITU convention for the numeral. In the United Kingdom the original calls G0xxx, G2xxx, G3xxx, G4xxx, were Full (A) License holders along with the last M0xxx full call signs issued by the City & Guilds examination authority in December 2003.

Additional Full Licenses were originally granted to (B) Licensees with G1xxx, G6xxx, G7xxx, G8xxx and 1991 onward with M1xxx call signs. The newer three-level Intermediate License holders are assigned 2E0xxx and 2E1xxx, and the basic Foundation License holders are granted call signs M3xxx, M6xxx or M7xxx.

Instead of using numbers, in the UK the second letter after the initial ‘G’ or 'M' identifies the station's location; for example, a call sign G7OOE becomes GM7OOE and M0RDM becomes MM0RDM when that license holder is operating a station in Scotland:
  • Prefix "GM" & "MM" are Scotland,
  • "GW" & "MW" are Wales,
  • "GI" & "MI" are Northern Ireland,
  • "GD" & "MD" are the Isle of Man,
  • "GJ" & "MJ" are Jersey
  • and "GU" & "MU" are Guernsey.

Intermediate license call signs are slightly different. They begin 2#0 and 2#1 where the # is replaced with the country letters as above. For example "2M0" and "2M1" are Scotland, "2W0" and "2W1" are Wales and so on.

The exception however is for England. The letter "E" is used, but only in intermediate-level call signs. For example "2E0" & "2E1" are used whereas the call signs beginning G or M for foundation and full licensees never use the "E".

In the United States, for non-vanity licenses, the numeral indicates the geographical district the holder resided in when the license was first issued. Prior to 1978, US hams were required to obtain a new call sign if they moved out of their geographic district.

In Canada, call signs start with VA, VE, VY, VO, and CY. Call signs starting with 'V' end with a number after to indicate the political region:
The last two or three letters of the call signs are typically the operator's choice (upon completing the licensing test, the ham writes three most-preferred options). Two-letter call sign suffixes require a ham to have already been licensed for 5 years. Call signs in Canada can be requested with a fee.

Also, for smaller geopolitical entities, the numeral may be part of the country identification. For example:
  • VP2xxx is in the British West Indies, which is subdivided into
    • VP2Exx Anguilla,
    • VP2Mxx Montserrat,
    • and VP2Vxx British Virgin Islands.
  • VP5xxx is in the Turks and Caicos Islands,
  • VP6xxx is on Pitcairn Island,
  • VP8xxx is in the Falklands,
  • and VP9xxx is in Bermuda.

Online callbooks or call sign databases can be browsed or searched to find out who holds a specific call sign. An example of an online callbook is QRZ.com. Non-exhaustive lists of famous people who hold or have held amateur radio call signs have also been compiled and published.

Many jurisdictions (but not in the UK & Europe) may issue specialty vehicle registration plates to licensed amateur radio operators often in order to facilitate their movement during an emergency. The fees for application and renewal are usually less than the standard rate for specialty plates.

Privileges:

In most administrations, unlike other RF spectrum users, radio amateurs may build or modify transmitting equipment for their own use within the amateur spectrum without the need to obtain government certification of the equipment.

Licensed amateurs can also use any frequency in their bands (rather than being allocated fixed frequencies or channels) and can operate medium to high-powered equipment on a wide range of frequencies so long as they meet certain technical parameters including occupied bandwidth, power, and prevention of spurious emission.

Radio amateurs have access to frequency allocations throughout the RF spectrum, usually allowing choice of an effective frequency for communications across a local, regional, or worldwide path.

​The shortwave bands, or HF, are suitable for worldwide communication, and the VHF and UHF bands normally provide local or regional communication, while the microwave bands have enough space, or bandwidth, for amateur television transmissions and high-speed computer networks.

​In most countries, an amateur radio license grants permission to the license holder to own, modify, and operate equipment that is not certified by a governmental regulatory agency. This encourages amateur radio operators to experiment with home-constructed or modified equipment. The use of such equipment must still satisfy national and international standards on spurious emissions.

Amateur radio operators are encouraged both by regulations and tradition of respectful use of the spectrum to use as little power as possible to accomplish the communication. This is to minimize interference or EMC to any other device. Although allowable power levels are moderate by commercial standards, they are sufficient to enable global communication.

Lower license classes usually have lower power limits; for example, the lowest license class in the UK (Foundation licence) has a limit of 10 W.

