Blog Assignment #2: Radio

Radio has had a long history. According, to our class lecture it all started with Marconi in 1895. While he only sent Morse code it was still considered the first truly wireless transmission. In the 1900, the audion was created by Reginald Fessenden in order to amplify the weak AM signal, but he did not understand his invention. A few years later Edwin Armstrong created the Regenerative circuit which amplified the AM signal even more. Fessenden then copied Armstrong’s technology and called it the oscillating audion. Armstrong took Fessenden to court, but the Supreme Court ruled Fessenden the true inventor. Having never got credit for his invention, Armstrong then decided to let it go and make something that will blow AM out of the water. In 1933, Armstrong figured out a way to modulate frequencies of a radio wave and thus creating FM radio.  Unfortunately for Armstrong, The RCA Company, finding out about his invention, filed a patent for their version of FM radio. In 1954, a heartbroken and penniless Armstrong commits suicide. However, the story of radio true inventor end on a good note, Armstrong’s wife in 1967 successfully wins the patent back for her late husband. Now that you now the history of radio it is time to understand the impact that it has had in society and in my life.

Radio was and continues to be huge. In the first three decades it had been recorded that 90% of families had a radio in their home, making the estimated listening audience to around 300,000,000. The most important impact that radio has is it connecting ability. Radio broadcasting permitted a mass array of individuals across regional, class, ethnic, and racial lines to experience the same live event at the same time…it was estimated that 20,000,000 people could be found tuned in simultaneously to the same program (Pandora,1998) This brought the nation close and united them in a single activity. It connected people from the farthest corners of our nation. It has been used in wartime and in times of peace. It has captivated audiences and transported them into other worlds. For me, radio is something I can always turn to. I enjoy having the ability to listen to anything I want. If someone says something I don’t like or a bad song comes on a certain station I have the ability to change the station. It’s empowering. Even though most of us take this for granted, hopefully now after learning it long and rich history and impact on society, we can all learn to appreciate the tremendous achievement that is Radio.

Pandora, K. (1998), “Mapping the New Mental World Created by Radio”: Media Messages, Cultural Politics, and Cantril and Allport's The Psychology of Radio. Journal of Social Issues, 54: 7–27.

Audio Recording

Even though audio recording is a technology that is so pervasive in our lives that it has become something we have taken for granted, we must not forget how important in society. There is not one piece of communication technology that has not benefitted from the advances made in audio recording. Over time, each new technology has made new strides in capacity and quality.  

Phonoautograph

It all started with Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1857, who invented the phonoautograph. The phonautograph consists of three parts: the horn, where the speaker talks into; the membrane and stylus, which vibrates as the speaker talks, and the paper which is written on by the vibrating stylus. The phonoautograph was able to draw the sound, but it was not able to play it back. 

Phonograph
In 1877, Thomas Edison improved upon Martinville's design by making it able to record and playback audio. The phonograph essentially had the same parts and the phonoautograph but the main difference was that the paper in the phonoautograph was replaced by an impressionable cylinder made of tin foil or wax. Edison was then able to use these cylinders, through electronic means, to playback the audio.

Gramophone
Ten years later, Emile Berliner invented the gramophone. The main difference between the gramophone and phonograph was the recording material. As said before the phonograph used wax cylinders to record the audio, the gramophone instead used flat discs. There was no difference in sound quality between the two. The main reason why the gramophones discs became more popular is because they were cheaper to mass produce.

Magnetic Tape

According to the text, the Germans used magnetic tape recordings in World War II, but the technology was captured by the allies. This type of recording works by magnetizing a strip of plastic coated in iron oxide, the varying strength of the magnetization creates the recording. Magnetic tape recordings soon would become very popular. They were first played in reel-to-reel players, then in 8-track tapes, and then finally in cassettes.    

Compact Discs

In the 1980s, CDs were introduced as a new digital way to listen to audio. To record on a compact disc, the audio is first converted into a string of ones and zeros, and then transcribed onto the disc as either a hole or bump, respectively. To playback the audio, CD players will shoot a laser onto the disc; the laser will either reflect back or be deflected depending on the transcription.