WEBVTT - AM Radio: Solid Gold 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:03.200 Everybody, we have a big announcement, but Josh, I think 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:05.359 you need to do your traditional tour announcement. 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:09.600 COURU, there we go. That means it's tour time, everybody. 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.399 We took off twenty twenty five because it just felt 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:13.880 like the right thing to do. But we are hitting 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.920 the road again next year and we are super excited. 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:19.759 Yes get this. So we're gonna start hitting the road 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.279 in January, starting January twenty seventh at the Paramount Theater 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:25.800 in Denver. The next day we'll be at the Paramount 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.520 Theater in Seattle, and on January twenty ninth, we'll be 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.840 back to our beloved Sketch Fest at the Sydney Goldstein 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:34.839 Theater in San Francisco, CA. 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:36.800 That's right, that's our January run. 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.720 And then in April we're going to hit the Midwest 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:41.880 and we're going to some cities we haven't been to yet. 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.760 And I'm super excited because on April. 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:48.560 Sixteenth, we'll be in Madison, Wisconsin at the Orpheum Theater. 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.560 On the seventeenth, we'll be back in Chicago at the 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:55.000 Chicago Auditorium, a city we love, and then to my 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.760 wife's some town. Finally, April eighteenth and Akron, Ohio at 0:00:58.760 --> 0:00:59.480 the Goodyear Theater. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.560 That's right, and get this for the January leg. Tickets 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.360 are on sale now and we're actually running a pre 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.400 sale today November eighteenth. You can use our code sysk 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.760 live to get tickets early. Go to stuff youshould Know 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.120 dot com. It'll have all the tickets and info that 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.680 you need. And you can buy Sketch Fest tickets right 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:19.400 now as well. 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:23.720 That's right. Sketch Fest on sale the sixteenth of November. 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:26.920 There's no presale on that one. General on sale is 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:28.360 happening as we speak. 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.400 That's right. So we'll see you guys in twenty twenty six. 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:33.840 We're really excited to get back out there. We hope 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.600 you're excited too. If you're not, just bake it when 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:37.560 you see us. 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.920 That's right, and pay attention the Great White North because 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:42.400 there is more to come this summer. 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:44.880 That's right. So we'll see you soon. 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:54.760 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.360 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.280 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we're just keeping it 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:08.200 old school, real mellow style, which is what I understand. 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.040 All of the kids say today, that's right, and hey, 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.880 before we get going, this is probably the perfect episode 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:19.760 to mention that our episode on how Vinyl Works that 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.200 was released on Vinyl is being reprinted because that thing 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:25.880 sold out and I think people would love to have 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:27.160 one of these things for Christmas. 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.880 Yeah, we're releasing it just in time for the holidays. 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:32.359 As a matter of fact, it's coming out on Black Friday, 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.200 November twenty eighth this year, which also happens to be 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.560 record store Day from what I understand, and our friends 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.919 at Born Losers Records put this out again. They did 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.200 the first one, did a magnificent job, of course, and 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:51.040 they printed three hundred red and black marble records that 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:58.040 are just beautiful. Those are available online at syskvinyl dot com. 0:02:58.160 --> 0:02:59.200 Yeah, and then. 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.800 For the actual store where you have to leave your home, 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.880 probably put on a cap because it's late November, maybe 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:09.320 a coat, go down to your local indie record store. Yeah, 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.679 they do it. There might be a chance that they 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.919 have one of the three hundred Gold Royalty records. Those 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:17.840 are exclusives for record stores. 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:19.880 Well, you can bet your boopie I'll be going to 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:24.120 my local record store and supporting ourselves by buying one. 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.680 That's awesome. You should draw more people by just spending 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:29.360 like a full day there and telling. 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.960 You, oh, yeah, maybe I could work something out with 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.720 the wack Street here in town. I can go sit 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:36.560 up there and those guys cannot talk to me. 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.160 We'll see if we can get a cutout of you too, 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.360 to stand behind you while you sit there. 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:43.320 That's great. 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.320 I'm really excited this is back out though, because people 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:46.560 really seem to enjoy it. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.360 And what is it again, sysk vinyl dot com. 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.800 That's right awesome and thanks again to our friends at 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.640 Born Losers. You guys are great. Yeah, they're the best. 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.440 Yeah they are, okay, Chuck. So yeah, this is a 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.920 really good episode to shout out Records because we're talking 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.760 about AM radio and we talked a little bit about 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:11.000 it in our Beautiful Music Short stuff AKAABM. 