When did FM radio become mainstream?

The popularity of FM radio grew in the 1950s and 1960s, as the FCC opened up more channels to broadcasters and FM sets became cheaper and more readily available. Car companies introduced FM car radios in 1963.

When did radio overtake?

During the Golden Age of Radio it had a major cultural and financial impact on the country. However, the rise of television broadcasting in the 1950s relegated radio to a secondary status, as much of its programming and audience shifted to the new “sight joined with sound” service.

Why was radio so popular during the Great Depression?

Radios provided a much-needed distraction from the hardships of the Great Depression. They provided a social outlet as well. In some areas, neighbors would gather from miles around to listen to a favorite program playing on the one set in town. Radios provided reassurance.

What led to the rise of FM radio?

In the early 1960s, FM began to benefit from increased investment, as broadcasters looked to it to expand their markets; television had been built out by this point, and the shift to music as the dominant format of AM in the wake of television and the rise of rock ‘n’ roll had led to an AM band so crowded that the FCC …

When did FM radio become more popular than AM radio?

Radios started to have an FM band included with the AM band in the late 1950s and 1960s. By the 1970s, FM audience size surpassed that of AM, and the gap has been growing ever since.

When was FM radio developed?

Armstrong built the first full-scale FM station in 1939, transmitting to experimental receivers from “a 400-ft. tower on the Hudson River Palisades at Alpine, N.J.”

How did radio broadcasting start?

The first voice and music signals heard over radio waves were transmitted in December 1906 from Brant Rock, Massachusetts (just south of Boston), when Canadian experimenter Reginald Fessenden produced about an hour of talk and music for technical observers and any radio amateurs who might be listening.

Why was the radio so important in the 1930s?

For the radio, the 1930s was a golden age. Radio may have had such mass appeal because it was an excellent way of uniting communities of people, if only virtually. It provided a great source of entertainment with much loved comedians such as Jack Benny and Fred Allen making their names on the wireless.

Why is the radio so important?

Radio broadcasts can provide real-time information, broadcasted 24 hours a day to provide the most recent updates to listeners. Stations have the ability to reach across borders and become a source of information where reliable news is scarce.