Radio.

The purpose of this article is to outline the history of music in radio and to examine the influence of radio on musical life in terms of the dissemination and composition of music. For the development of the technical foundations of radio broadcasting, see Recorded sound, §II.

SIEGFRIED GOSLICH, RITA H. MEAD, TIMOTHY ROBERTS/JOANNA C. LEE

Radio

I. Introduction

The musical landscape of radio around the world has changed significantly since the beginning of broadcasting in the 1920s, and it continues to evolve with constant technological advances. Radio stations were used throughout the 20th century for propaganda purposes by totalitarian governments, who maintained strict control over the dissemination of information. With the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 government control was relaxed, and some of the geographical boundaries that had separated cultures and countries, and barred international broadcasting, began to dissolve. Most democratic governments have appointed independent broadcasting authorities to monitor and regulate both private and public broadcasting since the 1960s and 70s, and no longer uphold policies that routinely affect the dissemination of radio programmes, whether cultural or concerned with current affairs. International cooperation between national broadcasting services also reached new heights in the 1990s, and the cost-sharing involved made larger-scale music programmes possible under the auspices of regional broadcasting unions. Moreover, with the liberalization that led to the abolition of broadcasting monopolies (first in western Europe in the 1970s and 80s, followed by Asia and eastern Europe in the 1990s), private stations have carved niches in specialized programming, including classical music channels. Although some private stations are sponsored by media conglomerates that dictate programming choices, the range of fare offered to the musical public was widened because of the healthy competition between private and public broadcasting.

Radio

II. General history

The scientific developments that led to the growth of broadcasting can be traced back to the 17th century, when T. Browne and S. Reyher introduced the concepts of electricity (1646) and acoustics (1693); but only with the development of applied electricity and telegraphy in the late 19th century did transmission over long distances become possible. Helmholtz expounded the theory of hearing and resonance in 1863, Hertz discovered ether waves in 1887, Marconi invented wireless telegraphy in 1896, and in 1900 W. Duddell constructed the first arc transmitter. Meanwhile there were numerous experiments with the telephone, developed by Alexander Graham Bell in the 1870s. Some transmissions were of music: in 1881 C. Adler transmitted in stereo from the Paris Opéra to a pair of headphones at an exhibition, and music was transmitted by telephone from the Leeds Festival. The first experiments in wireless telegraphy were aimed at point-to-point transmission, mainly to extend telephone communication over the sea, and the potential of the medium for mass communication was only gradually realized. The early development of the medium was largely the result of amateur efforts in Europe and the USA, and it is significant that although these were well under way by World War I it was not until 1919 that a government took part in such experiments, when broadcasts from Chelmsford, Essex, began.

The first radio station to transmit regular broadcasts was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it went on the air in 1920, followed in 1922 by the BBC, the first European station. Radio spread rapidly, and by 1930 Europe and the USA had comprehensive systems and several other countries were developing them. From the outset music occupied a high proportion of broadcast material, in the form of live relays, studio recordings (made on disc before World War II) and gramophone records. The record industry was well developed by the 1920s (see Recorded sound, §I) and the two media were mutually beneficial, records being broadcast and broadcasting promoting their sales. Most pre-war stations had only a single channel broadcasting a mixture of features, news and various types of music. Increasing tension in the 1930s led to stricter government control on radio, particularly in Italy and Germany, where it was a means of propaganda; during the war many radio installations were destroyed, being strategic targets.

After the war technical developments made possible the expansion of the scope of broadcasting. Tape recording, developed by the Germans for military purposes, greatly facilitated the recording process, allowing editing, multi-track recording, higher-quality reproduction and easier storage; it also made musique concrète and electronic music possible. The introduction of frequency modulation (FM) in addition to amplitude modulation (AM) led to improved quality; FM was used for many of the second, third and fourth channels introduced by European stations, and made possible the introduction of stereophonic radio in the 1960s. The increase in the number of channels led in Europe to increased specialization, most networks devoting one channel to light entertainment and one to serious music and cultural programmes, although in the 1970s this trend was counteracted by the growth of local stations of the type that have remained the norm in American broadcasting.

With the decentralization of government control in information dissemination in the 1970s in western Europe, monopolies of public broadcasting systems were abolished, and private local, regional and national broadcasting licences were issued. The opening up of central and eastern Europe and of the global broadcasting market led to intense competition, and public radio stations have responded to calls to streamline their operation by reducing staff and performing ensembles, discontinuing certain specialized programmes, and focussing anew on public outreach.

Technological advances between the 1970s and the 1990s resulted in the introduction of satellite relays, connections via ISDN lines, digital transmission, and broadcasting on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Cable radio stations catering to minority audiences were also set up with private licences in many parts of the world. International radio networks tap into the technological resources to improve the sound quality of transmissions of music programmes and to reach the widest possible audience simultaneously across the globe. The 1980s saw the rise of personal radio-cassette players and headsets, which revolutionized the concept of private listening and musical space. The apparatus of the radio receiver, a standard household item throughout the 20th century, seems likely to become obsolete as the information age advances.

Radio

III. Analysis by region

1. Western Europe (including Scandinavia).

2. Central and eastern Europe.

3. The Americas.

4. East Asia, South Asia, Pacific Rim.

5. Middle East and Africa.

Radio, §III: Analysis by region

1. Western Europe (including Scandinavia).

In the alphabetical survey that follows, statistics are from the mid-1990s.