Power limits vary from country to country and between license classes within a country. For example, the peak envelope power limits for the highest available license classes in a few selected countries are:
  • 2.25 kW in Canada; 
  • 1.5 kW in the United States;
  • 1.0 kW in Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, South Africa and New Zealand;
  • 750 W in Germany;
  • 500 W in Italy;
  • 400 W in Australia, India, and the United Kingdom;
  • and 150 W in Oman.

Output power limits may also depend on the mode of transmission. In Australia, for example, 400 W may be used for SSB transmissions, but FM and other modes are limited to 120 W.

The point at which power output is measured may also affect transmissions. The United Kingdom measures at the point the antenna is connected to the signal feed cable, which means the radio system may transmit more than 400 W to overcome signal loss in the cable; conversely, Germany measures power at the output of the final amplification stage, which results in a loss in radiated power with longer cable feeds.

Certain countries permit amateur radio license holders to hold a Notice of Variation that allows higher power to be used than normally allowed for certain specific purposes. E.g. in the UK some amateur radio license holders are allowed to transmit using (33 dBw) 2.0 kW for experiments entailing using the moon as a passive radio reflector (known as Earth–Moon–Earth communication) (EME).

Band plans and frequency allocations:
Main article: Amateur radio frequency allocations

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) governs the allocation of communications frequencies worldwide, with participation by each nation's communications regulation authority.

National communications regulators have some liberty to restrict access to these bandplan frequencies or to award additional allocations as long as radio services in other countries do not suffer interference.

In some countries, specific emission types are restricted to certain parts of the radio spectrum, and in most other countries, International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) member societies adopt voluntary plans to ensure the most effective use of spectrum.

In a few cases, a national telecommunication agency may also allow hams to use frequencies outside of the internationally allocated amateur radio bands. In Trinidad and Tobago, hams are allowed to use a repeater which is located on 148.800 MHz. This repeater is used and maintained by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), but may be used by radio amateurs in times of emergency or during normal times to test their capability and conduct emergency drills.

This repeater can also be used by non-ham NEMA staff and REACT members. In Australia and New Zealand ham operators are authorized to use one of the UHF TV channels.

In the U.S., amateur radio operators providing essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available may use any frequency including those of other radio services such as police and fire and in cases of disaster in Alaska may use the statewide emergency frequency of 5.1675 MHz with restrictions upon emissions.

Similarly, amateurs in the United States may apply to be registered with the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS). Once approved and trained, these amateurs also operate on US government military frequencies to provide contingency communications and morale message traffic support to the military services.

​Modes of communication:
See also: List of amateur radio modes

Amateurs use a variety of voice, text, image, and data communications modes over radio. Generally new modes can be tested in the amateur radio service, although national regulations may require disclosure of a new mode to permit radio licensing authorities to monitor the transmissions. 

Encryption, for example, is not generally permitted in the Amateur Radio service except for the special purpose of satellite vehicle control uplinks. The following is a partial list of the modes of communication used, where the mode includes both modulation types and operating protocols.

Voice:
Image:
Text and data:

In earlier times, most amateur digital modes are transmitted by inserting audio into the microphone input of a radio and using an analog scheme, such as amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), or single-sideband modulation (SSB).

Beginning in 2017, increased use of several digital modes, particularly FT8, became popular within the amateur radio community:

Text-modes:
Digimodes:
Modes by activity:

The following "modes" use no one specific modulation scheme but rather are classified by the activity of the communication.
See also:







History of Radio including the Timeline of Radio Picture below: History of Radio Programs Infographic
The early history of radio is the history of technology that produces and uses radio instruments that use radio waves. Within the timeline of radio, many people contributed theory and inventions in what became radio. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy". Later radio history increasingly involves matters of broadcasting.

Summary
​
Invention:
Main article: Invention of radio

The idea of wireless communication predates the discovery of "radio" with experiments in "wireless telegraphy" via inductive and capacitive induction and transmission through the ground, water, and even train tracks from the 1830s on. James Clerk Maxwell showed in theoretical and mathematical form in 1864 that electromagnetic waves could propagate through free space. 

It is likely that the first intentional transmission of a signal by means of electromagnetic waves was performed in an experiment by David Edward Hughes around 1880, although this was considered to be induction at the time. In 1888 Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was able to conclusively prove transmitted airborne electromagnetic waves in an experiment confirming Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism.

