Video killed the Radio Star...but so did piracy...and the iPod: Technological Change in the Radio Industry

In 2001, Steve Jobs unleashed what has been quite possibly the biggest change in the music industry ever: the Apple iPod. The iPod, introduced in 2001, held 1000 (highly compressed) songs in your pocket that you could take anywhere. This product completely revolutionized the music industry by eliminating the hassle of carrying CDs around and having to change CDs whenever you wanted to play a different artist. Today, that technological change, combined with Apple's software iTunes has severely hurt the radio industry, and caused some radical changes in the music industry altogether, by creating a music and radio industry that is based on digital downloads and sales.

"But that's not the radio industry in the 1920's; tangents are fun, but that paragraph is completely off topic!" It is, but let's be honest here, you weren't around in the 1920's, and neither was I. However, the above example from today can easily be compared to the technological change in the 1920's, which created the commercial radio industry.

Technological change is one of the most driving forces in the world. From the printing press, to radio, to television, and most recently the internet, technological change does not only change the industries around the world, but it changes people around the world. It changes how people communicate and how people give and receive information. The change that will be discussed here is the invention of the radio.

In Greek mythology, the Phoenix is a bird that rises from the ashes. Of course, this analogy is referring to the birth of the radio from the "ashes" of the Titanic. The Titanic disaster not only used radio to send for help,

                                                   (and made James Cameron a billionaire)

but the news of the disaster was broadcast over the radio and thus, the radio industry was created. People, companies, and even the government now knew how powerful of a technology they had on their hands. Sure, the radio was invented before this moment, but it was after the Titanic disaster that everybody realized that it was a viable technology. People flocked to the airwaves, and in the span of about 10 years, hundreds of radio stations had been established. Now, news, music, and various other shows were being broadcast to thousands of people, and the media spread much more quickly.

So there are the 1920s! But how has radio held up today? With the inventions of television, computers, and the internet, the radio is becoming much less of a factor, however; the industry is now in a state of conversion. Many radio stations are still around, but a majority of them have set up online streams that one can access from their mobile devices or their computers. Other, new types of radio stations such as Pandora (my personal favorite) seek to broadcast music, but personalize it to each user's taste by providing them with songs that are similar using "29 proven dimensions of compatibility". Wait, that's E-harmony's slogan. Well, it's still the same basic concept. Songs that have similar things get played. I predict that the actual radio waves will soon be coming to an end, and cars will eventually get nationwide internet connectivity. The movement to the internet would eliminate the need for a bunch of radio towers, and would probably use the 3G (or whatever-G in that time) towers which have already been built. It's a convergence, and probably the future. As you can see, radio continues to be shaped by new technology, even today.