In Austria radio was developed through the work of amateur broadcasters in the years after World War I, and in 1923 the post office authorized the building of a station, Radio Hekaphon, by a private company in Vienna; it was short-lived, but stimulated interest in the possibilities of broadcasting. In 1924 a new company, Österreichische Radioverkehrs (RAVAG), was granted a monopoly, its licence specifying music broadcasts. It expanded rapidly, and by 1938 there were transmitters in the provincial capitals. The Salzburg Festival was relayed, and the facilities of the network were extended by the completion of the Funkhaus in Vienna. In 1938 RAVAG was absorbed into the Nazis’ Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft, and radio became a military and propaganda medium. The Vienna and Graz stations continued to operate, while the others acted as relay stations either for them or for south German stations. After the war the occupying forces decentralized the network once more, as in Germany, and each Land (province) controlled its own station. In 1945 a second channel was created, devoted largely to cultural programmes and music, and in 1954 authority for broadcasting was passed back from the Länder to the government. In 1967 the Österreichischer Rundfunk (ÖRF) was organized as an independent public corporation. It provides about 200 hours of radio each day in the form of three national and nine local stations. Österreich 1 is Austria’s cultural network and provides a 24-hour national service with an emphasis on news, arts and education, literature, science, and especially classical music. About 54% of its output is devoted to music – mainly classics, but some specific programmes of jazz, contemporary and light music. Of the music broadcasts, 56% are studio productions (either live or from tapes), 32% recordings and 12% relays, repeats or productions from other networks. The ÖRF SO was founded in 1969, with special emphasis on contemporary music. It gives its own concert series in Vienna (at the Konzerthaus and Musikverein) and appears at the Salzburg Festival. Many of its concerts are broadcast, and some are subsequently released as commercial recordings. Ö1 has listener share of 6·9%, while Ö2 and Ö3 make up 39·7%. Ö2 features folk music and local news, and Ö3 broadcasts popular music. Blue Danube Radio was founded in May 1992 as the fourth radio channel for the international community, and broadcasts in English, featuring much popular music. Ö3 was split into two stations, Ö3 and FM4, in January 1996. SCYPE (Song Competition for Youth Programmes in Europe) is an annual competition founded by Ö3 to discover new talent in popular music. ÖRF’s broadcasting monopoly lasted until 1994.

The development of broadcasting in Belgium was affected by the fact that two languages are spoken there. Early experimental broadcasts were stopped by World War I. Radio Belgique was established as a private station in 1923. Development was rapid in the 1920s, and in 1930 the Institut National Belge de Radiodiffusion (INR) was founded as a state monopoly. In 1940 it was taken over by the German government, and some exiled Belgian officials set up the Office de Radiodiffusion Nationale Belge in London in 1942; in 1945 the INR was restored. In 1960 it was reorganized as Belgische Radio en Televisie (BRT) and Radiodiffusion-Télévision Belge (RTB), having separate wavelengths for Flemish and French programmes, both of which give prominence to music. BRT and RTB lost their monopoly in 1980, when private radio licences were issued. In 1991 BRT was renamed Belgische Radio en Televisie Nederlands (BRTN) and RTB was renamed Radio-Télévision Belge de la Communauté Français (RTVB). Of the three national channels, Radio 3 broadcasts classical music and cultural programmes and has an audience share of 2·5%. Although in the 1970s there were three permanent radio orchestras and choirs, they were reduced to one orchestra and choir by 1995. Radio 21 is the national channel for contemporary popular music. Popular music is also featured in regional and national information channels. Bruxelles Capitale caters to older audiences for popular music.

In Denmark amateur broadcasters were active as early as 1907. Not until 1925 was a state network, Statsradiofoni, established, controlling all broadcasting. The broadcasting centre in Copenhagen was started in 1934 but was not completed until 1945, having been delayed by the German occupation; its concert hall opened in 1946. There was one station until 1951; a third began broadcasting in 1962. From 1959 Danmarks Radio (DR) was reorganized as an independent public institution. In 1996 there were three national channels, of which Channel 2 broadcasts classical music and Channel 3 popular music. The Danish RSO, founded in 1926, is considered the world’s oldest radio orchestra. DR is the country’s largest employer in the field of classical music, supporting, in addition to the Danish RSO, a radio choir, concert orchestra (for musicals, light classics and operettas), big band and girls’ choir. Commissions have been given to orchestras, choirs and composers to promote the development of Danish music. Approximately 20 CD recordings are produced each year by the various ensembles of DR. Channel 2 arranges about 140 concerts a year (the Danish RSO performs once a week in the DR concert hall during the season) and organizes many competitions both nationally and internationally. DR enjoyed the broadcasting monopoly until 1988.

Regular broadcasting was started in Finland by an association of amateurs in 1924. The state station was founded in 1926, known at first as Oy Suomen Yleisradio and later renamed Oy Yleisradio (YLE). The Finnish RO (later RSO) was established in 1927; it is based in Helsinki, where it gives weekly concerts. A chamber choir was formed in 1962. A second channel for cultural programmes was established in the mid-1960s. By the mid-1980s the Finnish media were deregulated, and in 1995 there were 55 private radio stations in operation. YLE was further reorganized in 1993 with a management structure more like that of a business enterprise. It is still the principal radio station in Finland, with three channels. Channel 1 is devoted to classical music and cultural programmes, and Channel 2 to popular music during the day (but classical music through the night). Channel 1 has a national audience share of 7%. A champion of Sibelius and his music, YLE is host to the Sibelius International Violin Competition (inaugurated in 1965) and International Jean Sibelius Conducting Competition (1995). The Finnish RSO’s 1995 series included many outreach programmes, including those described below (§V). Of the private local stations, Classical FM in Helsinki competes for its audience with Channel 1.

France was the scene of many of the earliest advances in radio; as early as 1881 a performance at the Paris Opéra was transmitted by telephone to listeners at an exhibition. In 1910 a commission studied the possibilities of radio, and in 1915 the first French–American radio link was made, from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Development was halted by World War I, but after 1918 private stations developed and in 1923 there were regular broadcasts, also from the Eiffel Tower. In the same year the government reaffirmed control over all broadcasting, but licences were issued to private stations, some of which formed part of the government’s national network established in 1926. By 1933, 14 state and ten private stations were on the air, many of the latter associated with newspapers and largely devoted to politics. With the outbreak of war private broadcasting declined, and in 1941 all stations were taken over for military purposes; after 1945 all broadcasting was controlled by Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF). In 1963 the Maison de la RTF in Paris was opened, completing the process of centralization in French broadcasting. The radio orchestra, now the Orchestre National de France, was founded in 1934. From the 1950s cultural and educational programmes became more numerous, and music broadcasts were mainly on the France-Inter channel. In 1964 broadcasting came under the control of the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF), a newly created body with a greater degree of autonomy, and in 1975 it was divided into six companies in an effort to decentralize control. Music is broadcast on all three channels: France-Inter, France-Culture and, above all, France-Musique, which carries music of all types. In addition to the Orchestre National, French radio supports the Orchestre Philharmonique Radio de France, the Choeur National de Radio France and the Maîtrise de Radio France (children’s choir), all of which perform abroad as well as in France. The concert season offered by Radio France includes many choral, orchestral and chamber series. There are also annual festivals celebrating contemporary music (e.g. Présences), music from other cultural traditions, jazz and early music.

