Radio Advertising

Radio advertising would be impossible without the radio. Radio waves were discovered and studied by Heinrich Hertz in 1867 (Schoenherr, 2001). Guglielmo Marconi invented a transmitter in 1894 and formed the first wireless telegraph and signal company in 1897 (Schoenherr, 2001). Reginald Fessenden of Canada invented the continuous-wave voice transmitter and sold it to Westinghouse in 1910. Several amateurs began to broadcast information from music to news over the airwaves as soon as crystal radio receivers became available from 1912 to 1921 (Schoenherr, 2001). Because of the Titanic disaster, all ships were required to have radios and radio operators on board. RCA started in 1919 to mass produce radios (Schoenherr, 2001). NBC was founded in 1926 and produced a 47 station network by 1928.

Today, television has the broadest audience, radio is more regional and newspapers are the most local. Radio advertising offers businesses advantages over other media. It reaches a large audience, with high target ability and low cost. Radio advertising is significantly lower in cost than television advertising. A television ad can cost $50,000 to produce. A similar radio ad will cost closer to $1,500 (“Direct Response Radio,” n.d.). A typical radio 60 second radio spot can cost $100. A 60 second television Commercial will likely cost $100,000. 13,000 radio stations in the United States reach 94% of the population over 12 years of age each week (“Direct Response Radio,” n.d.). Radio has greater target ability depending on the programs. Some types of music are more popular with teens and others more popular with people over 60. There are programs that target women, Hispanic listeners or adults 35 to 44 years of age. Radio advertising has the ability to drive online traffic to support sales. Finally, statistically speaking, radio listeners spend more per purchase than TV infomercial buyers ($148 vs. $98) on average (“Direct Response Radio,” n.d.).

Two different economic systems... [continues]

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