After the discovery of these "Hertzian waves" (it would take almost 20 years for the term "radio" to be universally adopted for this type of electromagnetic radiation) many scientists and inventors experimented with transmitting and detecting Hertzian waves.

Maxwell's theory showing that light and Hertzian electromagnetic waves were the same phenomenon at different wavelengths led "Maxwellian" scientists such as John Perry, Frederick Thomas Trouton and Alexander Trotter to assume they would be analogous to optical light. 

The Serbian American engineer Nikola Tesla (who proposed a wireless power/communication earth conduction system similar to radio in 1893) considered Hertzian waves relatively useless for his system since "light" could not transmit further than line of sight. 

In 1892 the physicist William Crookes wrote on the possibilities of wireless telegraphy based on Hertzian waves. Others, such as Sir Oliver Lodge, Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, and Alexander Popov were involved in the development of components and theory involved with the transmission and reception of airborne electromagnetic waves for their own theoretical work.

​Over several years starting in 1894 the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi built the first engineering complete, commercially successful wireless telegraphy system based on airborne Hertzian waves (radio transmission). Marconi demonstrated the application of radio in military and marine communications and started a company for the development and propagation of radio communication services and equipment.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the History of Radio:







Satellite RadioPictured below: How Satellite Radio Works
Click Here for the previously-developed Satellite System Topic: Sirius XM Radio

Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a broadcasting-satellite service. 

The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than terrestrial radio stations, and the service is primarily intended for the occupants of motor vehicles. It is available by subscription, mostly commercial free, and offers subscribers more stations and a wider variety of programming options than terrestrial radio.

Satellite radio technology was inducted into the Space Foundation Space Technology Hall of Fame in 2002. Satellite radio uses the 2.3 GHz S band in North America for nationwide digital radio broadcasting. In other parts of the world, satellite radio uses the 1.4 GHz L band allocated for DAB.

United States:

Sirius Satellite Radio was founded by Martine Rothblatt, who served as the new company's Chairman of the Board. Co-founder David Margolese served as Chief Executive Officer with former NASA engineer Robert Briskman serving as President and Chief Operating Officer. 

In June 1990, Rothblatt's shell company, Satellite CD Radio, Inc., petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to assign new frequencies for satellites to broadcast digital sound to homes and cars. The company identified and argued in favor of the use of the S-band frequencies that the FCC subsequently decided to allocate to digital audio broadcasting. The National Association of Broadcasters contended that satellite radio would harm local radio stations.

In April 1992, Rothblatt resigned as CEO of Satellite CD Radio; Briskman, who designed the company's satellite technology, was then appointed chairman and CEO.

Six months later, Rogers Wireless co-founder Margolese, who had provided financial backing for the venture, acquired control of the company and succeeded Briskman. Margolese renamed the company CD Radio, and spent the next five years lobbying the FCC to allow satellite radio to be deployed, and the following five years raising $1.6 billion, which was used to build and launch three satellites into elliptical orbit from Kazakhstan in July 2000.

In 1997, after Margolese had obtained regulatory clearance and "effectively created the industry," the FCC also sold a license to the American Mobile Radio Corporation, which changed its name to XM Satellite Radio in October 1998. 

XM was founded by Lon Levin and Gary Parsons, who served as chairman until November 2009.

CD Radio purchased their license for $83.3 million, and American Mobile Radio Corporation bought theirs for $89.9 million. Digital Satellite Broadcasting Corporation and Primosphere were unsuccessful in their bids for licenses. 

Sky Highway Radio Corporation had also expressed interest in creating a satellite radio network, before being bought out by CD Radio in 1993 for $2 million. 

In November 1999, Margolese changed the name of CD Radio to Sirius Satellite Radio.

In November 2001, Margolese stepped down as CEO, remaining as chairman until November 2003, with Sirius issuing a statement thanking him "for his great vision, leadership and dedication in creating both Sirius and the satellite radio industry."

XM’s first satellite was launched on March 18, 2001 and its second on May 8, 2001 Its first broadcast occurred on September 25, 2001, nearly four months before Sirius. 

Sirius launched the initial phase of its service in four cities on February 14, 2002, expanding to the rest of the contiguous United States on July 1, 2002. The two companies spent over $3 billion combined to develop satellite radio technology, build and launch the satellites, and for various other business expenses. 