German scientists succeeded in transmitting music and speech as early as 1913, and music was broadcast to the troops during World War I. In 1923 a licence was granted to a station in Berlin, and in the following year studios were built in Leipzig, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Breslau and Königsberg. A national company was established in 1926, advised by regional ‘cultural committees’. In the 1920s several of the stations, notably those of Berlin and Frankfurt, gave support to modern music, but with the rise of the Nazis the radio became increasingly used as a propaganda weapon, and by late 1933 all the provincial companies were dissolved and radio centralized under Goebbels; the only music permitted was that of the German masters, with the exception of Mendelssohn. Other stations, including those of Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938, were absorbed into the Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft as the Germans expanded their territories.

With the German defeat in 1945 the Allies controlled facilities in the western zones and developed a system free of government control. It was passed back into German hands in 1948–9. Radio was decentralized and organized partly according to the old states: Südwestfunk (SWF, Baden-Baden); Sender Freies Berlin (SFB, established in 1954 to succeed a subsidiary station of NDR founded in Berlin in 1946); Radio Bremen; Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR, Cologne); Hessischer Rundfunk (HR, Frankfurt); Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR, Hamburg); Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR, Munich); Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR, Saarbrücken); and Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR, Stuttgart and Heidelberg). WDR and NDR were originally part of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, but separated in 1956. These stations are members of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ARD), the main purpose of which is the coordination of programmes. Each station broadcasts on two or three channels, one of which caters for ‘minority’ interests. An additional Berlin station, RIAS–Berlin, was formed in the American sector after the war; it was reorganized as part of DeutschlandRadio in 1993. From 1945 to 1990 East Berlin was the cultural centre of the German Democratic Republic (DDR), and the main cultural stations there were Radio DDR2 and Deutschlandsender (formerly Stimme der DDR), which later combined to form DSKultur (199o–94). Since the mid-1980s private radio stations have co-existed with public networks. After the reunification of Germany in 1990 the ARD expanded its membership to former East German networks: Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR, Leipzig) and Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB, Potsdam). DeutschlandRadio (DR) is a corporation (incorporating RIAS and DSKultur) under the joint auspices of ARD and Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), and broadcasts two news and cultural programmes nationally from Cologne and Berlin, including much classical music. Of the regional stations, the following are categorized as ‘cultural programmes’, in which serious music (from symphonies to jazz) are broadcast: HR2, MDR Kultur, NDR3, Radio Brandenburg, Radio Bremen 2, SFB3, SR2 KulturRadio, S2 Kultur (from SWF and SDR) and WDR3. Bayern4 Klassik offers its listeners classical music 24 hours a day. Among the leading popular music stations are MDR Sputnik, N-Joy Radio (NDR) and WDR Radio Eins Live.

There have been many German radio orchestras, some devoted to ‘serious’ music: SWF-Sinfonie-Orchester Baden-Baden (founded 1946, Grosses Orchester des SWF until 1966), Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester (1947, WDR), Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt (1929, Grosses Orchester des Südwestdeutschen Rundfunks until 1934, Grosses Orchester des Reichssenders Frankfurt until 1945, HR), NDR-Sinfonieorchester (1954), Radio-Philharmonie Hannover (1950, NDR), MDR-Sinfonieorchester and MDR-Kammerphilharmonie (1924, Ensemble of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk until 1934, Orchester der Reichssenders Leipzig until 1939), BR-Symphonieorchester (1949), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken (1937, merged with SR-Kammerorchester 1972, SR), Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart (1945, SDR). There are also orchestras and bands that offer lighter fare (operettas, dance and musicals): Kölner Rundfunkorchester (1947, formerly Orchester Hermann Hagestedt, WDR), WDR Big Band (1947, formerly Tanz- und Unterhaltungsorchester Adalbert Luczkowski), HR-Big-Band (1946, formerly Tanzorchester des Radio Frankfurt), NDR-Bigband (1945), Münchner Rundfunkorchester (1952, BR) and SDR Big Band (an independent ensemble associated with SDR). During the ‘cold war’ (1945–90), there were a number of radio orchestras in East and West Berlin. In 1994 the Rundfunk-Orchester und -Chöre Berlin took over the administration of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (1925, Grosses Funkorchester Berlin until 1945), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (1946, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin until 1953, RIAS), RIAS Jugendorchester (1948), RIAS Tanzorchester (1948), Rundfunkchor Berlin (1945) and RIAS Kammerchor (1948). Radio choirs include the Kölner Rundfunkchor (1948, WDR), NDR-Chor (1946), MDR-Chor (1946), MDR-Kinderchor (1948), Rundfunkchor des BR (1946) and Südfunk-Chor Stuttgart (1946, SDR). German radio stations remain a major force in the musical cultural landscape of the country, organizing festivals and competitions, promoting the avant garde and commissioning compositions (see §VI below).

In Greece the first station to begin regular broadcasting was established in Thessaloniki in 1928, and the government sponsored further stations in 1929. In 1936 it set up its own station, commercially operated by the Telefunken company, which went on the air in 1938; the radio orchestra was established in the same year. With the outbreak of war the government took over the station, but in 1941 it came under German control. In 1945 the Ethnikon Idryma Radiofonias (EIR) was established. It became a public institution holding the monopoly for broadcast media until 1975, when it was renamed Elliniki Radiofonica Tileorassi (ERT) on merging with the television station. ERT’s third programme is the main carrier of Western art music. With the rise of private radio stations, a regional station specializing in Western classical music, Melodia, came to prominence in 1993 with an audience share of 3·3%. ERT also operates a light orchestra. Popular music and Greek national and folk music dominate the airwaves in the country.

Ríkisútvarp Íslands (RUV; Icelandic State Broadcasting Service) began operation in 1930. There are two national radio stations that cover the whole of Iceland, as well as three regional programmes. In addition, there are six private radio stations. Icelandic musical culture is diverse, and the radio stations broadcast the entire range from indigenous traditional music through classical to popular music. The Iceland SO (founded in 1950 with financial contributions from the state, the city of Reykjavík and RUV) makes regular radio broadcasts.

In the Republic of Ireland the first station, Radio Éireann, was founded in 1926, followed by another a year later; a more powerful transmitter was built in Athlone in 1932. Radio Éireann was reorganized in 1953; its symphony orchestra, the only one in the republic, contributes significantly to Irish musical life. The station also maintains a light orchestra and a choir. A national service was established in 1960 and renamed Radio Telefis Éireann (RTÉ) in 1961. There are four stations on RTÉ; FM3 is devoted to classical music. The broadcasting monopoly of RTÉ was abolished in 1988, and almost all of the private commercial stations that have since flourished broadcast popular music or Irish folk music.

