Radio: History, Evolution, and Impact on Music

Posted on Dec 18, 2024 in Music

Radio

Etymology: From Latin radius, meaning “ray of light.” In the eighteenth century, it was applied to the radiation (emission) of the element radium.

In 1888, the German physicist Heinrich Hertz discovered radio waves. Hertz also gave his name to the physical unit of vibrations per second (Hertz), which determines the pitch of sounds and the wavelength. Between 1895 and 1896, the Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi developed a method for producing and receiving electromagnetic waves. In 1898, he managed to transmit messages at a distance, and in 1901, he communicated across the Atlantic. A new era in communication was born, with decisive consequences for music.

Radio Waves

They are waves of electromagnetic energy of different lengths, vibrating at different speeds. The average frequency is called vibration.

Stations use three kinds of waves: short, medium, and long.

  • The short waves (SW) travel thousands of kilometers. Therefore, they are primarily used for international broadcasts.
  • The medium waves (MW) travel hundreds of kilometers. They are used for national or regional broadcasts.
  • The long waves (LW) can travel about 2000 kilometers. They are used in national broadcasts.

Frequency modulation (FM) uses much higher frequencies, allowing for stereo broadcasts. It was invented in 1932 by the American Edwin Armstrong. This frequency greatly reduces interference and provides better sound quality.

Each station uses its own frequency band to avoid interfering with other stations (in many cities, there is a problem of dial saturation, as in Madrid). Each receiver selects one of them and produces sound when it converts radio waves into electrical energy that reaches the speakers.

Evolution of the Radio

The first broadcasts date back to 1919, the year of the creation of RCA (Radio Corporation of America). From there, other major radio stations arose that promoted and disseminated music through programming live performances, concerts, forming bands (such as RTVE, Bavarian Radio, Swedish Radio, etc.), and issuing various music programs, both recreational and informative.

Since the first third of the twentieth century, radio has been the largest medium for music dissemination worldwide. In the 1930s and 1940s, it became truly popular, but television later took away a large part of its audience.

Spain: The first radio station was Radio Barcelona in 1924. Today, our country has more than 2,600 radio stations.

In 1955, the transistor radio was created. It soon sold like hotcakes (France: 261,000 in 1958; more than two million in 1961).

Radio is a living, immediate medium (high speed for news reporting), and it offers more freedom of expression than others. Many programs are live (unlike television), and listener participation is common with a simple phone call.

Since 1987, there has been a digital audio broadcasting (DAB) standard, with the quality of a CD. Currently, many of our Spanish and foreign stations use it.

Presence of Music on the Radio

Although the origins of music on the radio were merely to fill gaps between programs, it can be said that music is omnipresent in the world of radio. Since it lacks images, music is essential for all kinds of moments and programs: jingles, ads, serials, concerts, musical programs, interviews, and news.

Currently, radio in a big city offers a wide variety of musical programs whose styles range from classical music or jazz to Spanish music, pop, rock, salsa, flamenco, and so on. It has been affirmed that radio is a “huge concert hall.” There are even works that were born from radio contests and compositions for this medium.

With the advent of FM, there was a boom in Spanish music radio, with many programs designed to promote popular songs. They would be called “factories of success,” based on a very simple mechanism: flood the radio with a song until the listener gets used to it, experiences anxiety to hear it, and purchases it (or downloads it from file-sharing services).

Regarding classical music, many countries have one or two specialized stations. In Spain, it is Radio 2, the classical music station of RNE. It is received in the Madrid area on 96.5 and 98.8 of the FM dial.

Regarding folk music, some people think that the influence of the transistor was instrumental in the loss of traditional Spanish songs.

The radio formula is the most widely used modern musical-radio system.

Radio Format

It is the predominant type of station that currently broadcasts all recent pop music. It has a large popular acceptance, which is the key to its success. For example: Kiss FM, Los 40, Onda Melodía, etc. Its operation is very organized; nothing is left to chance.

Mechanism of “selling” records and singers through radio, radio formula programs. The longest-running is Los 40 Principales, which works like this:

  1. A weekly meeting is called, attended by representatives of the station from all parts of Spain and record companies.
  2. In this meeting, the new releases are heard.
  3. It is negotiated and discussed which of them will be included in the list of features, with a vote at the end to determine the final list.
  4. The songs are broadcast frequently during the following weeks, and depending on sales and the opinion of listeners (who often call the radio), it is decided whether they go up or down on the list. The number of times a song has been played to date is called “rotation.” The song must be on the air for 8 weeks with different levels of rotation (Red, Green, Blue, and Black). The entire operation is successful if the song reaches number one.

Variants

There are many variables within the range of musical radio formulas, and there are dozens of names to categorize them. However, the essential styles are:

  • CHR: Contemporary Hit Radio, the most youthful model. Focused on an audience under thirty years old. Its programming is based on current topics, and the presenters become record prescribers. Los 40 Principales and Cadena 100 respond to this format. Subtypes exist within CHR, such as CHR-Pop, CHR-Rhythmic, CHR-Dance, CHR-80s, CHR-Spanish, Tejano, etc.
  • AC – Adult Contemporary. This category includes Kiss FM, the station that has achieved the largest audience in the shortest time in Spain—it arrived in 2002 and already has around one and a half million listeners. Songs from the last three decades are broadcast by announcers who try to be mere companions to the listener.
  • AOR (Adult Oriented Rock/Radio). Stations that play hard rock.
  • Urban. Radio with less commercial styles than the previous ones but with great acceptance by the urban public. Stations that play rap, dance, funk, etc.