Chapter VIII: Radio
Terms
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- Federal Communications Commission
- government agency in charge of regulating all means of interstate telephone and radio communication
- turnkey networks
- companies that provide fully automated around-the-clock programming for radio stations
- sustaining programming
- regular unsponsored broadcast shows designed to maintain audience contact until advertising can be sold for that time
- Audion
- a tube invented by Lee de Forest that was designed to pick up and amplify radio signals
- frequency modulation
- transmissions created by changing the speed at which radio waves are generated
- network
- a group of interconnected broadcast stations that share programming; also, the parent company that supplies that programming
- transistor
- a durable, solid-state, miniature version of the large and fragile vacuum tubes used in early radios
- electromagnetic spectrum
- the range of frequencies that can be used for transmitting radio waves with electricity
- dayparts
- time divisions that radio stations make in the day in order to determine programming
- amplitude modulation
- radio transmissions created by changing (modulating) the power (amplitude) of the carrier wave
- payola
- a practice in which record companies paid radio station personnel to play certain records
- spectrum scarcity
- limited nature of broadcast frequencies
- analog radio
- radio transmissions in which an electronic waveform represents the sound on a carrier wave
- "public interest, convenience, and necessity"
- a phrase from the Radio Act of 1927 requiring that broadcasting be good for the community
- shock jocks
- radio personalities who derive humor and ratings from lewd and tasteless comments, using tactics such as vulgarity, racism, sexism, and cynicism
- call letters
- broadcast station identifications assigned by the FCC
- digital radio
- signal transmissions by assigned numbers rather than analog waves
- network affiliate
- a local station that has a contractual relationship to air a network's programming
- Top 40
- radio format in which the current 40 best-selling songs are played in rotation
- public radio
- broadcast outlets that derive their income from sources other than the sale of advertising time; also known as noncommercial
- Morse code
- telegraph code of dots and dashes invented by Samuel Morse
- format
- consistent programming formula with a recognizable sound and personality
- toll broadcasting
- early plan for radio revenue in which access to radio time would be by fee
- format clock
- graphic used by radio programmers showing each feature of the programming hour
- broadcasting
- using wireless technology to instantaneously reach a wide audience
- sampling
- measurements taken from a small percentage of the audience, chosen to represent the behavior of the rest of the audience
- owned and operated stations
- broadcast stations possessed by and run by the network; they usually carry everything the network provides
- wireless telegraphy
- name for early radio transmissions, before human voices could be carried on the airwaves
- pirate radio stations
- low power, unlicensed, illegal stations