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:12.360 That's right, I'll. 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:17.520 Never get over. But there's a lot more to AM radio, 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.560 And in fact, I didn't realize this. Julia helped us 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:25.239 with this one, and I didn't realize before that AM 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:29.919 broadcasting basically set the standards, yeah, for all sorts of 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:35.040 different things like how news is presented, soap operas, all 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.560 sorts of different stuff that lasted for decades and decades 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:42.080 and decades. It all started with AM radio because ultimately 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.600 it was the very first form of mass communication that 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:46.479 was not printed. 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.200 Yeah, I mean Top forty radio started on AM, which 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.240 is I mean, I think these days the kids, if 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.640 they hear of AM radio probably either don't know what 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:58.320 it is, or may not if they have as we'll 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.440 see a newer model card especially ev may not even 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.760 have AM radio or a radio in their house like 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.159 a transistor radio or something or receiver, but they may 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.559 think AM radio is as like you know, news talk, 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.960 sports talk, maybe some foreign language stations, maybe some if 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:21.200 they're driving through a rural community, some like weird Farm 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.760 Report or something that they've never heard. I remember that, 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.279 And that's that's kind of what AM radio became. But 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.960 it launched Top forty. It was the up until like 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.840 nineteen seventy eight. It beat FM, and FM had been 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.080 around since what like the thirties, Yeah, it had. 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.760 And everybody said, nope, we're really happy with AM and 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.200 stuck with it even after FM came around for quite 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:47.400 a while. But let's talk about this because, like you 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:49.160 hit on some really good points. So We're going to 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:51.080 touch on all of those, but let's start at the 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:55.520 very very beginning when AM radio really started to come around. 0:05:55.560 --> 0:06:01.479 Because people had been messing with AM broadcasting since the 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.600 very early nineteen hundreds. There were some inventions that all 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:09.240 kind of came together around the same time. And I 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.880 do not understand how this could possibly happen, but putting 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.920 these disparate inventions together and figuring out how to broadcast 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:20.920 radio waves that have encoded sound in them is just 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.120 I mean, hats off. That's like mad genius stuff. But 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.960 that's what happened in the very early nineteen hundreds. 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:31.040 Yeah, there were people broadcasting AM signals at the time, 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:33.479 and you know, the only people that had these AM 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.600 receivers that could listen were like soldiers at sea or 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.080 something like that. This was before they made it into 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:43.760 the homes of Americans that pause during World War One 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.000 because they said, hey, we can't have you broadcasting your 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.760 daughter playing violin, even though our soldiers love it that 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.440 are out at sea. We need to kind of lock 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.360 this down for now. But starting in about nineteen twenty, 0:06:55.400 --> 0:07:00.200 in fact, exactly nineteen twenty was when commercial broadcast AM 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.679 radio started with KDKA Pittsburgh. 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:06.200 Yeah, that was the very first one. I think that 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:10.480 they read the results of the Warren Harding election. I 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.560 can't remember the other guy's name, somebody Cox. Warren Harding 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.920 obviously won. But right after that, I mean, like, this 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:22.680 was so clearly a groundbreaking medium. It was basically for 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.160 the people in the nineteen twenties. It was what people 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.640 in the early nineties experience with internet. Yeah, it was 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.880 almost like, holy cow, I can't like, you can't even 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.000 begin to imagine all the different ways that this thing 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.400 is going to change the world. You just know it's 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.640 going to change the world. That's kind of what happened. 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:45.000 And so right after that first broadcast, it just exploded 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.040 all over the world. And one reason why it exploded 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.240 all over the world is because the person who's considered 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:55.920 the father of radio, Gulielmo Marconi. He set up companies everywhere, 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.760 so very quickly radio stations started to develop. And just 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.800 a year or two after Katie Ka went on the. 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.600 Air, I'm, by the way, a little mad at you 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:10.400 because ever since you sent me the Marconi tidbit this morning, 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.280 I cannot get we built the city on rock. 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:15.040 And roll out of my head. 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.840 How waii. That's that's odd. 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:25.040 Marconi played the mamba Oh never do the radio. Yeah, 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.800 And I mean, I hate that song so much and 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:30.880 I can't get it out of my head, all because 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.280 I just saw the word Marconi typed in an email. