D.C.'s Radio History and its Future

In 1912, radio stations were being regulated by the Department of Commerce. In 1921 the first broadcast station was authorized to serve the Washington D.C. area, WJH. Washington D.C. is one of the most populated radio markets in the United States. Throughout the years more AM stations were established to broadcast weather and news. WTOP who was once an AM station are one of the oldest stations in the Washington D.C. area. WTOP was known to broadcast news from the federal government. WTOP later moved to the FM side, where it currently on the FM side and is the only all news station in Washington D.C. 1969, FM radio began to expand and started to broadcast 24 hours per day. The first station on the FM dial was a Washington D.C. radio station, WFHS. WFHS, was the first radio station in the FM radio market. WFHS played rock music from the 1960’s into 2000.D.C. radio played an important role into the history of radio. The first wireless transmissions were used in the Washington D.C. area by the United States Navy and Post office.

Some people believe that the future of the radio market is murky. People believe that technologies like satellite radio and ipods have taken over the radio industry, and will start to dig local radio stations into the grave. Nava Brahe believes the DJ will be obsolete in a few years. Brahe thinks that radio stations focus mainly on music now and not the on air personalities. Chris Plummer argues that corporate radio is the cause of the decline of the radio market. He believes that these large media companies are taking away from local radio stations. By the larger companies buying into smaller local stations, they are bringing people outside of the area into these supposedly local stations, and people do not like it.

On the other hand, Donna Halper who is a radio historian believes that the radio industry can survive. Halper has worked in broadcasting for over 40 years. She has been an on air DJ and music director for stations in Washington D.C., New York, Boston and Cleveland. Halper believes that the radio markets can remain relevant if they get back to being local. Similar to Plummer, Halper thinks that local radio stations are moving into the wrong direction by allowing larger conglomerates to purchase them. Radio stations are no longer live and are becoming syndicated causing the community to lose connection with the radio.

Personally I am interested in seeing what the future of the radio market is going to be like. Internet radio, ipods, satellite radio, and podcats seem to be taking over currently. I agree with Halper and Plummer that radio stations need to be more local instead of bringing outside DJ’s into to our local stations. Stations like WPGC play syndicated shows from different radio stations. I believe that people are listening to the radio less and less. More people listen to their ipods and internet radio stations like Pandora.


http://www.tangentsunset.com/radiodc.htm
http://earlyradiohistory.us/hist-dc.htm