In Italy radio was under strict government control from its inception. The Unione Radiofonica Italiana (URI) was created in Rome in 1924, with regional stations in Milan, Naples and Palermo. During the 1920s Mussolini further tightened his control of broadcast material, and even opera and other music broadcasts were subject to approval by the government. In 1928 URI was replaced by a new broadcasting authority, Ente Italiano Audizioni Radiofoniche (EIAR); Ente Radio-rurale was created in 1933 partly with the aim of raising the cultural level of the rural population. In 1944 EIAR was transferred from Rome to Turin by Mussolini, while the Rome station was renamed Radio Audizioni Italia (RAI); with Mussolini’s defeat EIAR ceased to exist. By 1958 RAI had three national networks, the third being devoted to cultural programmes and music, although music is also broadcast on the first network: it accounts for over half of the total output. Radio orchestras are maintained in Rome, Naples (1957), Milan (1925) and Turin (1931). An electronic studio, the Studio di Fonologia Musicale, operated in Milan from 1955 to 1977. Since the 1970s foreign radio stations have been allowed to broadcast in Italy. RAI began broadcasting in stereo in 1982. Among the classical programmes are important opera series, broadcast from regional opera houses around the country.

Despite its small size, Luxembourg developed one of the most widely heard stations in Europe, particularly important in serious music before World War II. The first amateur station went on the air in 1924, broadcasting concerts and drama. Interested citizens promoted the formation of the Société Luxembourgeoise d’Etudes Radiophoniques, a commercial station that was granted a monopoly by the government in 1930, when it was renamed the Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion (CLR). By that time it had listeners in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, the British Isles and elsewhere. Serious music, both live and on record, was predominant between 1933 and 1939, exceeding that of any other pre-war station. In 1933 a radio symphony orchestra was formed, and from 1936 more time was devoted to light music. The station ceased operation with the outbreak of war, and in 1940 was taken over by the Germans as part of the Reich network; it was destroyed in 1944 by the retreating Nazis but restored after the war with foreign aid. In the 1950s a local FM station took over the cultural part of the service, and the AM station, popularly known as ‘Radio Luxembourg’, has become predominantly commercial in character, most broadcasts being of popular music. Luxembourg citizens were able to tune into broadcasts from neighbouring countries long before the dismantling of the broadcasting monopoly of CLT (Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, successor to CLR) in 1991. CLT is a private corporation whose owners include Belgian and French financial and media groups; these, however, have no influence on programming.

In the Netherlands specialized broadcasting began in Amsterdam in 1920; the first station to broadcast to the general public was Hilversum, opened in 1923. In 1925 it increased in power and became Hilversumsche Draadloze Omroep (HDO). Subsequently five broadcasting bodies developed, each representing a section of the population: the Algemeene Vereeniging Radio Omroep (AVRO), Katholieke Radio Omroep (KRO), Nederlandsche Christelyke Radio Vereeniging (NCRV), Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep (VPRO) and Vereeniging van Arbeiders Radio Amateurs (VARA). These five organizations, each with its own studio and orchestra, shared broadcasting time on two stations at Hilversum, the technical administration of which was the responsibility from 1935 of Nederlandsche Omroep Zender Maatschappij (NOZEMA), owned largely by the state. The station was taken over by the Germans during the war, but the five organizations were restored afterwards and in 1947 organized themselves into the Nederlandse Radio Unie (NRU), again sharing time on two networks. In 1965 NRU was replaced by Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), and the monopoly of the pre-war companies was broken. In 1987 the Nederlandse Omroepproductie Bedriff (NOB) was founded to streamline the administration of the Dutch public broadcasting system in the face of competition from private stations. The radio sector of the NOS was renamed Nederlandse Omroepprogramma Stichting, comprising eight broadcasting bodies. The NOS system operates five public radio stations around the country; Radio 4 presents classical music, and Radio 3 (which enjoys 27% of the market share in audience) popular music. At the local level, there are 350 legal radio stations in operation. The average Dutch citizen listens to the radio for three hours a day. The NOS also broadcasts many concerts from the Concertgebouw and organizes its own ‘Matinee Concerts’ series. During the Amsterdam Mahler Festival of 1995, the NOS and its international network, Radio Netherlands, broadcast and recorded all of the performances (by the Berlin PO, the Vienna PO and the Concertgebouw Orchestra) for worldwide distribution via international radio networks. Other Radio Netherlands programmes include ‘Live! at the Concertgebouw’ and ‘Live! from Rotterdam’. Hilversum is the centre of Dutch public broadcasting. Since 1995 most of the radio ensembles under the NOS – the Radio PO (founded in 1945), RSO, Radio Chamber Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra and Radio Choir – have regrouped under the Muziekcentrum van de Omroep (Music Centre for Broadcasting), financially separate from the NOS. However, some networks still make occasional use of their own ensembles, such as AVRO’s ‘Skymasters’ Big Band. All of these ensembles tour nationally and internationally.

Private Norwegian broadcasting companies were active in Oslo from 1924, and by 1929 there were 13 stations. A state monopoly over broadcasting was established with the Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK) in 1933. Schools broadcasts have been particularly important in Norway since 1931, except during the German occupation. The radio orchestra was formed in 1946. A national network, impeded by the mountainous nature of the country, was complete by 1965. Music occupies 40% of broadcast time, including relays from the Bergen Festival and concerts by the Oslo PO. The state monopoly was abolished in 1981, and by 1992 there were 422 local radio stations in operation, from which popular and classical music were broadcast. The eastern part of the country receives Swedish radio and television broadcasts.

In Portugal the Emissores Associados de Lisboa, a commercial concern, was formed by the union of various private stations that developed during the 1920s. In 1930 the government assumed control of all broadcasting, and in 1940 the Emissora Nacional de Radiodifusão (EN) was created. In 1974 the EN was reorganized in the wake of political changes. The newly founded Radiotelevisão Portuguesa-Empresa Pública (RTP/EP) runs a station Antena Dois that presents classical music and cultural programmes. The Portuguese RSO was formed in 1934. Private radio stations came into being from 1974, the most prominent being Rádio Renascença (organized by the Catholic party), whose second channel broadcasts popular music exclusively.

