“Tuning in the latest star
From the dashboard of my car
Cruisin' at 7
Push button heaven
Capturing memories from afar
In my car”
--From the song “That’s Why God
Made the Radio”
composed by Brian Wilson and recorded by the Beach Boys (2012)
Recently, I was looking for
something in a box of stuff on the floor of the closet in my home office, when
I came across a pocket-sized portable radio. I was curious whether it still
worked, so I put three new AA-size batteries in it, plugged in headphones and
turned it on.
As I turned the tuning dial, I
heard Ke$ha, Whitney Houston, some country songs and a Vivaldi Concerto from our
local public radio station. I listened to a variety of stations for about a
half hour. To be honest, I couldn’t remember the last time I listened to a
radio for more than a few minutes.
I have about 200 songs on my phone
and I listen to those or Spotify or Pandora while I’m working out. If I want
news or weather, I go to the web.
As I listened to this transistor
radio that must be more than 30 years old, I thought about how important radio
was when I was growing up.
As a teenager growing up in southwest
Ohio, the radio was the constant soundtrack in the car whenever I went anywhere
with friends. I lived between Dayton and Cincinnati, so there were several Top-40
format rock stations available.
Most car radios then had four or
five push-buttons to select stations and we could fill up most of them with our
favorites. So, when we were “crusin’ at 7” it was easy to switch away from a
song you didn’t like to try and find one you did.
Early in the 20th
century, radio was the first electronic mass medium and it played an important
part in the history of the country. Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi was the
first to successfully transmit telegraph messages wirelessly in 1894. In 1900, Brazilian
inventor Landell deMoura successfully transmitted a voice signal for 5 miles. On
Christmas Eve in 1906, Reginald Fessenden broadcast the first actual
entertainment radio program. It featured a Bible reading and a violin rendition
of “O Holy Night” that was heard on ships off the east coast of the U.S.
By 1920, several stations in the
U.S. were licensed and began broadcasting news, entertainment and special
events. Station KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast election returns on November 2,
1920, and listeners in western Pennsylvania learned of the election of Ohioan
Warren Harding many hours before the rest of the country.
In the late 1920s, the first major
national radio networks were formed and provided a full schedules of music,
comedy and drama programs that were available nationwide throughout the 30s and
40s. In the 1950s, television supplanted network radio as the prominent entertainment
medium. Now, internet music radio and video services are supplanting broadcast radio
and TV.
Obviously, the myriad of choices
and the ability to select specific artists and genres of music on internet
stations led to the diminished role of broadcast radio.
Still, as I listen to Pandora and Spotify
for free, there is an element of chance. Even though I’ve selected a certain
artist or time period, I can still wonder what the next song will be. Just like
it was when we listened to the radio way way back when.
And I think: “That’s Why God Made
the Radio.”
See the music video on You Tube:
