olved discovering electromagnetic waves and their potential (Winston, 1998). In the late 1880s, German physicist Hertz tested Maxwell's theory that was electromagnetic currents could be perceived at a distance and such waves travelled at the speed of light. He succeeded in producing electromagnetic waves, and confirmed Maxwell's prediction about their speed. Not long after, Marconi, an Italian inventor, brought electromagnetic waves out of the laboratory and into the world.
             The period between the late 1920s and the early 1950s is considered the Golden Age of Radio, and radio became the domain of large- scale commercial and political organisations. Large radio communication companies could share with their governments a concern to influence and regulate political behaviour. However in many cases the power of the communications combines also generated from their role in the manufacture and distribution of radio apparatus. The emergence of NBC from RCA, and RCA from GE, is a good example. It shows how the ethos of American broadcasting may be traced back through the GE laboratories to the individualism and commercialism of Edison. The radio media were never merely neutral channels of communication.
             First of all, newspapers, periodicals and motion pictures were difficult and expensive to produce and were impossible to distribute widely without a large organisation¡¯s resources. On the other hand, radio signals could be generated easily and cheaply; distribution occurred instantaneously through a medium that nobody owned. The popular potential of radio was obvious.
             Secondly, the impact of radio on everyday life differed from that of print and film because, although the medium was pervasive and unbounded, the locus of public exposure to its messages was generally more confined. Newspapers were sold on street corners and in shops, and could be carried about and read anywhere, and the cinema required its audiences to come to th...