In Spain a concert was broadcast experimentally in 1920, followed by opera transmissions from Madrid in the next year. Amateur broadcasters were also active. In 1923 the state issued directives for the running of radio, but did not establish its own station. In that year Radio Ibérica began regular broadcasts, mainly of concerts and lectures, and during the 1920s many local stations were founded. In the 1930s they expanded their scope, with Union Radio, Radio España and Radio Sevilla becoming the largest stations. Cooperation between the stations developed, and from 1929 a state-owned organization was planned, but the Civil War of 1936–7 intervened. The government then took over Radio España, with Union Radio becoming the Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión (SER) and growing into the largest Spanish network. In 1942 Red Española de Radiodifusión was created, renamed Radio Nacional de España (RNE) in 1944. In 1951 all stations came under state control, although they were not absorbed into RNE; smaller stations include Radio España de Barcelona, Rueda da Emisoras Rato (RER) and various stations attached to the government political party, the church and the trade unions. In 1977 Spanish public radio was reorganized. Pro-Franco radio stations were consolidated and became the commercial Radio Cadena Española (RCE). As the classical station, Radio 2 of RNE broadcasts performances of Spanish orchestras (including the National RO), while Radio 3 caters to the young popular music audience. Since deregulation Spain has seen significant developments in private radio networks, the largest being Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión (SER), which has the biggest audience share, exceeding that of the RNE.

Broadcasting in Sweden, developed by amateurs in the early 1920s, came under government control in 1924, and in 1925 all broadcasting rights were vested in a single company, Radiotjänst. It remained independent during the war, thanks to Sweden’s neutrality, and expanded considerably thereafter, particularly in the domain of music and cultural programmes. An FM network was established in 1955, carrying most of the serious music transmissions, and in 1959 the organization was renamed Sveriges Radio (later Sveriges Radio Television, SRT). Swedish broadcasting monopoly was abolished in 1979. As well as the Sveriges Radio network, of which the second channel is devoted to classical music, Stockholm has a private, local, 24-hour classical music station. Swedish Radio has long been a supporter of new music, with a radio symphony orchestra (formally constituted in 1937) based in Stockholm. Utbildningsradio (UR) is another national network that focusses on schoolchildren and educational programmes, in which classical music also plays a part.

The first official Swiss broadcasting station was established in 1922 in Lausanne and transmitted weather reports and recorded music. In 1923 a private organization, Utilitas, was formed to broadcast to French-speaking Switzerland. A network of stations quickly developed throughout the country, catering for all four languages spoken there: Radiogenossenschaft Zürich (1924), Radiogenossenschaft Bern (1925), Société des Emissions de Radio-Genève (1925), Radiogenossenschaft Basel (1926), Ostschweizerische Radiogesellschaft (St Gallen, 1930) and Società Cooperativa per la Radiodiffusione nella Svizzera Italiana (Lugano, 1930). In 1931 they formed a coordinating confederation, the Société Suisse de Radiodiffusion (SSR; Ger. Schweiz Rundspruchgesellschaft), and during World War II all were controlled by the Service de la Radiodiffusion Suisse. Their former independence was restored in 1945. In 1964 the SSR was reorganized in three sections, catering to the French-, German- and Italian-speaking populations. Most of the serious music broadcasts are on the FM second network, established in 1956, and account for 30% of broadcast time. Music is also the most commonly treated subject in school broadcasts. The main radio orchestras are the Beromünster Studio Orchestra (Zürich, 1945, renamed the Beromünster RO in 1958; transferred to Basle in 1970, and renamed the Basle RSO), Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Lausanne SO and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva), the last two employed only part-time by the SSR. Local, private stations were established when the SSR lost its monopoly in 1983. Swiss radio is active in promoting its music festivals worldwide, distributed by SRI (Swiss Radio International).

Since the beginnings of broadcasting in the UK, the BBC has used its unrivalled position to spread the knowledge and love of great music. It put out its first programme on 14 November 1922, striving in music as in other fields to attain the standards of excellence inculcated by John Reith, general manager of the British Broadcasting Company and later, when the company became a corporation under royal charter in 1927, the first director-general. Having the use of its own orchestras and choirs in the major cities, it has been able to disseminate music on a scale hitherto undreamt of. From 1923 onwards, London, Birmingham, Manchester and other centres broadcast symphony concerts, chamber music and studio opera productions. During the early years orchestras were enlarged, and choruses maintained as nuclei for large-scale performances of oratorios and other choral works. Among the earliest BBC concerts were six symphony concerts given in 1924 in the Central Hall, Westminster. The orchestra was the ‘Augmented Wireless Orchestra’, and the conductors included Elgar and Harty.

The outstanding event in the BBC’s early musical history was the formation of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1930. With Boult as its permanent conductor, it consisted at first of 114 players, raised to 119 in 1934. The world’s most famous conductors appeared as guests with the BBC SO soon after its foundation, among them Strauss, Weingartner and Walter, and in 1935 it was the first British orchestra to be conducted by Toscanini. In 1934 the BBC Northern Orchestra (from 1967 the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra and from 1982 the BBC Philharmonic) was founded as part of the general BBC policy to set up regional orchestras. The other two main regional orchestras were founded in 1935: the BBC Scottish Orchestra (BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, 1967), which began by playing light music and gradually acquired a more serious repertory; and the BBC Welsh Orchestra (BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, 1974, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, 1993), which evolved from an ad hoc assembly of players known as the Cardiff Studio Orchestra. The expansion of the BBC during the 1920s made new premises a necessity, and in 1932 its London headquarters were transferred from Savoy Hill to Broadcasting House. In 1934 extensive music studios were established in Maida Vale, and in the provinces the regional headquarters and studios were altered and enlarged.

At the outbreak of war in 1939 the national and regional programmes were combined into a single Home Service, later supplemented by a Forces Programme. In July 1945 the system of Home Service and Regional Programmes was resumed, with the Light Programme (successor to the Forces Programme) as an alternative. The inauguration of the Third Programme on 29 September 1946 was of far-reaching significance for all the arts, for music in particular. It devoted over half its time to music and had no fixed points, which meant that a whole evening could be devoted to an unfamiliar work, and audiences could be guided through the vast range from medieval to avant-garde music. A further expansion in music broadcasting began on 30 August 1964, when the Music Programme was introduced. This channel, running from early morning until the Third Programme took over in the early evening, provided an enormously wide range of music, including non-Western music, and many illustrated talks. A development comparable with the setting up of the Third Programme came to fulfilment in 1970, when the radio networks were reorganized on the lines recommended in the report Broadcasting in the Seventies. Under the concept of ‘generic broadcasting’, serious music was mostly segregated into Radio 3, pop music into Radio 1 and light music into Radio 2, while Radio 4 was mainly given over to the spoken word, though some serious music was still broadcast on this channel.

