Early Radio Legislation

Once early radio legislation, such as the Radio Act of 1912, determined that radio would be a commercial system, the primary question facing the industry was: how will radio be funded? This was resolved by the introduction of advertising to the airwaves, which set a number of precedents upon which modern media, principally, television and the internet, receive funding create their programming. As expressed by Michele Hilmes in her work Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States and radio programs of the day, one major precedent set by radio was the goals and quality standards of advertising which resulted in indirect advertisements that maintained radio’s entertainment value. However, aspects of this precedent are …show more content…
Furthermore, some programming was developed specifically for the promotion of products or services. These are traditions that the internet has carried with it; however, the style of advertisement has changed from largely indirect to direct. In listening to early radio shows it is clear that a precedent has been set for the entertainment quality of ads and retainment of flow by leaving programs largely uninterrupted, and ads short and fairly infrequent. For example, The Jack Benny Show’s Halloween special of 1936 was sponsored by Jell-O but the only indication of this is the sponsorship proclamation that the company receives is at the beginning and the end of the show, other than that the advertisement is solely integrated advertising within the show's dramatic content. Furthermore, Hilmes explains that in early radio, “Direct advertisement as we know it was frowned upon, but direct advertisement… was entirely accepted and in fact provided most of the material for early radio” (Hilmes, 48). Even so, many found the ads to be blunt and intrusive, a tradition which continues today in regard to even more intrusive advertising practices such as pop-ups and automated video players in internet