How was radio able to survive the rise of TV in the latter half of the 20th century? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 2 days ago by SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Radio dominated the first half of the 20th century but the advent of affordable TV sets in the 1950s seemed to spell doom for the format. Yet, radio endured. Radio was able to create a distinct image for itself, separate from TV. I have own theories as to why (cars, transistor radios and the music industry) but nothing conclusive.

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[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Radio didn't survive TV. It didn't totally die yet, but it's been trending towards death. Lots of radio shows couldn't transition to TV and died out. Lots of stations simply stopped existing, or relied more heavily on syndication. It wasn't all TV related, as systems advanced, you didn't need a DJ selecting and playing individual songs. Companies were also allowed to own more stations from the 80s to 96 when all caps were removed, which led.to massive consolidation.

Podcasting has led to a resurgence of the talk show format, but less so radio.

Radio still exists, but it's mostly due to the last vestiges of public good legislation.

[-] XiJinpingStanAccount@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

Idk if this is TV tho. I think consildiation did a lot of this work. Like radio shows are too regionally huge now. Imagine you had a radio station that both played decent music and it was based in your specific neighborhood/town. It kept you up to date on cool stuff going on there. That would actually be useful to tune in to from time to time. But now its just "that city within 50 miles of me". Small town radio died.

this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2026

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