Media & Communication · History of Media
A topic within History of Media, itself one of 9 topics in that field and part of Media & Communication.
No prior grounding assumed.
Wireless Telegraphic Communication
Guglielmo Marconi · 1909
Recounts how progressively larger aerials and more sensitive detectors let signals cross the Atlantic reliably, arguing the working limit on wireless…
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Report on Chain Broadcasting
Federal Communications Commission · 1941
Documents how NBC and CBS locked affiliate stations into network contracts that controlled their scheduling and rates, and uses that evidence to…
Primary sources and full treatments.
A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States, Volume I—to 1933
Erik Barnouw · 1966
Traces how American radio moved from an open, amateur-built medium into a small number of advertiser-funded networks within little more than a…
3 works
Guglielmo Marconi
Recounts how progressively larger aerials and more sensitive detectors let signals cross the Atlantic reliably, arguing the working limit on wireless range was engineering practice catching up, not any ceiling in the underlying physics.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Federal Communications Commission
Documents how NBC and CBS locked affiliate stations into network contracts that controlled their scheduling and rates, and uses that evidence to justify new rules forcing the networks to loosen their grip on local radio.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Erik Barnouw
Traces how American radio moved from an open, amateur-built medium into a small number of advertiser-funded networks within little more than a decade, treating that consolidation as a choice made by regulators and businesses rather than an inevitable outcome of the technology.