​Stating that it was the only way satellite radio could survive, Sirius and XM announced their merger on February 19, 2007, becoming Sirius XM. The FCC approved the merger on July 25, 2008, concluding that it was not a monopoly, primarily due to Internet audio-streaming competition.

Other Countries:

Africa and Eurasia:

WorldSpace was founded by Ethiopia-born lawyer Noah Samara in Washington, D.C., in 1990, with the goal of making satellite radio programming available to the developing world. 

On June 22, 1991, the FCC gave WorldSpace permission to launch a satellite to provide digital programming to Africa and the Middle East. WorldSpace first began broadcasting satellite radio on October 1, 1999, in Africa. India would ultimately account for over 90% of WorldSpace’s subscriber base. 

In 2008, WorldSpace announced plans to enter Europe, but those plans were set aside when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2008. In March 2010, the company announced it would be de-commissioning its two satellites (one served Asia, the other served Africa). 

Liberty Media, which owns 50% of Sirius XM Radio, had considered purchasing WorldSpace’s assets, but talks between the companies collapsed. The satellites are now transmitting educational data and operate under the name of Yazmi USA, LLC.

Ondas Media was a Spanish company which had proposed to launch a subscription-based satellite radio system to serve Spain and much of Western Europe, but failed to acquire licenses throughout Europe.

Onde Numérique was a French company which had proposed to launch a subscription-based satellite radio system to serve France and several other countries in Western Europe but has suspended its plans indefinitely, effective December, 2016.

​​System design:

Satellite radio uses the 2.3 GHz S band in North America for nationwide digital radio broadcasting. MobaHO! operated at 2.6 GHz. In other parts of the world, satellite radio uses part of the 1.4 GHz L band allocated for DAB.

Satellite radio subscribers purchase a receiver and pay a monthly subscription fee to listen to programming. They can listen through built-in or portable receivers in automobiles; in the home and office with a portable or tabletop receiver equipped to connect the receiver to a stereo system; or on the Internet. 

Reception is activated by obtaining the radio's unique ID and giving this to the service provider.

Ground stations transmit signals to the satellites which are 35,786 kilometers (22,236 miles) above the Equator in geostationary orbits. The satellites send the signals back down to radio receivers in cars and homes. This signal contains scrambled broadcasts, along with meta data about each specific broadcast.

The signals are unscrambled by the radio receiver modules, which display the broadcast information. In urban areas, ground repeaters enable signals to be available even if the satellite signal is blocked.

The technology allows for nationwide broadcasting, so that, for instance US listeners can hear the same stations anywhere in the country.

Content, availability and market penetration:

Satellite radio in the US offers commercial-free music stations, as well as news, sports, and talk, some of which include commercials. In 2004, satellite radio companies in the United States began providing background music to hotels, retail chains, restaurants, airlines and other businesses. 

On April 30, 2013, SiriusXM CEO Jim Meyer stated that the company would be pursuing opportunities over the next few years to provide in-car services through their existing satellites, including telematics (automated security and safety, such as stolen vehicle tracking and roadside assistance) and entertainment (such as weather and gas prices).

As of December 2020, SiriusXM had 34.7 million subscribers. This was primarily due to the company’s partnerships with automakers and car dealers. Roughly 60% of new cars sold come equipped with SiriusXM, and just under half of those units gain paid subscriptions. The company has long-term deals with the following:  ​
The presence of Howard Stern, whose show attracts over 12 million listeners per week, has also been a factor in the company’s steady growth. As of 2013, the main competition to satellite radio is streaming Internet services, such as Pandora and Spotify, as well as FM and AM Radio.

Satellite radio vs. other formats:

Satellite radio differs from AM, FM radio, and digital television radio (DTR) in the following ways (the table applies primarily to the United States):

Click on the image below to improve readability:
See also:







American Television Series That Began as Radio Series Pictured below:  9 classic TV shows that started out as radio programs
​"Television series that were originally based on radio series"

Below, you will find only those shows that were popular in the United States:
​0–9 A B C D E F G H I J L M O P ​​Q R S T W Y







Radio Fireside Chats (between 1933 and 1944) by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)  Pictured below: President Franklin D. Roosevelt Broadcasting his First Fireside Chat Regarding the Banking Crisis, from the White House, Washington, D.C.
The fireside chats were a series of evening radio addresses given by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, between 1933 and 1944. Roosevelt spoke with familiarity to millions of Americans about recovery from the Great Depression, the promulgation of the Emergency Banking Act in response to the banking crisis, the 1936 recession, New Deal initiatives, and the course of World War II.

