The Radio boom and economic effects

Madison Avenue comes of age

The radio boom from 1921 to 1928 was an unprecedented media explosion. The 1920’s in America were rapid years, packed with fads and speculations and climaxes of every sort. The American public in the 1920’s flocked to novelty; fascinated by radio technology, millions of Americans rushed out almost at once to buy radio receivers. In 1921 there were nearly seven thousand radio sets in use throughout the United States. By 1928 there were nearly ten million. Corporations such as Westinghouse, RCA and General Electric built hundreds of stations to fulfill the public's demands for radio. Only a handful of radio stations sprinkled the nation in 1921. By 1922 there were 670. The Department of Commerce was overwhelmed with applications for radio station licenses and did not know how to handle the assault. Initially the Department prearranged all stations the same frequency and told them to work out frequency-overlap arrangements with the neighbors.

"A Godlike Presence"

By the end of the decade, the period of awe, it was clear to all that radio was changing the interior life of the country in ways that few could have envisioned. The invisible sinews of electromagnetic waves were binding the country together as never before. Those waves crossed the nation without regard for regional or state lines, often leveling cultural lines in their path. Increasingly, people ceased to refer to themselves just as Pennsylvanians, Coloradans, Californians, Oregonians, or Texans; radio brought the nation into their homes and gave them a national identity. A single event, a boxing match, an inauguration, a football game, a concert, a comedy sketch, a political speech, or a sermon, gave Americans the chance to share in a common experience. Whether the show took place in Washington, Chicago, New York, or San Francisco, radio allowed the nation to be a part of it the moment it occurred. Though those same listeners might relive the event later through the newspapers or the newsreels in movie theaters, it was radio that brought it to them first.

OK then, the continuing series on information shocks.
By 1927 it was clear that the successful household had a radio and a car. The effect on downtown traffic was such that NYC cops would have to block traffic when radio advertised boxing Golden Gloves, one of the first sports promotions. Go back and look, like toothpaste ads on radio made the toothpaste industry literally in a few weeks.

Radio and the car raised the utility of the household by removing intermediates in goods distribution, hence it was essential and the suburban pattern was established. This all occurred between 1924 and 1927. Unfortunately the road system wasn't there.