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:36.280 I always thought, seriously, it was some gibberish I had 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:37.880 in my head. I knew it wasn't right, but it 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:42.200 was like in La says lebar something like that. I 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.920 had no idea Marconi was name check. But that's appropriate. 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.080 Yes, I'm not really mad at you, but boy, that 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.160 thing really gets rooted in your head pretty well. But 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.000 like you said, by the early nineteen twenties, everybody was 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.280 on board. In nineteen twenty two, in fact, AT and 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.440 T had the first radio network built when linked to 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.959 thirty eight radio stations by phone lines, and could broadcast, 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.280 you know, weaf out of New York all around the country. 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.600 So like people, it was it was literally, like you said, 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:11.880 like the. 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.840 Internet, it was American life before and life after as 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:16.920 far as AM radio. 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:18.920 Goes, well, we'll put it and not just American life too. 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.000 Like this, like I said, it spread around the world 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.080 very quickly. The BBC started broadcasting in nineteen twenty two 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:30.560 Australia's first radio station, two SB, which is now ABC Sydney. 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.000 That's they started in nineteen twenty three. Canada got its 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.000 first one in nineteen thirty two XWA out of Montreal. 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.240 It was just just like the Internet, It's not like 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.520 it was just one country. It was everybody who got 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:48.400 involved because it was a humanity altering invention. 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:50.079 Yeah, for sure. 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.160 By the late nineteen twenties, the major networks had launched, 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.359 and you know, these were radio networks NBC and CBS. 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.720 These were international broadcasts from the un United States all 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:05.320 over the world, and you know they worked by you know, 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:06.200 you had to have a receiver. 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:07.839 So early on, you know. 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:12.840 Vacuum tubes worked with radio receivers connected to loud speakers 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.000 and that's how you could hear things. Later on, transistor 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.959 radios came along and that's what really changed the game 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:22.559 because that's when it was like TV's for the olds, 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.400 the young people, we had these little radios in their pocket. 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.319 And then they started, you know, putting radios in cars. 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.040 But it's funny to think about a time when like, yeah, 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.120 TV's out outdated, right, and we want AM radio in 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:35.520 our pocket. 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.800 And then it came roaring back eventually thanks to LA Law. 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.959 You mentioned something that I think is worth calling out too. 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.720 You mentioned that there's a speaker that converts that sound 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:51.080 signal back into actual acoustics sound. They weren't headphones, they 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.120 were speakers. So that meant that early radio was a 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.960 thing that the family gathered around. It was a social 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.760 activity listening to all the stuff that was on the 0:10:59.880 --> 0:11:04.760 ra which is really important because I mean that's definitely 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:08.480 become fragmented and fractured today as it you know, personal 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.440 media has become like more and more available. But that 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:15.400 was like whatever was on the radio right then, probably 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:17.320 whatever your parents wanted to listen to. That's what the 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:18.480 family was listening to. 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:20.440 Yeah, for better or worse. 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:24.040 I think by nineteen thirty there were forty percent of 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.280 US homes had AM receivers. Hopefully most of them had speakers. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.400 Wise they just sit there and look at it. There 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.400 were more than six hundred radio stations in nineteen thirty, 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.920 obviously all of them AM. But like we mentioned, FM 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.439 came along pretty quickly in the nineteen thirties and had 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:44.839 a better sound, but you know, it just didn't take 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.959 over until nineteen seventy eight. I think by nineteen forty 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.719 even eighty three percent of the households in America. I 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:56.520 mean that's really massive coverage had AM radio signals, like 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:58.079 you know, being broadcast through their homes. 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:02.120 Yeah, and you said, I mean like FM was around, 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.920 but people said, no, we're sticking with the AM. One 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.959 of the big reasons is because the FM receiver needs 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.280 more power because of the way FM radio was pumped out, 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.240 that was a big thing for a long time. That 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.760 was one reason people stuck around with AM. But there's 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:22.080 definitely an affection that developed for AM radio over the years. 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:26.640 Yeah, there's also something called FM drift, Like you know, 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.000 if you're driving around listening to an FM station, it 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.560 can kind of go in and out, you know, to 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.160 the left or to the right. I guess you could 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:36.960 kind of turn your dial a little bit and try 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:38.600 and dial it back in. But that was an issue. 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.080 And we'll talk about some of the AM radio issues. 