On radio, he quelled rumors, countered conservative-dominated newspapers, and explained his policies directly to the American people. His tone and demeanor communicated self-assurance during times of despair and uncertainty. Roosevelt was regarded as an effective communicator on radio, and the fireside chats kept him in high public regard throughout his presidency. Their introduction was later described as a "revolutionary experiment with a nascent media platform."

​The series of chats were among the first 50 recordings made part of the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, which noted it as "an influential series of radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt utilized the media to present his programs and ideas directly to the public and thereby redefined the relationship between President Roosevelt and the American people in 1933."

Origin:
​
It cannot misrepresent or misquote. It is far-reaching and simultaneous in releasing messages given for transmission to the nation or for international consumption.
— Stephen Early, Roosevelt's press secretary, on the value of radio

Roosevelt believed that his administration's success depended upon a favorable dialogue with the electorate, possible only through methods of mass communication, and that it would allow him to take the initiative. The use of radio for direct appeals was perhaps the most important of Roosevelt's innovations in political communication.

Roosevelt's opponents had control of most newspapers in the 1930s and press reports were under their control and involved their editorial commentary. Historian Betty Houchin Winfield says, "He and his advisers worried that newspapers' biases would affect the news columns and rightly so." Historian Douglas B. Craig says that Roosevelt "offered voters a chance to receive information unadulterated by newspaper proprietors' bias" through the new medium of radio.

Roosevelt first used what would become known as fireside chats in 1929 as Governor of New York. Roosevelt was a Democrat facing a conservative Republican legislature, so during each legislative session he would occasionally address the residents of New York directly. His third gubernatorial address—April 3, 1929, on WGY radio—is cited by Roosevelt biographer Frank Freidel as being the first fireside chat.

​As president, Roosevelt began making the informal addresses on March 12, 1933, eight days after his inauguration. He had spent his first week coping with a month-long epidemic of bank closings that was hurting families nationwide. He closed the entire American banking system on March 6.

On March 9 Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act, which Roosevelt used to effectively create federal deposit insurance when the banks reopened. At 10 p.m. ET that Sunday night, on the eve of the end of the bank holiday, Roosevelt spoke to a radio audience of more than 60 million people, to tell them in clear language "what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be".

The result, according to economic historian William L. Silber, was a "remarkable turnaround in the public's confidence...The contemporary press confirms that the public recognized the implicit guarantee and, as a result, believed that the reopened banks would be safe, as the President explained in his first Fireside Chat."

Within two weeks people returned more than half of the cash they had been hoarding, and the first stock-trading day after the bank holiday marked the largest-ever one-day percentage price increase.

The term "fireside chat" was inspired by a statement by Roosevelt's press secretary, Stephen Early, who said that the president liked to think of the audience as a few people seated around his fireside. Listeners could Roosevelt in his study, in front of the fireplace, and imagine they were sitting beside him.  The term was coined by CBS broadcast executive Harry C. Butcher of the network's Washington, D.C., office, in a press release before the address of May 7, 1933. 

The phrase has often been credited to CBS journalist Robert Trout, but he said he was simply the first to use the phrase on the air. The title was picked up by the press and public and later used by Roosevelt himself, becoming part of American folklore.

Presentation:
​
It is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we build our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. ... I do not share these fears.  — Roosevelt's fireside chat of May 26, 1940

Roosevelt customarily made his address from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. He would arrive 15 minutes before air time to welcome members of the press, including radio and newsreel correspondents. NBC White House announcer Carleton E. Smith gave him a simple introduction: "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States."

Roosevelt most often began his talks with the words, "My friends" or "My fellow Americans", and he read his speech from a loose-leaf binder. Presidential advisor and speechwriter Samuel Rosenman recalled his use of common analogies and his care in avoiding dramatic oratory: "He looked for words that he would use in an informal conversation with one or two of his friends." Eighty percent of the words used were in the thousand most commonly used words in the English language.

The radio historian John Dunning wrote that "It was the first time in history that a large segment of the population could listen directly to a chief executive, and the chats are often credited with helping keep Roosevelt's popularity high."

Each radio address went through about a dozen drafts. Careful attention was also given to Roosevelt's delivery. When he realized that a slight whistle was audible on the air due to a separation between his two front lower teeth, Roosevelt had a removable bridge made.