The BBC Singers (formerly the BBC Chorus, originally the BBC Wireless Chorus) are a permanent professional choir of 28 who sing regularly with the BBC SO. They also perform as professional ‘stiffening’ to the amateur BBC Symphony Chorus. Concerts given by outside orchestras, and performances by opera companies, are also often broadcast, and in that sense the BBC acts as a patron of many British musical organizations; it consciously aims to reflect national musical life at every level. It also acts as a patron of composers by commissioning new works, including much incidental dramatic music, often from leading composers.

The BBC’s effective monopoly in the domestic broadcasting of serious music was broken in 1991, when the Independent Radio Authority awarded Britain’s first national commercial radio franchise to Classic FM. The new station came on air in the summer of 1992, and with its recipe of classical ‘hits’ and easy chat was soon reaching an audience of over four million – more than twice that of BBC Radio 3. The success of Classic FM undoubtedly influenced some of the changes at Radio 3 during the following years, especially the creation of more ‘accessible’ programmes aimed at a wider, non-specialist audience. Not everyone was convinced by Radio 3’s vehement denials that it was becoming too populist in its approach. But at the dawn of the new millennium the BBC remained unsurpassed for the breadth and quality of its musical output, and for its commitment to the commissioning and broadcasting of a wide range of new works.

Radio, §III: Analysis by region

2. Central and eastern Europe.

State control of information dissemination (including broadcasting) was liberalized from 1989 in most countries in this area. Many governments not only allowed private radio to operate, but also permitted international radio networks, such as the BBC, Voice of America and RFI to enter the market. However, specialized music radio stations for classical music remain scarce, while most private commercial stations focus on news and current affairs, and young audiences and popular music.

(i) Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania.

Czech radio began in 1923 as Radiojournal, based in Prague; Slovakian radio followed three years later in Bratislava. The radio histories of these two countries with compatible languages were intertwined until 1993, when the Czech Republic and Slovakia came into being. Partly taken over by the state in 1925, the radio system in Czechoslovakia relayed performances from the National Theatre (Smetana’s The Two Widows) and Smetana Hall in Prague. The first studio opera production, Dvořák’s The Stubborn Lovers, was broadcast in 1931. Radio orchestras were founded in 1925 in Prague and Brno (independent from 1956 as the State PO of Brno), growing from small ensembles to symphonic size in the late 1930s. In 1938 the stations were taken over by the Germans; they were nationalized in 1948. The Prague Spring Festival was relayed from 1946, and regular stereo broadcasting began in 1968. Since the war several orchestras have been founded, including the Prague RO, the Little RO of Brno (1945–51), the Brno Orchestra of Folk Instruments (1951) and radio orchestras in Bratislava (1926), Koşice and Plzeň (1946). In the mid-1960s Vladimír Lébl and Eduard Herzog promoted electronic music in Czechoslovakia by means of courses arranged in collaboration with Czechoslovak Radio. After 1989 state radios were decontrolled, and from 1991 Czech Radio (CR) and Slovak Radio (SR) evolved separately, while many private radio stations were set up, and foreign stations (e.g. the BBC, Voice of America, ÖRF International) were allowed to broadcast in both countries. The national classical music station of CR, Vltava (CRo 3), broadcasts 52% classical music, the rest being contemporary, ethnic, jazz and other cultural programmes. CR’s non-broadcasting activities include many competitions: Concertino Praga (young soloists), Concerto Bohemia (national youth orchestras), Prix Bohemia (international original radio works festival, founded in 1976) and Prix Musical de Brno (radio music programmes). Ensembles and orchestras organized by the CR include the Prague RSO, Plzeň RO, Disman Children’s Dramatic Ensemble and the Children’s Radio Choir. In 1995 CR established its own record label; about 30 titles have been issued, mainly from the archives. SR broadcasts two national programmes, S1 and S2, both of which carry much music, S2 being the main cultural and classical music programme. There is a strong sense of regional identity in Slovakia, where two networks, Elan and Regina, both concentrating on folk music, combined to form S3 in 1991. There are many private radio stations in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, some of which are joint ventures with other European private stations. One of the most popular private stations in Slovakia, Rock FM Radio, is partly owned by British interests. Rock FM Radio has the second largest market share after S1, the principal news and information station.

There were telephone broadcasts in Hungary as early as 1893, and experimental radio broadcasts after World War I. A state broadcasting enterprise under the control of the post office was established in the mid-1920s. Commercial broadcasting developed in the early 1930s, but was abandoned after World War II when a nationwide service, centralized in Budapest and strictly controlled by the government, was set up. In the late 1950s some local stations were established, and in 1958 a new broadcasting authority, Magyar Rádió és Televízió, was founded. As in most parts of eastern Europe the education of youth is stressed, and radio has played a large part in the general raising of musical culture characteristic of postwar Hungary. More than 60% of broadcast time is devoted to music, and many festivals are promoted by the radio. Magyar Rádió remains a government-controlled institution despite the end of the ‘cold war’ and political changes throughout eastern Europe. From 1988, however, private stations were allowed, most of which carry popular music.

In Poland, Polskie Radio was established commercially in 1925. A radio orchestra, formed in 1934, was based in Warsaw until 1939, when its activities were interrupted by the war; in 1945 it was re-established in Katowice. Other radio ensembles exist at Warsaw, Katowice, Poznań and Kraków, where the choir and orchestra formed in 1938 have produced a comprehensive series of recordings covering the history of Polish music. Polskie Radio has actively supported the avant garde, and in the 1950s an experimental electronic studio was established in Warsaw. Channel 2 of Polskie Radio broadcasts classical music and cultural programmes daily (20 hours on the air). It also works closely with the production unit of Polish Radio Recordings, and promotes Polish new music and folk culture in its programmes. Its listeners constitute 8% of the country’s radio audience.

Romanian radio was begun in 1926 (with regular broadcasts from 1928), centred on Bucharest. A radio symphony orchestra was formed there in 1933 and a studio orchestra in 1955. Radiodifuzinea-Televiziunea Română built a studio and concert hall in Bucharest in 1967. With the fall of the communist regime in 1989, radio stations were no longer controlled by the state. Since 1991, of the three nationwide stations that carry music, Romania Cultural has focussed on classical music, whereas Romania Tineret broadcasts popular music. In 1993 music accounted for about 60% of broadcast time.

