Term
| Why was there chaos in the airwaves in the 1920’s and how was it solved? |
|
Definition
| Chaos erupted in the airwaves because there was intense competition over access to the few available broadcast frequencies in the 1920s. Over seven hundred stations jumped frequencies and broadcast when they weren’t supposed and battled over 96 channels. Interference was so bad that in many areas listeners couldn’t receive a consistent broadcast signal and sales began to falter. To fix these problems, the FRC in 1927, set the broadcast band at 500 to 1500 kilocycles and assigned fixed frequencies to stations to stations, mandating that people refer to these assignments by frequency and not by wavelength. In the 1920s, after it was determined that Hoover had no authority to assign wavelengths to radio stations, there was chaos in the radio world because the airwaves were clogged. There was interference from stations with high power overlapping other stations, broadcasts done at times they were not supposed to be, pirated frequencies, and stations that were so close to one another physically that their transmissions caused interference. To solve these problems the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) assigned frequencies to stations, in some cases even allocating time slots. |
|
|
Term
| What special needs did radio listening in the 1920’s provide for men? |
|
Definition
| Radio listening helped men in the 1920s resolve conflicting definitions of manhood. Scholars have identified the 1910’s and the 1920’s as a time of great anxiety over what it meant to be a real man in America. Tinkering with radio was one way for some boys and men to manage the emerging contradictions about masculinity in America. For a growing subgroup of American boys, these vivid yet often conflicting definitions of manhood and success were resolved in mechanical and electrical tinkering. |
|
|
Term
| What made music on radio sound better than music on phonographs? |
|
Definition
| FROM THE BOOK: The talking machines were still hand-cranked, and the maximum playing time on each side of a record was about four minutes. Nor was there any such thing as a record changer (in fact, to listen to beethoven's symphony you had to manually change the record 4 times). Listeners complained about the scratchy surface noise of Edison records and their tendency to warp. Radio, because of its superior amplification process and its use of microphones, eliminated such nuisances. And while the quality of music as heard on crystal sets couldn't compare with that on phonograph records, the new tube set produced sound superior to that of the talking machine. |
|
|
Term
| How did radio legitimize music for male audiences? |
|
Definition
Radio, by initially linking technical mastery with music listening, helped make the enjoyment of music more legitimate for men. Men felt they had permission to intertwine their personal histories, their emotions, and their identities with song. Because there is such a powerful relationship between music and emotional arousal, radio provided both public and private ways for men to indulge their emotions and their aesthetic impulses.
FROM THE BOOK: It was men and boys who brought this device into the home, and tinkering with it allowed them to assert new forms of masculine mastery while entering a realm of invisbility where certain pressures about manhood could be avoided. |
|
|
Term
| Discuss the early contributions amateur radio operators and listeners made to broadcasting. When did they begin their radio experiments? |
|
Definition
| Ham radio operators were of the first radio audiences, beginning in 1906-7, and were amateurs who first used the radio as a social tool in addition to applying technological advancements, which later allowed for mass broadcasting. Their contributions, including finding new detectors of radio waves, more efficient methods of generating high-frequency currents, translating the currents so they could be heard, among others, were essential to the early days of radio. |
|
|
Term
| Why were the networks and their advertisers opposed to the notion of "DX"-ing? |
|
Definition
| Radio programming and advertising was constructed for local audiences, so the “DX-ers”, by listening from great distances, could not directly targetted by advertisers since anyone could be listening from any part of the country. Although this may have created a larger audience, many radio stations were built around specific communities and advertised local brands, products, and even events. |
|
|
Term
| What was the appeal of "DX"-ing? |
|
Definition
| Between 1920 and 1924, radio was characterized by DXing: trying to tune in as many faraway stations as possible. Most DXers started with crystal sets, often moved onto tube sets, and listened at first on headphones, the surrounding sounds of home shut out by the black disks on their ears. Described using radio listening to imagine America as a nation more harmonious than it was yet simultaneously reveling in and embracing its differences--what divided it, what rebelled against "America" as a homogenizing nation. |
|
|
Term
| What were some of the reasons radio became a phenomenon in the 1920s? |
|
Definition
The middle class and others desired to spend leisure hours in their homes, enjoying security, ease, and privacy. Some of the reasons that radio became a phenomenon was that people liked the thrill of hearing voices and music from so far away, hungered for entertainment and diversion, desired to withdraw from public space, and were impressed by the technical novelty. |
|
|
Term
| What types of music were heard during the first years of broadcasting? |
|
Definition
Classical, opera, hymns, waltzes, male quartets, brass bands, light opera, hillbilly music, and song and patter groups.