Roosevelt is regarded as one of the most effective communicators in radio history.

Although the fireside chats are often thought of as having been a weekly event, Roosevelt in fact delivered just 31 addresses during his 4,422-day presidency. 

He resisted those who encouraged him to speak on radio more frequently, as shown in his response to Russell Leffingwell after the address of February 23, 1942: "The one thing I dread is that my talks should be so frequent as to lose their effectiveness. ... Every time I talk over the air it means four or five days of long, overtime work in the preparation of what I say. Actually, I cannot afford to take this time away from more vital things. I think we must avoid too much personal leadership—my good friend Winston Churchill has suffered a little from this.

Click here for a chronological List of Fireside Chats.

Reception:

​Roosevelt's radio audiences averaged 18 percent during peacetime, and 58 percent during the war. The fireside chats attracted more listeners than the most popular radio shows, which were heard by 30 to 35 percent of the radio audience. Roosevelt's fireside chat of December 29, 1940 was heard by 59 percent of radio listeners. His address of May 27, 1941, was heard by 70 percent of the radio audience.

An estimated 62,100,000 people heard Roosevelt's fireside chat on December 9, 1941—two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor—attaining a Hooper rating of 79, the record high for a Presidential address. 

Approximately 61,365,000 adults tuned on February 23, 1942, for Roosevelt's next fireside chat, in which he outlined the principal purposes of the war. 

In advance of the address Roosevelt asked citizens to have a world map in front of them as they listened to him speak. "I'm going to speak about strange places that many of them never heard of—places that are now the battleground for civilization," he told his speechwriters. "I want to explain to the people something about geography—what our problem is and what the overall strategy of the war has to be. … If they understand the problem and what we are driving at, I am sure that they can take any kind of bad news right on the chin."

Sales of new maps and atlases were unprecedented, while many people retrieved old commercial maps from storage and pinned them up on their walls.  The New York Times called the speech "one of the greatest of Roosevelt's career". 

Novelist Saul Bellow recalled hearing a fireside chat while walking in Chicago one summer evening. "The blight hadn't yet carried off the elms, and under them, drivers had pulled over, parking bumper to bumper, and turned on their radios to hear Roosevelt. They had rolled down the windows and opened the car doors.

Everywhere the same voice, its odd Eastern accent, which in anyone else would have irritated Midwesterners. You could follow without missing a single word as you strolled by. You felt joined to these unknown drivers, men and women smoking their cigarettes in silence, not so much considering the President's words as affirming the rightness of his tone and taking assurance from it."

This level of intimacy with politics made people feel as if they too were part of the administration's decision-making process and many soon felt that they knew Roosevelt personally. Most importantly, they grew to trust him. The conventional press grew to love Roosevelt because they too had gained unprecedented access to the goings-on of government.

While many people revered Roosevelt for giving the speeches, there are some who have seen them as more detrimental than beneficial. A major criticism given about the fireside chats was this: “It can be argued that it is impracticable, that it rests on false assumptions about the nature of the American people, public opinion and Congress, and that the benefits of such a course are likely to be out‐weighed by the evils.”

Fireside chats are a way to address the public directly, but besides that there is no way to control what the public does with that information, or how they use it. Another major critique among the usage of fireside chats is that by using them, one is more likely going to appeal to one side of an issue, essentially alienating anyone who is not in agreement.

“The President may appeal successfully to a minority, even a majority, for its support, but if he does so by simultaneously creating a bitter, recalcitrant opposition that denies his authority and would resort even to violence to resist his policies, can one say that this is a successful President?”

Legacy:

Every U.S. president since Roosevelt has delivered periodic addresses to the American people, first on radio, and later adding television and the Internet. The practice of regularly scheduled addresses began in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan started delivering a radio broadcast every Saturday. 

Currently, presidents use newer and more advanced forms of communication using specific social media outlets to project to bigger groups of people. Recent presidents also use news broadcast stations to their benefit to communicate more efficiently with bigger audiences.

President Obama used the social media network Twitter for the first time in 2009 to address the public, much like FDR did while giving his famous fireside chats.

Accolades:

The series of Roosevelt's 30 fireside chats was included with the first 50 recordings made part of the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. It is noted as "an influential series of radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt utilized the media to present his programs and ideas directly to the public and thereby redefined the relationship between the President and the American people."

See also:







google080f63eb62078b87.html