The Broadcast Century and Beyond, 5th Edition

Chapter FOUR

The Furious

War and Recovery—Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying… Transition to TV

The decade of the 1940s began with radios in more than 80% of U.S. households; 50 million-plus sets were in use. Advertising revenues for radio totaled $155 million in 1940. More and more newspapers solved the problem of competition by buying or constructing radio stations; in 1940 newspapers owned a third of the country’s stations. FM continued to move forward, owing to the perseverance of Edwin Armstrong, and an FM broadcasters association was formed to lobby for additional spectrum space. The FCC established rules for FM radio, and by the end of the year dozens of new FM stations had been authorized. FM supporters touted the new sound, as The New ...