The Rise of Radio

Shortly after the development of the record industry, in the early 1920s, the world’s airwaves crackled to life with the advent of commercial radio broadcasts. Early radio programming consisted of a lot of staged dramas and comedies along with a plethora of live music shows. The radio stations and networks eventually supplemented their live programming with the playing of recorded music—literally playing records over the air.

Now, this was a good thing for both the music industry and music lovers. Radio offered the music industry considerable promotion for their latest records, and thus helped to spur record sales. Music lovers got to hear both new music and old favorites on regular basis (and for free), and thus determine which new records to purchase.