And later, symphonic performances, opera, jazz |
|
|
Term
| How did radio change the importance of music in people's lives? |
|
Definition
| Radio helped make music one of the most significant, meaningful, sought after, and defining elements of day-to-day life, generational identity, and personal and public memory. Radio made music available to people at most time of day or night, and made music a more integral, structuring part of everyday life and individual identity. Music became more fundamental to American life and began to structure social relations much more thoroughly. People all around the country could listen simultaneously to the same bands and songs, which unified our nation. Also, music helped to constitute people’s emotions, sense of time and place, sense of history, and personal life. |
|
|
Term
| How did radio introduce black music to white audiences and give some examples? |
|
Definition
The radio had live music and at first preferred female sopranos, however, in 1924 people began to complain about the singers programs calling them monotonous since the same songs were played night after night on every station. Out in the streets-most notably African Americans-formed lines that stretched around city blocks to buy jazz and blues records (or race records). By the mid to late 1920s many whites were fans of this music as well and they wrote or called in to have it played on their radio stations.
When nearly 60,000 African Americans moved to Chicago due to wartime migration a major jazz center emerged in the capital city of Radio and created a market that needed to be reached.
White performers like Paul Whiteman imitated and toned down black jazz to make it more acceptable to white audiences.
Some African American performers became household names and because of radio black culture became a part of mainstream american expression |
|
|
Term
| What effect did radio have on vaudeville? What did it adapt from this type of theater? |
|
Definition
| Radio’s reliance on linguistic slapstick was a direct auditory exaggeration of what had gone on in vaudeville theater for years. Vaudeville had set the stage for radio by popularizing a new kind of brash humor that was more reliant on jokes and punch lines than on tall tales or monologues. Wordplay was central to vaudeville, and thus crucial to radio. Radio stole vaudeville shows slapstick humor, but had to over-develop their shows identifiable and pleasing personalities because they lacked vaudeville’s additional visual component. They invited people into this imagined space. |
|
|
Term
| In addition to its overt racism, AMOS 'N ANDY expressed a number of important social and cultural aspects of 1930s life. What were they? |
|
Definition
| Amos ‘N Andy enacted often real life dramas about competition, authority, fairness, and hope during the Great Depression. The show also shed light onto class conflict, the social environment, and the collapse of paternal authority in the home, in the government, & in the marketplace. Amos ‘N Andy used “racial ventriloquism” to portray the hopes and fears of the average white men and their growing pretensions about masculinity |
|
|
Term
| How did the great radio comedians use language, and how did this language help change America? |
|
Definition
The comic had to rely on his voice and his words to set himself apart from the others. So most radio comics developed vocal trademarks or catchphrases by which they were known. Ed Wynn, Fred Allen, Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen made linguistic slapstick a central feature of American life in the 1930s. These comedy formats became ritualized and durable, some still lasting today. The catchphrases helped to cultivate an us-versus-them/insider-outsider mentality, and they served as a password into a ‘club’ for people in the know. These comics used their oral displays instead of diplomas to make it in America and showed that other kinds of verbal agility (not just that from a college degree) could move one up on the social ladder, and the pace, delivery, and tone of the humor reaffirmed verbal agility and quickness as a distinctly male trait.
All societies are ruled by language and nearly every society grants high status to those with deft verbal skills.
Malapropisms, wrong pronunciations overly thick regional accents, and dialects marked the speaker, rightly or wrongly, as ignorant, stupid, and low-class.
