Let’s go back one hundred years. A president (Warren G. Harding) is mired in scandals: his cronies, appointed to powerful positions, are charged with crimes. Harding is accused of using hush money to suppress allegations of extramarital affairs. All while the nation was spiraling toward an economic depression.
But Americans are keen students of history. We have long memories. And in the century since, we have elected only choir boys to our nation’s highest office, insisting on unquestionable character, fidelity, only the best cabinet members, and sound policies both foreign and domestic to build a strong economic foundation.
Okay, maybe I got a bit carried away. Perhaps some things haven’t really changed that much since the 1920s.
However, the way we get news and information doesn’t even resemble the way our great-grandparents stayed up to date. Prior to the 1920s, the nation’s newspapers carried the load. In towns large and small, we counted on our local paper to report the local election results, keep us informed on national and world events, entertain us with “the funny pages,” and tell us where to find the best deals on bedsheets, groceries, and radios.
Yes, radios. When the first radio station in my home city of Chattanooga signed on in 1925, the newspaper ads sent enthusiastic customers to the Chattanooga Radio Company, where this miraculous “radio set” could be purchased for $7 (which would set you back around $130 today).
Around the nation, city by city, radio stations started with modest, bland programming. Early listeners heard symphonies, church services, and speeches. The stations were only on the air a few hours each day.
By the mid-1930s, someone found a relatively inexpensive way to mass produce and install radios in automobiles, and within a few years, car radios were commonplace. The programming became more varied too. Baseball games, recorded popular music, live comedy shows, news reports, and the friendly morning voices who woke us up with cheery banter and the weather forecast.
In the 1940s, “radio with pictures” gradually became available as television stations sprouted up nationwide, eventually becoming connected as telephone and power lines went up from coast to coast, creating the networks that still exist today.
Obviously, broadcasting has played a major part in my life. For the past half-century, since I was a 10th grader, I’ve been on radio and/or TV continuously. Between the ages of 18 and 22, I was on the radio 7 days a week. Not because I had to. I wanted to! That’s how much I loved living my dream. I did eventually cut back to 6 days a week, and then 5 when I switched to TV. To this day, I occasionally have to fill in as anchor on a weekend newscast, but not without grumbling a little bit. Maybe that’s because I’m not 18 anymore.
I look back on the past 50 years with amazement at the technological advances, and can brag on a few “firsts” in my town. In 1988, I did the first live broadcasts via satellite from Baltimore (the home of the aquarium that the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga was being modeled after), and from Washington DC, where I somehow convinced our members of the House of Representatives from southeast Tennessee, northwest Georgia, and northeast Alabama to do a joint interview with me on the steps of the Capitol on a cold January night. My station had just purchased a $500,000 satellite truck, which was a huge achievement in 1988, enabling us to broadcast from anywhere. We sent our signal into space, and it was retrieved for our viewers at the transmitter. Little did we know that iPhones would arrive 25 years later, sending our satellite truck to the scrap heap, literally. Suddenly there was no need for a huge truck that got 8 miles to the gallon, when a tiny phone could do the same thing.
I was also the first to broadcast via Skype (in 2011) and with a Live U backpack (in 2013).
I’m proud to have been part of half of my city’s broadcast history, so far. I can’t wait to see what’s next, as long as they don’t replace me with ArtificiaI Intelligence, or a robot.
