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Today radio commercials are what pay for the expensive free service delivered to the masses. It's expensive
because reaching thousands of people via the airwaves requires expensive towers that consume costly
energy. But back in the 1920s when the radio industry was just getting started, energy was fairly cheap.
The gloominess of unpredictable utility rates didn't really concern many people until the 1970s energy crisis that seemed to never end. So radio commercials, despite interrupting the programming that people tune in to hear, are the reason radio operators can stay in business. Aside from public radio stations funded by listener donations and government subsidies, the radio business must attract enough advertisers to justify its programming, or it's forced to change the format. As radio sets were spreading throughout the culture in the roaring twenties, the early business model for radio was no commercials. Radio owners had not even thought up the concept yet of an audio commercial, although most people understood what advertising was from seeing it in newspapers and magazines. Also, radio stations didn't have recording equipment yet to record commercials. The recording industry existed, but it mainly marketed music and speeches. Another reason why radio owners resisted commercial announcements in the beginning was they feared listeners would tune out. Early Radio DevelopmentIn the early days radio owners were typically newspapers, churches and schools, along with retail outlets that marketed radio sets. KFBK, for example, was one of the first few radio stations in Sacramento in 1922. At first its owner was Kimball-Upson, a store that sold electronics parts including radio sets. In order to promote the new station, the store partnered with local newspaper The Sacramento Union. Then by 1925 after the newspaper ended its relationship with KFBK, the station partnered with the other daily newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, which bought the station in 1929. During much of that era radio was considered a promotional tool for something else, not necessarily a revenue generator.The first radio commercial, according to various radio historians and an NPR article, aired on the AT&T-owned AM station WEAF in New York City. It was a real estate ad placed for $50 by the Queensboro Corporation of New York. That was in 1922, but radio commercials didn't become common until later in the decade. Broadcast Advertising reported 5 million radio sets were sold that year. At that time the U.S. population was a little over 100 million. A few years earlier hardly anyone listened to radio by comparison. In 1926 the number of radio sets sold in the United States reached 200 million and then over 300 million in 1928, according to the same publication. But WEAF's main revenue model was exactly what AT&T did with its phone business. It allowed listeners to pay for placing calls over the air, except for an audience. AT&T earned $550 in sales in 1922 from trading air time for money. AT&T sold the station in 1926 to NBC and exited the radio industry. WEAF then became NBC's flagship station. By 1930 the number of households that owned a radio had reached 40 percent of the population. Radio became a family fixture in the home throughout the subsequent Great Depression. How Milling Mixed With RadioOne of the first radio stations to air commercials was WCCO in Minneapolis during the roaring twenties. The call letters stood for its owner, a flour milling company called Washburn-Crosby Company, which incorporated in 1856. The company acquired Twin Cities radio station WLAG in 1924 then changed the call letters. It had been the region's first radio station when it signed on the air with 5,000 watts in September 1922. The company saw radio as a vehicle to promote its food products.Washburn-Crosby set out to expand its marketing beyond flour and use industrial machinery to create new breakfast cereals. During the 1920s many new cereal brands began to appear on the market, such as Washburn-Crosby Wheat Flakes. Initially, overall sales were so slow, the company considered dropping the product. Then one of the firm's marketers pointed out that sales were actually strong strong where it was advertised on radio. So the company saved the cereal, renaming it Wheaties. On Christmas Eve 1926, the company aired a live barbershop quartet who sang a jingle for Wheaties. It was sung to the melody of a popular jazz hit at the time. Many historians consider it to be the first commercial to air on radio. The campaign proved to be successful, so the company started associating Wheaties with sports advertising on WCCO, promoting the minor league baseball team the Minneapolis Millers. With the help of an advertising agency, the company adopted the slogan "Wheaties - The Breakfast of Champions." WCCO joined the first successful national radio network, NBC Red in 1927, becoming one of the network's original 21 stations. After Washburn-Crosby merged with three other mills in 1928, the new company became cereal manufacturer General Mills, which went on to become a