Advertisers did impose a standard of radio pronunciation and while news casters abided by this, comics ran wild with the American language. |
|
|
Term
| Why did sponsors recognize that being part of the joke was important? |
|
Definition
| The linguistic antics of comics were distinct from the staid, self-important announcements from advertisers. Comedians could be goofy, make fun of themselves, and turn the language upside down, but commercials would not. The success and contagiousness of slapstick eventually seeped into advertising. Ed Wynn began spoofing Texaco gas commercials, and the company saw a sales increase. Advertisers produced the shows and recognized that being the butt of jokes endeared whoever was on the radio to the audience. The jokes helped the audience recall who the sponsor was. Ad-libbed jokes were tolerated, and scripted comedy was later imparted into most shows. |
|
|
Term
| Why did radio listening become so politicized in the 1950s? |
|
Definition
| This technology had particular qualities at the time that made it an agent of desegregation. Radio was the media outlet where cultural and industrial battles over how much influence black culture was going to have on white culture were staged and fought. Teenagers' music was written or performed by African Americans, and many of the announcers they loved, who were write, tried to sound black. In the postwar period there were more radio outlets featuring black music, which panicked many older white Americans. It was the whites themselves-the Djs, the performers, and their fans-embraced a hybridity that confounded and defied the existing racial order. And it was precisely because of radio's invisibility that such hybridizations could flourish. |
|
|
Term
| What was different about the new DJs of the 1950s from their radio predecessors? What techniques did they employ? |
|
Definition
DJs created intimacy by moving between you and me, often speaking in the present tense as opposed to the past tense used by earlier DJs. Identified listeners and their communities. Disc Jockeys used their voices, slang, sound effects, and music to conjure up a cool world for their listeners. The DJ’s of the 1950s had to get the first television generation to listen to the radio. Promoted break out listening that required concentration and focus on the music and lyrics of a song.
DJs identified listeners by their communities, took on nicknames, asked direct questions of the audience that suggested conversation, said the number of listeners, addressed audiences as "you", made it seem individual unlike tv |
|
|
Term
| Discuss the influences and importance of black radio on white disc jockeys and white listeners. |
|
Definition
| African American slang and music contributed a great deal to the public discourse. The few early black DJs brought a rhyming and rapping style that was imitated by their white counterparts. DJs, whether black or white, and their young listeners, helped to bring an end to segregation on the airwaves. In increasing numbers, white listeners tuned into black stations to hear something vibrant, hip, and forbidden. A cool, hip, jive-talking host, and bebop, blues, and jazz were a celebration of black language, music, and culture, and these would defined Top 40 radio. |
|
|
Term
| What were the major threats of rock music and why? How were these threats handled by middle-class culture? |
|
Definition
| Rock induced more racial mixing as a result of the music being played on the radio. Blacks and whites could enter the same building to hear the same band. Anxiety about increased infusions of black culture into the white mainstream would only escalate. Rock music also posed a financial threat to established white music interests in the industry. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers wanted to dethrone the disc jockey and rock’n’roll and rebuild the adult audience for the sort of ‘high quality’ music that dominated their song stockpile. The combustible combination of racial phobia and economic aggression notwithstanding, a coalition of religious leaders, schoolteachers, more conservative DJs, politicians, and newspaper editors denounced the music as corrupting trash. |
|
|
Term
| What was the ‘quest for fidelity’ and how did it affect FM radio? |
|
Definition
| The quest for fidelity was a rebellion against the predictability and mindlessness of mainstream popular music. It was not only a technical quest driving the improvement in FM transmitting and receiving. It was also a cultural and political quest for an alternative medium marked by fidelity to musical creativity & cultural authenticity. The quest for fidelity meant the reduction of noise not just from static, but from consumer culture. FM itself was invented by a man torn by the desire to rebel and succeed: Howard Armstrong. |
|
|