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:46.160 But if you're looking at the dial, AM according to 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.360 the FCC, AM waves have to be broadcast on frequencies 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.840 between five thirty five megahertz and one point seven and 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:56.640 FM is from eighty eight to one oh. 0:12:56.520 --> 0:13:02.400 Eight sounds legit, so check out based on the radio 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:04.360 call signs I'm familiar with. 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.240 Do you ever listen to AM radio anymore? 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.200 Yeah? I listened to the Bulldogs game on the way 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.719 home from Yumi's parents house on Saturday. 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:16.280 Wasn't that nice? 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:17.480 The ballgame? 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.119 Or listening to the radio, listening to a sports broadcast 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:21.679 on the radio. 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.480 Yes, I used to do that in college. I can't 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:28.600 remember the sportscaster's name, the legendary one for Georgia with 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:29.520 the hobnail boot. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:31.920 Yeah, yeah, Larry Munson. 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:36.000 Larry Munson. Yeah, back in college. I would listen to 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.600 him and watch the game. Yeah, like I'm mute, and 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:40.880 hopefully they would sync up. 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:42.840 Yeah, that was the preferred method. 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.200 But I still love and it doesn't happen a lot 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.440 because you know, I'll watch the game on TV generally, 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.000 but if I'm traveling like you were just talking about, 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:55.160 or I remember when I built we couldn't afford to build, 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.600 like to get a fence company to build our fence 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.800 twenty years ago. So I built our privacy fence like 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.760 picket by picket over the course of two months, and 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.680 a lot of that was spent with me listening to 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.200 Georgia Bulldogs on the radio. I mean it was pre 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.920 podcast even, and it's just it's still to me a 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.000 great way to catch a game for sure, not even 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.200 nostalgia wise, like it really is a great way to 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:20.200 listen to catch a game. 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.480 Oh yeah. The play calling is like you have to 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.240 be really good. There's no assist there. You're telling everybody 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:29.120 going on, you know. Yeah, I say we take a 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.520 break because we're getting nostalgic already. What do you think. 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.560 Yeah, I'm gonna park that and we'll stick to the facts. 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.000 Okay, baby, we're taking a break. Everybody will be right back. 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.640 So, if we're talking the golden age of radio as 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.680 a whole, that was about a three to four decade 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.240 period from the twenties through the mid fifties or so. 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.800 That was when am radio starred. We'll also talk a 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:27.720 little bit later about sort of the seventies period when 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.240 am radio music was like, you know, the Mellow Gold 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.880 stuff was a big deal. But that you know, that 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.400 first decade of radio ushered in. You know, it was 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.720 blowing people's minds like they had never heard sometimes any 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.560 of this stuff, or certainly had not heard any of 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.440 this stuff live like a live broadcast and speaking of 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:51.880 Sports in nineteen twenty one, over about one hundred and 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.920 twenty five thousand square miles from where it broadcasts out 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.080 of Jersey City, New Jersey, people listened to the heavyweight 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:02.880 boxing championship. I can't imagine what that was like to 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.160 hear a sports broadcast like that for the first time. 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:06.040 As it happened. 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:08.880 Hopefully the commentator knew what he was doing too, and 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:12.440 when they weren't like long pauses like the boom goes 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:13.520 the dynamite guy. 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.760 One of them's punching another one repeatedly. 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.680 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Carpentee just went down. 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:21.520 That's right. 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:24.160 One of the other things that we'll see about AM 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:28.280 Radio two, Chuck, is that's it was long considered a 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:33.320 public good, so that the government had like a little 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.400 more willingness to be like, no, you can say this, 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:36.960 you can't say that, and you have to do this. 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.280 One of the reasons why is because it was very 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:43.320 quickly used to kind of spread public information, Like presidents 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:45.680 took to it very quickly. Remember I said that Katie 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.520 Ka announced the results of the Harding election. Within just 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:51.640 a couple of years, Warren Harding was using it to 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.400 talk to America and FDR was probably the most famous 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:58.800 president who used the radio to talk to America. Had 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:05.080 a series of like just informal speeches basically called fireside chests. Yeah, 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.000 that really made a lot of the countries just fall 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.040 in love with them. But it was very it was 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.240 it was very clear early on just how much influence 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:16.760 it could have on people's political opinions. 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.080 Well, and it was a lot of people the first 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.520 time they ever heard the president's voice. 