A History of Western Society: Printed Page 886
A History of Western Society, Value Edition: Printed Page 849
A History of Western Society, Concise Edition: Printed Page 885
Like film, radio became a full-
Every major country quickly established national broadcasting networks. In the United States such networks were privately owned and were financed by advertising, but in Europe the typical pattern was direct control by the government. In Great Britain, Parliament set up an independent public corporation, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), supported by licensing fees. Whatever the institutional framework, radio enjoyed a meteoric growth in popularity. By the late 1930s more than three out of every four households in both democratic Great Britain and dictatorial Germany had at least one radio. (See “Thinking Like a Historian: The Radio Age.”)
Like the movies, radio was well suited for political propaganda and manipulation. Dictators such as Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini controlled the airwaves and could reach enormous national audiences with their dramatic speeches. In democratic countries, politicians such as American president Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Stanley Baldwin effectively used informal “fireside chats” to bolster their popularity.