Term
| How did the FCC help lead to the growth of FM radio in the 1960s? |
|
Definition
| In the immediate aftermath of the FCC's rellocation of the FM band in 1945, sales of FM receivers fell, and in 1949 over 200 FM stations went off the air due to RCA pressuring the FCC to give them Armstrong's frequencies for television. Beginning in 1958, however, FM experienced a resurgence. The AM spectrum had gotten so crowded, especially in major cities, that by the late 1950s there were few or no slots left so the only way to start a new station was to use FM. More importantly, in 1961 the FCC authorized stereo broadcasting, DJs were allowed to experiment and play album cuts which brought about the progressive style. However, advertisers soon took over & wanted to reach even larger audiences, so with the Album Oriented Rock Format DJs got lists of top 100 songs that they could play and soon started to mandate the clock. |
|
|
Term
| How did the hi-fi craze help influence FM radio's growth? |
|
Definition
| New stereos featured extremely sensitive FM receivers that were now connected to two separate and often large speakers. Instead of radios or phonographs, listeners now had sound systems. The masculine hi-fi aesthetic won out, as performance became critical, and such sets make little concession to style. |
|
|
Term
| What was the impact of youth culture on FM radio in the late 1960s? |
|
Definition
| The youth culture were revolutionizing every aspect of American culture. Music was central to their individual and generational identity. They scorned TV and watched very little of it. They shared a vision of what culture should and should not be. They also shared a devotion to musical fidelity, and became early devotees of FM. |
|
|
Term
| What was the sound of progressive FM radio like in terms of djs, music, ads? |
|
Definition
Progressive FM DJS - eliminated the loud, insistent, firecracker delivery of AM DJs. DJs on progressive rock stations were given wide latitude to play what they wanted. They also sought and responded to listener requests in a more spontaneous fashion. The pace was slow and subdued, and the Dj spoke into the mike as if he were chatting with you in bed. It was very important to sound "mellow," as listeners came to identify this vocal quality as being the most authentic. these Djs had to have a highly developed aural memory for pitches and tones and be able to draw from this aural catalog at will to produce sound combinations that were simultaneously surprising and not jarring.
Progressive FM Music - "underground" or "progressive rock" stations rebelled against the predictability of the Top 40 format. Instead, they organized a series of songs into sets or "sweeps" (some of them 30 minutes long). Listeners were mostly educated, affluent young men. Avoided playing singles. Had a "laid-back" feel with long segments of all types of music: rock, blues, folk, jazz, international, and even classical. Wanted to create an auditory experience filled with anticipation and surprises. It focused on the pure act of listening to music. Segued from one song to the next.
Progressive FM ads - They eliminated advertising jingles and the repeated announcing of call letters. They repudiated conventional market research focusing on the lowest common denominator. They advertised giving out free rolling papers to those who came in and asked listeners to help those people who were suffering. Record stores and stereo companies were the primary FM advertisers, urging people to buy new systems. |
|
|
Term
| What did the radio industry do to progressive FM once it became popular? What was the assembly line and the ‘rack’? |
|
Definition
The industry sought to co-opt some of the stylistic innovations of underground while purging it of left-wing politics and too much musical heterogeneity. ABC-FM network developed a hybrid format with the musical predictability of the Am format but announcing style of underground. They played a mixture of rock, folk, and other popular music and restricted advertising to eight minutes per hour. Some industry initiatives began to exploit some of the iconoclasm of FM in order to turn the ant corporate ethos to the industry’s advantage. Progressive rock had become the victim of its own success. FM free-form programming was broken down into component parts, robbing the disc jockey of autonomy, and making the show more predictable. This was the assembly line. Programming decisions became highly centralized. There was a blueprint for what music would be played when. It was based on sales figures, telephone surveys, demographics, and focus groups. The DJ came in and got a play list, commencing to follow it. This A-B-C cookie-cutter patterning was meant to ensure the proper rotation of different kinds of music and excluded songs programmers deemed ‘obscure.’