major national radio sponsor. Soon Wheaties began to appear in many radio commercials during sporting events across the nation. General Mills broadened its radio advertising in the 1930s by sponsoring national radio shows such as Jack Armstrong and the first soap opera called Betty and Bob. In 1932 CBS acquired WCCO from General Mills. National Radio Network AdvertisingThe rise of four national radio networks helped the modern radio advertising model crystalize. First came NBC in 1926, followed by CBS the next year, in which NBC launched a second network. The original network was called NBC Red while its younger sister network was called NBC Blue. These networks face new competition in 1934 with the arrival of the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS). These national radio networks attracted independent production companies and national sponsors. It became common in the 1930s through the early 1960s for national radio shows to be named after its sponsor.The depression years turned out to be very productive for the radio industry, as it delivered free entertainment into the home during tough economic times. By 1933 about 9 million homes included radios. That year a book called A Decade of Radio Advertising by Herman S. Hettinger was published, examining the rapid growth in sponsors buying radio air time. Several other books listed in the Library of Congress during the late twenties and early thirties documented the rising radio advertising industry. An example was a how-to book in 1927 called Using Radio in Sales Promotion: A Book for Advertisers, Station Managers and Broadcasting Artists. One of the pioneering trade publications for radio advertising in the late twenties was Broadcast Advertising, run by Gustav Stamm, based in Chicago. In its 1929 issues, the magazine focused on promoting the value of advertising on several radio stations across America via the NBC and CBS networks. The concept included publishing audience surveys to capitalize on the popularity of specific stations. One of its early ads boasted that Chicago station WLS was the favorite of farmers by a 2-to-1 margin. Radio stations had farmers on their radar as advertising prospects by virtue of the fact farmers were in remote areas but had to sell crops to the masses, making radio a good fit. In 1933 the publication was acquired by Broadcasting Magazine. Starting with Live AnnouncementsEarly radio ad copy was read live over the air. Soon it became clear that listening to radio ads was a different experience from seeing print ads. Radio ads required more emotion mixed in to stand out from other content. An April 1929 article in Broadcast Advertising stated that there were three types of copy used successfully by radio advertisers: 1) a sponsored program linked with the name of a product, 2) commercial announcements with news value and 3) copy for press agents. The article warned against the abuse of announcements that compromise the dignity of the station and the audience.Another warning from the article was that straight advertising was widely misused, making it offensive to audiences. As an added deterrent, that same article called "Keeping Broadcast Copy Within Bounds" by R.S. Kinkead gave a heads up that the government didn't like it either. The article claimed most straight commercial announcements fail to fall within the category of public interest, convenience or necessity, so "they are looked upon with marked disfavor by the Federal Radio Commmission." The writer countered the attack, however, saying advertising should not be abandoned, but instead be prepared with news value. An an example, a new car manufactured by a well-known brand has news value in terms of its design, performance and pricing. Ironically, Kinkead's commentary declared, "The most subtle form of radio advertising is akin to the propaganda injected into the columns of newspapers by press agents." He went on to emphasize the instructional value related to using household products. NAB Establishes Radio Advertising Code of EthicsIn March 1929 the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) met in Chicago to adopt a Code of Ethics for radio advertising to protect the public from harmful commercials. This code called for sensitivity by the broadcaster toward political, social and religious views of the community. It further instructed that no broadcaster shall grant radio access to clients that are dishonest, fraudulent or dangerous. The code also reiterated the Radio Act of 1927 mandate that all paid material be clearly identified. Another part of the code prohibited radio stations from making derogatory comments about other stations.As far as programming, the NAB promoted the idea that content before 6:00 pm should be more of a business orientation, whereas after 6:00 pm programming should be steered more toward recreation and relaxation. Consequently, the code stated commercial announcements should not be broadcast from 7 pm to 11 pm. Essentially, the NAB's Code of Ethics recommended to Congress echoed the Radio Act of 1927 with a sharper focus on details. Survey Says Music Wins on RadioNBC teamed up with Dr. Daniel