European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 26, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse In a 1901 photo Guglelmo Marconi reads signals on a tape machine left with a 10-Inch spark Coil right used that year for a ship to Shore radio test. A Century of a from Dot Sand dashes to the roots of to United by radio . Miners listen to the news in 1943. In this remarkable Century probably nothing matches the development of communications the ability to Send the human voice and images flying through the skies to some Distant place. Not the automobile nor the air plane has brought us closer together. Bojoh Barbour the associated press Century ago the first Man made signals quivered through the air in a kind of invisible electrical dance. Those signals later translated into voices and pictures changed our lives forever. It began with a whisper Guglielmo Marconi s simple signal the Morse letters sent a Little Over a mile across his family estate near Bologna Italy in 1895. At first it was discounted As a Novelty. It would be 14 years before the wireless proved its value first As a shipboard Call for help. It later brought the world into the nation s living rooms president Franklin d. Roosevelt in his fireside chats during the great depression saying that All we had to fear was fear itself. It was Edward r. Murrow standing on a London rooftop describing the nazi Blitz. Radio was says Ken Mueller of the museum for television and radio broadcasting a unifying Factor at a time the nation needed it most the decade Between the depression and world War ii. For the 106 million americans then he says suddenly there was something they had in common. Prior to that they could read the newspaper but they were All Reading different newspapers.". Columnist Walter Winchell it was estimated Between his newspaper copy and his broadcasts had an audience of 50 million americans. Many More than that saw Nen Armstrong land on the Moon and say across 250,000 Miles that his first step was one giant leap . The magical tube showed scenes of Freedom marchers and snarling police dogs unleashed on children campy violence a president shot another president resigning helicopters on the attack in vie Triam marines Landing on yet another Sandy Beach in Kuwait super bowls basketball championships and cherished old movies now the Long Road through radio and television has reached another turning Point. Aided and abetted by Cable the broadcast seems to becoming narrow cast allowing viewers to choose their own programming from cooking to old movies from redecorating to College classes from Home shopping to political discussion from wildlife to sex that s a far cry from the first rudimentary signals inv 1909 when the italian ship Florida collided in heavy fog with the liner Republic but the Republic s wireless brought help in a hurry and Only six lives were lost three years later when the titanic went Down More than 700 were rescued from the icy Waters because of Quick response to the wireless Call for help More of the 2,200-plus aboard would have been rescued if the wireless operator on a nearby ship just Over the horizon had t been off duty. From Marconi s hands the research fell to a Small coterie of electrical engineers who would free the wireless from the confines of Dot dash codes to the actual transmission of the human voice and then pictures. But it. Was a slow step by step journey taking some 25 years before the Complex equipment moved from the Metal sulfite Crystal of Marconi to the Diode tube of radio broadcasts to Lee de Forest s Electron tube that produced television pictures. In the Early decades of this Century scientists and amateurs fiddled with different configurations some no More sophisticated than a wire coat hangar and experimented with changing frequencies different Power Levels in 1919, David Sarnoff established the radio corporation of America funding research and Legal support for such Stormy geniuses As de Forest and Edwin Armstrong who in the Early 1920s was Ria s biggest stockholder. Sarnoff began As a Telegraph delivery boy for Marconi s pioneering company. In a nation trying to adjust to such rapid advances As automobiles and aircraft the radio research was derailed by Patent squabbles and shifty entrepreneurship. The Patent problems became so severe during world War i that radio Progress stagnated and the government moved in to put them on hold. But then amateurs took Over. Experimenters discovered that a cylindrical Oatmeal Box a Crystal a spool of wire an Aerial and earphones could become their own receiver. As More sophisticated receivers came on the Market broadcast stations proliferated working on the principle Send it and they will listen. Radio brought a sense of Community maybe a sense of nationality Mueller says. It was what people talked about Over Coffee and at work the next Day. With radio says Ron Simon a curator for the broadcast museum they could All turn on Jack Benny they could All turn on for s fireside Mueller says history chose a president who was perfect for the role a great voice calling his countrymen friends. It was a Guy speaking As if he were right there in your living room with you and letting you know this is what s going on and what i think we ought to do about vaudeville was borrowed by radio and the comedian brought it to the airwaves just when the country needed a laugh and could t afford the movies. Amos v Andy brought minstrel comedy to radio and some experts say were responsible for much of the surge in the sales of radios 4.4 million in 1929. And along came Eddie Cantor the Marx Brothers Fred Allen and his feud with Jack Benny and of course George Burns and Grade Allen. An interesting Story is Jack Benny Mueller says. One of his props was his basement vault and whenever he. Visited the vault the listener heard traps going off and guards saying who goes there. But when they brought the vault to television viewers wrote in saying that s not the vault that was True of a lot of things you heard on radio whether it was Fibber Mcgee s closet or whatever. Radio was the theater of the youngsters would lie in front of that Cathedral of reveries their minds re creating Jack Armstrong and the Piper Hudson High boys the dashing athlete who fought for the Side of Good. Radio became the family clock. Children were \ admonished to save their questions until after Jack Benny or told to go to bed when the program s over1. Today s soap operas were born on radio but radio soaps were More morality plays More Small studies in. Religion and patriotism More iterations of goodness triumphing Over evil. But nothing so stirred the nation frightened it out of its collective wits More than Orson Welles adaption of . Wells the War of the worlds for the Mercury theater on the air ". To a nation sensitized to the threat of War in Europe Welles presented the invasion by martians in such vivid terms that there was literally panic in the streets. It began ladies and gentlemen we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from intercontinental radio news. But radio also took itself seriously. When Ted Husing auditioned for an announcer s Job his employer pointed to the picture of an american housewife and explained that for 11 hours Husing on radio was going to be a guest in her House. Do you have a Tuxedo he asked Husing. Husing said he did Fine said the employer before 6 you will have to dress for dinner Ria s demonstration of television at the 1939 world s fair in new York was supposed to jump Start the technology but world War ii got in the Way after the War so Many of the formats the pro graphs that started in radio generated television shows says television expert Ron Simon. Jack Benny and a lot of the vaudeville radio stars did. So did the format of Ozzie and Harriet the first suburban comedy. Dragnet known for its realism in police drama began on radio with Jack after world War ii one show was dominant. The Texaco Star theater with Milton Berle Drew 90 percent of the viewing Public. The wave of quiz shows in the 50s was led by $64,000 question. It ended with scandal on Twenty one when Charles Van Doren admitted to being fed questions. At the same time Federal communications chief Newton Minow called the whole horizon of television a vast the quiz shows were sort of the last gasp of live television that was produced and owned by the advertising agencies Simon says. Most of the great dramas that we associate with the 50s Marty twelve angry men As Well As the variety shows were produced by outside advertising agencies and then brought to television the agencies bought the time slots. The television Industry was merely a passive conduit for their programs. But the quiz show scandal forced the networks to re invent their role. They turned to Hollywood to produce programs. /. Norman Lear showed television How to blend comedy with social issues and the 1970s brought All in the family a a so Mary Tyler Moore. But for All television brought us the personal touch went out with old radio and never came Back. No longer will we hear such sentiment As Eddie Cantor signing off with i d love to spend each wednesday with you. Or anything As personally simple As George Burns words say Good night Grade and Grade Allen saying demurely Good i 3 entertainer Fred Allen takes Calls during a radio comedy routine. Below president Franklin Roosevelt uses the radio fora fireside Chat with America. 16 the stars and stripes saturday november 26,1994 the stars and stripes 17