3. The Americas.

(i) Canada.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Société Radio-Canada (SRC) was formed in 1936, three years after the start of broadcasting by a government system. Regular CBC productions in 1937 and 1938 included symphonic, chamber and choral music performed by existing groups and others organized by the CBC itself. During the war years the CBC continued to commission new works and held competitions on the air for young concert artists. The CBC Vancouver Orchestra (founded in 1939 and known as the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra until 1980) commissions and records many new Canadian works. It records regularly on the CBC’s own label. In 1952 the CBC founded its full-scale radio orchestra, the CBC Symphony; in 1962 Stravinsky accepted an invitation to conduct it in a programme of his own music for broadcast and recording. A number of performers played for both the CBC Symphony and the Toronto Symphony, and in 1964, after joint discussions, the CBC Symphony was disbanded as such so that the best orchestral resources of Toronto could be concentrated in one unit. In 1968 the Canadian Radio-Television Commission (CRTC) was established as the regulatory and licensing authority for public and private, local and national services. Of the two complementary English and French national radio networks of CBC, CBC/SRC Radio 2 is the music and arts network. Programmes such as ‘Choral Concert’, ‘Radio Two in Performance’ and ‘Symphony Hall’ promote Canadian ensembles and music festivals, giving them a national forum. The Glenn Gould Studio, a state of the art concert hall which opened in 1992 at the new CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto, provides a live performance and broadcasting venue for national and international performing groups.

(ii) The USA.

From the early days of experimental radio to modern stereophonic FM radio, music programmes have been an important integral part of the history of broadcasting in the USA. As early as 1910 (13 January) Cavalleria rusticana (with Caruso) and Pagliacci were broadcast from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, and on 2 November 1920, when the first pre-arranged and pre-announced programme was broadcast over KDKA Pittsburgh (many stations in the USA take their names from call signs), election returns were interspersed with records. Notable milestones in radio music include the first KYW broadcast from Chicago (Chicago Civic Opera, 11 November 1921); the first National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network programme (by Mary Garden, the New York SO, Oratorio Society and Goldman Band, 15 November 1926); and the first broadcast by the Columbia Phonograph Broadcast System, later CBS (an orchestra conducted by Howard Barlow, and Deems Taylor’s opera The King’s Henchman, 18 September 1927). Regular broadcasts in the 1920s featured both live and recorded music, readings, lectures, news and weather announcements. A typical programme, the first commercially sponsored evening programme on WBAY (later WEAF) New York, on 28 August 1922, included short recital pieces by a singer and a violinist as well as records and player-piano music.

Concert music lent prestige to music broadcasts, and networks vied for famous singers and conductors; personalities became more important than the quality of the music. An early radio performer, in 1922, was Percy Grainger. The NBC organized its own concert agency in 1928 because of the increased demand for artists’ personal appearances. In 1930 Stokowski, an early believer in the potential of radio to disseminate symphonic music, directed the Philadelphia Orchestra in a broadcast by conducting with his right hand and adjusting the tone control with his left.

While many music programmes were single concerts or in short series, some continued for years and became an important part of the American cultural scene. In 1928 the Radio Corporation of America began its ‘RCA Educational Hour’, which continued until 1942 as the ‘NBC Music Appreciation Hour’. Through this series, directed by Walter Damrosch, hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren were introduced to the European tradition. The NBC SO, established for and conducted by Arturo Toscanini, broadcast regularly from 25 December 1937 to 4 April 1954. The longest-standing series, the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, started on 25 December 1931 with Hänsel und Gretel. The Texaco company began its sponsorship of those transmissions in 1940, when the programmes were broadcast from the commercial NBC network. In 1960 the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Broadcasts were established as a network of 100 stations, including non-commercial ones. Live relays to Europe were inaugurated in the 1990–91 season. The 1995–6 season was transmitted digitally via satellite to 325 radio stations in the USA, CBC French and English networks, and 21 countries belonging to the EBU.

The type of music presented has changed considerably over the years, paralleling changes of public taste and reflecting the commercial demands of privately owned broadcasting companies. Critics have generally deplored the quality of programmes, which invariably included time-worn favourites. The early salon pieces were categorized as ‘potted palm’ music, referring to the typical pieces played in hotel lounges. B.H. Haggin, writing in New Republic (20 January 1932), spoke of the ‘little snippets of music’ and ‘barrel organ excerpts’ of opera. Little avant-garde or American music has ever been given, although in 1936, when American music was in vogue, the CBS commissioned Copland, Gruenberg, Hanson, Harris, Piston and Still to write works for radio.

The broadcasting of concert music has declined because of increasing costs for performers and productions and low audience ratings. After 1944 recorded music became the standard fare; by the 1970s most radio schedules consisted of large blocks of time devoted to recordings of popular music presided over by disc jockeys, with serious music almost exclusively the province of specialist stations in the metropolitan areas.

Classical music programming on public radio was revolutionized by National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Radio International (PRI). NPR, founded in 1971 and based in Washington, DC, is the world’s first non-commercial satellite-delivered radio system. It carries programmes to 590 member stations, including popular daily programmes such as ‘Performance Today’, which reaches an audience of 17 million across the USA. PRI, based in Minneapolis, was founded in 1983 as a public radio network by five leading public radio stations; by 1996 it had more than 500 affiliated stations. The network’s music offerings include ‘Sound & Spirit’ (exploring the common spiritual roots of music from around the world) and ‘ECHOES’ (a contemporary music programme). Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), in partnership with PRI, developed ‘Classical 24’ in 1995, a round-the-clock music service designed to support public radio stations committed to presenting classical music. Orchestral music series offered by PRI included those of the Baltimore SO (produced by WJHU-FM), the Minnesota Orchestra (MPR) and the Pittsburgh SO (WQED-FM).