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.399 Speak, you know, how what he sounds like. Yeah, it 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:27.600 wasn't around during Lincoln because everyone would. 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:31.320 Have been like really, but yeah, you know, there was 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:33.680 definitely public good and we'll dive into that a little bit, 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:36.800 along with tons of entertainment and you know, it was 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:39.760 basically like fifteen minute chunks for a long long time 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.840 of all over the map variety style stuff, kind of 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.600 reminiscent of vaudeville. Like there were hosts of shows, but 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:49.760 the DJ thing didn't come along till much later. So 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.680 you had like advice shows and news shows and obviously 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:56.320 comedy stuff, game shows. 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:58.320 You know. Radio dramas were a big big deal. 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.880 Yeah, that's where soap op came from. Two They were 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:07.200 broadcast almost exclusively with women as their target audience. And 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:09.640 at the time, this is just post World War One, 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.080 where women had helped the war effort in the factories. 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:15.560 The men came back and they were like, get back 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:17.960 in the house, and women were stuck in the house 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.240 all day. So these radio dramas were broadcast to them 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:26.359 and they were almost exclusively sponsored by cleaning product companies. 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:27.000 That's right. 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:30.280 So they became known as soap operas. And one of 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.400 the longer lasting soap operas of all time actually made 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:38.000 the jump successfully from radio to TV. That was Guiding 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.119 Light No Way. Yeah. It started in nineteen thirty seven 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.000 on the radio and was finally canceled in two thousand 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.280 and nine on TV. It was seventy two years of 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.680 Guiding Light every weekday. Too. 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.600 I had a very very brief foray into soap operas. Yeah, 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.240 I guess it was in college or something. I don't 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:58.960 know why, but I got hooked for I mean, not 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.000 too long, but I was hooked. 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.800 I was like, these things are stupid. I was like, yeah, 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:04.560 but what happens. 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.600 Yeah, the same thing happened to me again in college too, 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.360 and I cannot remember the name of it, but it 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:13.439 was just off the chain. I know there was a 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.480 main character named Marlena, and she was possessed by the 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:20.200 devil at one point. Someone will remember, like, yeah, certainly, 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.320 that's like a very famous plotline that was going on 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.240 when I was hooked on them, and then I got 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.480 hooked on them enough that I would switch channels during 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.720 ads and see what was on other soap operas and 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:36.240 general hospital. Once there was a scene where this couple 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.000 was in bed and they did such a poor job 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.879 of editing that they left in the director saying cut 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.760 and the two actors roll out of bed. I'll never 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:47.880 forget it. It was one of the greatest things I've 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:49.160 ever seen on television. 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:51.359 They're like that, the sheets are pulled up, you know, 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:53.440 to their bare skin, and. 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:54.800 Then they roll out of bed and they have on 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:56.000 like blue jeans. 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.200 Yeah. I don't remember what they were wearing or anything, 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:00.160 but yeah, I'm sure it was just like that. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:01.000 That's really funny. 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:03.880 Oh God, to have that time again where you could 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:05.920 just like maybe sort of get hooked on a soap 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:06.520 for no reason. 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:08.040 Yeah, for sure. 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.439 Religion was also a big deal early on AM radio. 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:14.840 All of a sudden, evangelist could broadcast far and wide 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.800 from what they call the electric pulpit, and they became like, 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.240 you know, big time personalities and stars during the depression era. 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.240 Yeah, one of the first people that the question of 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:29.440 freedom of speech was raised around his father, Charles Coughlin, 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:35.560 who was a bigoted, hate speech Catholic priest who really 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:38.240 kind of pushed the envelope, you could say. I think 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:41.000 he said the Nazis didn't go far enough during Crystal 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.000 knockt like, he was that kind of guy. 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:43.760 Wow. 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:48.120 So he definitely rose to prominence during this time. On 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:52.920 the lighter side, one of the most popular long running 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:58.600 shows was the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show, Yeah, 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:03.480 which was a ventralic act on the radio. Yeah. 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.280 I mean the jokes still worked, but it's definitely a 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:07.879 visual medium for sure. 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.359 But he managed to make it like super radio friendly 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.560 and it was super popular. You said that the Golden 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:18.320 Age of radio ended around the nineteen sixty two, and 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.760 we should say this was This depends on your perspective, 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:24.720