Another innovation was ‘the rack’: the initial assembly-line programming techniques were put into effect. The rack was a box of albums sorted into categories labeled as oldies, folk, and others, where the disc jockey was supposed to follow a menu of choices from the various categories. The rack was the beginning of the end, as control set in once these DJs had become successful. The emphasis was on musical familiarity and predictability, so the listener would know exactly what he or she was in for, and would choose to stay tuned based on this secure and predictable environment. |
|
|
Term
| Classification of Media Control |
|
Definition
1. paternalistic - government or agency in charge of the media (BBC is noncommercial and receives money from licensing fees)
2. permissive - broadcasters are free to do as they please
3. authoritarian - government controls media with specific objects in mind (China is controlled by the communist party and broadcasting is used as a propaganda tool with regulatory goals to publicize party decisions, educate the people, and form a link between party & people, self-censorship) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| all modes of mass communication based on the process of copying |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A way to describe how faithfully facsimile technology represents the original sound
Analog transmission loses fidelity at each phase of the process, while digital technology reduces loss of fidelity in the transduction process |
|
|
Term
| Coaxial Cable vs. Fiber Optical Cable |
|
Definition
| Coaxial cable are made with copper wire which is very expensive and can only hold 100 channels, while Fiber Optic Cable can hold many more channels, is much faster, and only the thickness of a human hair it is incredibly expensive to install, which is ironic since the cable itself is so cheap since it is made of sand/glass. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A method of reproducing sound that is divided into mechanical (which includes microphones, phonograph records, and tape recorders) and digital (which includes CDs, DVDs, MP3s, and Minidiscs) |
|
|
Term
| Signal Transmission & Spectrum Management |
|
Definition
Electromagnetic spectrum, must avoid interference (frequency, distance, power).
Spectrum Management - the process of defining and keeping track of what frequencies will be assigned & licensed for special purposes. |
|
|
Term
| Telegraph & Western Union |
|
Definition
for the 1st time, the telegraph made it possible to get information instantaneously
Western Union was the dominant communication medium for the telegraph, it was allowed to be a monopoly b/c the US government did not want the patent, AT&T eventually bought Western Union |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Popular entertainment with singers, jugglers, actors, etc. it was a variety show, until motion pictures took over. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1st time technology was designed for home entertainment, made people passive, replaced the piano in the home |
|
|
Term
| Signal Reception (AM, FM, Satellite) |
|
Definition
AM radio is ideal for car radios. Signals can travel long distances, especially at night. AM radio subject to static interference and limited frequency response
FM radio is a full fidelity medium but is limited to line of sight transmission. FM requires a long antenna. Signals tend to be blocked by buildings
Satellite radios need a special antenna and receiver.
Satellite services are pay services |
|
|
Term
| The Invention of Wireless Telegraphy (Radio) |
|
Definition
James Maxwell figured out that waves could be sent electronically
Henrich Hertz proved this by sending and receiving the first electromagnetic waves
Marconi figured out how to send a wave in all directions, gave his technology to the British Navy & established companies in major countries throughout the world. Eventually all maritime business used this equipment and ships required radio.
Lee de Forest invents the vacuum tubes which amplified the signal |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Hackers shut down by government (due to Titanic) and now decided they had to control the airwaves.
Radio was now seen as military tool.
24 hour operation required and navy got best frequencies |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Radio Corporation of America formed as a subdivision of GE in 1919. David Sarnoff was the president. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
First DJ from his garage
Went from one to one communication to broadcast
Used an amateur wireless set
Westinghouse gave him a station on the roof: KDKA
Even had a mobile news team |
|
|
Term
| Commercialization of Radio |
|
Definition
1922: Radio goes from crystal sets to radiola which was made for the home or living room instead of the basement
1926: radio advertiser it as an elegant addition to the home
AT&T made first commercial for radio (selling apartments) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Any two stations that are connected
AT&T became NBC (1926) but was split into Red & Blue.