Starch of Harvard University to survey 17,000 families east of the Rockies about their views on radio in the spring of 1929. This survey was influential in confirming what many radio operators learned on their own about their fast-developing industry. The study showed that radio listeners generally had a preference for music. So many popular radio network programs then funded by national advertisers included music or a musical background.Orchestral music came out on top, as big band leaders such as Benny Goodman, Guy Lombardo and Fred Waring became radio hosts on national shows over the next decade. In large metropolitan areas, classical music and opera were more popular. Smaller communities showed more interest in religious services, farming reports and children's shows. Most of these findings were common assumptions then, but the survey helped confirm them as research for stations to pitch to advertisers. Radio Economic PuzzleOne of the selling points for radio advertising was that the cost of installing a radio set in the home was fairly expensive. So households with radios tended to be affluent, which was exactly the audience many radio advertisers desired to target.Radio had been a medium that covered the stock market throughout the roaring twenties, which was part of its excitement. Many people listened to radio on sets made by RCA, which was a booming company reflecting innovative new technology. The most popular radio commercials then were paid for by national brands on national networks. Then in October 1929 even what had been reliably strong stocks like RCA crashed. Soon many people became financially challenged due to high unemployment and drained assets. FDR Sets Stage for Selling Politics on RadioOne of the early national radio stars was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected president in 1932 with his "New Deal" to reorganize government as a remedy for the depression. Part of this reorganization involved replacing the Federal Radio Commission with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which changed the entire face of radio within the next decade.The new radio regulations particularly emphasized public service as an integral part of the radio experience. FDR has been a radio star on NBC and CBS doing "Fireside Chats" while he was governor of New York. These shows prepared him for the presidential election and his administration, in which he continue his Fireside Chats on national radio. Ironically, Roosevelt trounced incumbent President Herbert Hoover, who had been the original regulator overseeing the radio industry as Commerce Secretary earlier in the decade. Even hiring advertising/PR expert Edward Bernays ("The Father of Public Relations") for campaign advice didn't help overcome people blaming him for the depression. Despite being a staunch conservative capitalist, Hoover warned that "radio lends itself to propaganda far more easily than the press." FDR's radio audience reached millions, setting the stage for how politicians use media. FDR enjoyed media so much he was also the guy, along with NBC owner David Sarnoff, to introduce television at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. But soon World War II broke out and the U.S. government urged the TV industry to suspend development until after war, as the networks complied. In the meantime, the "Golden Age of Radio" enjoyed its final decade of being America's most consumed form of media in the 1940s. After the war, television development resumed, as TV began to overshadow radio in the early 1950s. So it was in 1952 when the first political campaign ad aired on TV, which was an animated "I Like Ike" ad for Dwight Eisenhower. Radio Commercials with JinglesThe sound of radio commercials evolved by the 1950s to be prerecorded with more sophisticated production elements. The first radio jingle is credited to General Mills for its 1926 Wheaties commercial, but jingles became much more prevalent the following decade as Pepsi Cola helped pioneer that field.By the sixties it was common for brands to contract with famous musicians to make catchy radio commercial jingles to help associate pop culture experiences with famous products. Some of the most well known advertising campaigns with jingles included the "Pepsi Generation" and "Coca-Cola, It's the Real Thing." Starting in 1971 the U.S. government began banning tobacco in radio and television advertising. It helped reduce deadly cigarette habits, which were known to cause cancer. Other regulatory measures have impacted advertising content since that time. It's bizarre now to study media history and learn that tobacco companies dominated radio and television advertising until they were kicked off the air after many decades. During radio's golden age, Americans were intimately attached to their radios as a form of family room entertainment. Radio shows were a significant part of people's everyday lives, whether it involved listening to dramas, big bands or variety shows. Here's a list of some of the most popular radio programs and sponsors during radio's most dominant era:
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