Affiliates were owned locally but allow you to sell your own ads, while using NBC programs (which is cheaper & easier)
NBC did not pay the affiliates, however, William Paley (the head of CBS) decide to give money to the affiliates so radio could spread to more people. |
|
|
Term
Radio Act 1927
Creation of the FCC (1934) |
|
Definition
In order to have a license you must serve the public interest, convenience, & necessity
When the FCC was created they were not permitted to censor and did not allow stations to play records over and over (preferred live music)
Now, the FCC governs individual stations (by giving them licenses or not) and gives each affiliate of a network the right to pick and choose what shows they want to be part of their individual programming. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Orson Welles decided to do War of the Worlds on Oct. 30 1938 where he imitated live newscasters and many people went into a hysteria b/c radio was seen as a trusted news source and most people tuned in 12 min in (after he had been introduced) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| FCC rarely punishes broadcasters, however, when John Brinkley used his radio station to promote his “goat gland transplant” the FCC revoked his license, and when he moved to Mexico the FCC pressured the Mexican government to remove him and they eventually did because he violated the “public interest” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• For the first 30 years radio was like a telephone – point to point
• Then radio became used in military & business
• Crystal sets – seen as a manly pastime
• Portable radio – WW1
• Radiola – home
• Conrad – 1st DJ
• WEAF – come into studio, pay 50 bucks, get time (didn’t know how to make money in radio so AT&T made it like a phone, pay for time)
• NBC becomes a network with so many affiliates they were forced to split
• CBS pays affiliates, more focused on entertainment (with crooners)
• Advertising agencies made/produced radio shows
• Soap operas got their start on radio when advertisers wanted to capture the female audience
• Advertising did not used to mention prices b/c the home was seen as sacred, but direct advertising came about b/c of the depression, started mentioning prices |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| recorded on film when you turned on the radio, when you changed the channel, & paid you 5 dollars a month. However, it could not tell you who's actually listening. |
|
|
Term
Radio during WW2
Post war FCC
Diff. of new stations, death of network radio |
|
Definition
Amateur radio stations were shut down, other forbidden to broadcast weather (didnt want to facilitate the enemy
After the war, FCC allows 2000 more stations on the air by lowering the power of the new stations & forcing them to go off at night
The new stations were different b/c they were independent and had no affiliation with networks, eventually network radio died out |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the transistor made radio portable and brought a new sense of intimacy (now that you could listen alone since there could be a radio in every room, car, etc.)
Gave rise to a new demographic |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Make believe ballroom with sound effects |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| look at the whole market & try to serve the demographics not being served & design a specific format based on lifestyle; aim to be as inoffensive as possible |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| By the '70s FM radio ruled, but radio changed once again when Reagan appointed a new FCC chief Mark Fowler in 1980 to deregulate the media. Stations no longer had to do anything, most radio stations fired their news departments and increased commercial time. Prior to Mark Fowler you could only own 7 stations, post Mark Fowler this number increased dramatically. Furthermore, you used to have to own a station for 3 years before you could sell it, but with deregulation stations started flipping so fast and big companies quickly bought out the small ones and the sense of community was lost. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
have to show both sides of an issue and in turn stations avoided any points of view (due to high costs of airtime for both parties)
However, Mark Fowler eliminated the doctrine & as a result radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh happened and so began the rise of talk radio with right-wing audiences since they are extremely loyal and still the strongest listeners of radio today |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Fm radio had allocated frequencies for education, Nation Public Radio came about with a focus on news, they only get money from listeners no advertisers and as a result rely on announcements of their sponsors |
|
|
Term
| The fall of satellite radio |
|
Definition
Sirius/XM satellite radio almost went bankrupt b/c people aren't buying cars, they have no advertisers, and satellites are very expensive
Website article: Howard Stern says satellite radio will survive
•Many analysts have attributed Sirius' woes to expensive content deals with high-priced talent like Stern, as well as distribution deals with the now struggling auto industry to install satellite radios in cars.
Another Website Article: Sirius XM Wins a Critical Loan From Liberty Media
•Liberty will provide Sirius up to $530 million in loans in exchange for preferred stock that is convertible to 40 percent of Sirius’s equity
•stave off a default on some of its bonds and a potential bankruptcy filing |
|
|
Term
| Local TV Stations Face a Fuzzy Future |
|
Definition
• with their viewership in decline and ad revenue on a downward spiral, many local TV stations face the prospect of being cut out of the picture
• eventually taking shows straight to cable, where networks can take in a steady stream of subscriber fees even in an advertising slump
• Many local stations -- once treated like royalty by broadcast networks -- are scaling back their original programming, cutting down on weekend news shows and trimming staff
• NBC Universal, where local media revenue declined 25% in the fourth quarter of 2008, said the company believes TV stations are still "the best way to reach the broadest possible audience." |
|
|
Term
| Terrestrial radio biz won't fade despite static |
|
Definition
• Terrestrial radio still reaches 90% of Americans weekly
• Marginal radio stations, which survive easier times, may see staffs reduced and their programming limited to simulcasting stronger stations until the ad-revenue environment can produce more viable stations
Radio also has a few technological improvements on its side, including the rollout of HD, which will get a boost as more carmakers make it a factory-installed option, as Ford will do this year. HD radio plays a single frequency with many sub-channels |
|
|
Term
| Disney Aims for the Boy Audience With a Cable Channel and a Web Site |
|
Definition
• Disney XD, a brand aimed at boys ages 6 to 14, a group that market researchers say accounts for about $50 billion in spending worldwide.
• The new channel will offer action-adventure programs and youth-oriented sports news (provided via ESPN, which is owned by Disney), and a Web site offering games, music and social networking tools. |
|
|
Term
| Do We Need a New Internet? |
|
Definition
There is a growing belief among engineers and security experts that Internet security and privacy have become so maddeningly elusive that the only way to fix the problem is to start over.
• One alternative would, in effect, create a “gated community” where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety.
• A malicious software program, Conficker, quickly infected more than 12 million computers, ravaging everything from the computer system at a surgical ward in England to the computer networks of the French military
• The Stanford Clean Slate project will equip software and hardware designers with a toolkit to make security features a more integral part of the network and ultimately give law enforcement officials more effective ways of tracking criminals through cyberspace
• Proving identity is likely to remain remarkably difficult in a world where it is trivial to take over someone’s computer from half a world away and operate it as your own. |
|
|
Term
| What Convergence? TV’s Hesitant March to the Net |
|
Definition
• TV manufacturers do not seem to want it saying that many consumers associate their television with one-way communications they ingest while leaning back on the couch. Browsing the Internet, the thinking goes, is a more immersive, active pursuit
• widgets vs. full access to the internet
• intel chip
Bad things that could come from it:
- Adding the 100 cost for surfing the net could drive more people away
- Viruses from the internet on your tv |
|
|
Term
| At last, broadcast may be recovering |
|
Definition
WHY?
• It could be that cash-strapped viewers, conserving their spending during this down economy, are watching more broadcast TV or it could simply be that the cold weather and snowstorms across the country are driving more viewers to their televisions
• After months of declines, any improvement is good news for broadcast, and second-year shows on each network have recently set series highs (after last year’s slump due to the writers strike) |
|
|
Term
| Mobile, DVR Video Log Fastest Growth |
|
Definition
• For the first time in the Nielsen study, people ages 18-24 spent nearly the same amount of time -- roughly five hours -- watching Internet video each month as they did watching DVR programs.
• Online video viewing is increasingly seen as more valuable than DVR viewing because, unlike DVR viewing, viewers can't fast-forward through the advertising.
• Television viewing, however, remains the most valuable for advertisers because of its breadth of audience. |
|
|
Term
| Prime-Time TV Isn't Prime Anymore |
|
Definition
| more people now watch early-morning and late-night TV than 10 years ago |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
How well a radio reproduces a range of audio frequencies
The ear can hear a frequency range of approximately 10 octaves, from a low of 20 Hz to a high of 20,000 Hz
CDs can reproduce the entire range of audio frequencies that the human ear can hear |
|
|