The classical music radio market in the USA is concentrated in the principal metropolitan areas. The San Francisco bay area is served by KDFC, founded in 1948 and one of the oldest classical music radio stations in continuous operation; it runs its own international syndication service. It is the radio home of the San Francisco SO, and puts out a weekly programme ‘Bay Area Concert Hall’, which promotes performances by regional professional ensembles. The Seattle area is served by KING FM, founded in 1948 as one of the first FM stations in America, when it began broadcasting classical music six hours a day. This privately owned station was donated in 1994 to the Seattle SO, Seattle Opera and the Corporate Council for the Arts, with the stipulation that the dividend from its profits be shared among them. KING FM presents a weekly programme of live performances from its studio, and broadcasts innovatory classical music programmes for children on Saturday mornings. WCLV, based in Cleveland, was founded in 1962. In 1965 it began weekly Cleveland Orchestra radio broadcasts, which have become the longest-running series by an American orchestra. Local live broadcasts include a monthly series featuring the Cleveland Institute of Music and complete coverage of the Cleveland International Piano Competition. WQXR, New York, started in 1936 and was acquired by the New York Times in 1944. It added FM programmes in 1939 and began to transmit in stereo in 1961. The only classical music station in the greater New York area in the 1990s, WQXR broadcasts a daily programme, ‘On the Town’, highlighting New York’s cultural scene, a weekly ‘Young Artists Showcase’, and numerous orchestral and operatic series. Its music director, George Jellinek, presents ‘Vocal Gold: 25 Years of the Vocal Scene’, using many archival recordings and interviews. In 1997 WQXR began to produce ‘Time Warner Presents: The New York Philharmonic Live!’, syndicated across the nation by WCLV. WFMT, the radio division of Window to the World Communications, began operation in Chicago in 1951. In 1976 it created the WFMT Fine Arts Network to distribute broadcasts of the Chicago SO and Lyric Opera of Chicago. It is the exclusive BBC and Deutsche Welle outlet in the USA. In 1986 WFMT began to provide a satellite-delivered music service, the Beethoven Satellite Network, which has since become a 24-hour programme used by more than 300 stations in North and Central America. Other radio stations that broadcast 24-hour classical music programmes in major metropolitan areas include WGMA (Washington DC) and WQED-FM (Pittsburgh). Many university stations have made classical music a mainstay in their programming. KUSC in Los Angeles is the leading classical music station in southern California and presents much cultural programming distributed by PRI and NPR. The privately owned WGKA, known as ‘The Voice of the Arts in Atlanta’ (Georgia), presents mixed programmes of music in a wide range of styles.

(iii) Latin America.

Latin American countries operate on the American model of private radio stations, although some public radio stations are directly run by government ministries. Amateur radio broadcasts began in 1921, but the Mexican government never developed a national public radio system (although it owns a few national stations) and has allowed commercial, private stations to flourish. The first radio networks, XEW and XEQ, were both founded in 1938 with American capital as subsidiaries of RCA and CBS respectively. Of the 923 radio stations operating in 1991 in Mexico, only 93 were identified as ‘cultural stations’. Radio Educación and Radio Universidad, both non-commercial, are the two main ‘cultural’ stations in Mexico City. Radio Universidad is the exclusively classical music station, which broadcasts live concerts from the university’s philharmonic orchestra and specialized music programmes ranging from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to works by contemporary Mexican composers; Radio Educación (run by the Education Ministry) devotes 30% of its output to classical music programmes, including a weekly series of live concert broadcasts by the Mexican SO. There is one commercial classical music station, XELA, in Mexico City, on the AM band.

The Brazilian government, like the Mexican, issued private radio licences. Although the Bolivian official station, Radio Illimani, broadcasts 35% music programmes, the ‘cultural’ station of the country is that of the university in Tarija. Many Latin American local stations carry programmes from Deutsche Welle, RFI and the BBC.

Radio, §III: Analysis by region

4. East Asia, South Asia, Pacific Rim.

(i) China (including Hong Kong), Japan, Korea, Taiwan.

The Chinese Central Broadcasting Station (CCBS), founded in 1940 in Yanan, is the sole broadcasting authority in China. Of the six national channels, one FM stereo channel broadcasts cultural programmes ranging from traditional opera and theatre through light music to Western music. The Broadcasting SO was first established in 1949; disbanded during the Cultural Revolution, it was reorganized in the late 1970s. The orchestra presents live concert broadcasts in association with Chinese National Television, performs the Western symphonic repertory and employs a composer-in-residence. In association with government ministries it has commissioned, performed and recorded much new music.

The first radio broadcasts took place in Hong Kong in 1928, and the official, publicly funded Radio Hong Kong was established in 1948. In 1976 it was renamed Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), to reflect its increased television output. RTHK operates seven radio channels; Radio 4, inaugurated in 1974, is the ‘fine music’ station and also broadcasts jazz and world music, a weekly full-length opera, and other educational programmes. RTHK has transmitted live performances by local orchestras and visiting international artists, and presents the long-running series ‘Hong Kong Concert Hall’ and ‘Studio 1 Recitals’, platforms for fostering chamber music and recitals respectively, by local and overseas performers. It also relays programmes from the BBC and Deutsche Welle.

In Japan, stations were established in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya in 1925, run mainly by newspapers. In 1926 they were merged in a single state company now known as Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK), based in Tokyo. Much Western music is broadcast, as well as music education programmes. The NHK SO was founded in October 1926 as the New SO; it was known as the Japan SO from 1942 until 1951, when it became the broadcasting orchestra. It has performed around the world under internationally renowned conductors, giving on average 60 concerts a year, which are either broadcast live or recorded by the NHK. An electronic music studio was established by the station in about 1953.

Radio broadcasts in Korea began in 1927. In South Korea, the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) was reconstituted as a public broadcasting organization in 1973. There are four national channels of which two broadcast in FM stereo, one presenting mainly Western classical music (65·9% programme time) and some Korean traditional music (24·4%), the other transmitting Korean and Western popular music. The two remaining channels broadcast in AM; one focusses on light music, accounting for 27% of programme time. The KBS supports professional ensembles: the KBS SO (founded 1956), the KBS Television Chorus and the Korea Traditional Orchestra. All three perform in the KBS Hall, opened in 1991. Another major national radio network is the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), owned by a private news agency.

The Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) was founded in 1928 in Nanjing, and moved with the nationalist government from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan in 1949. It functions as the official organ of the ruling nationalist party. By 1992 there were 20 further private stations operating from the principal cities in Taiwan. The BCC operates a ‘fine music’ channel as well as broadcasting much light music.

(ii) India and Pakistan.

The first programme in India was broadcast by the Radio Club of Bombay in 1923. It was followed by the establishment of a Broadcasting Service, which began operation in 1927 on an experimental basis in Bombay and Calcutta. After Indian independence in 1947, All India Radio (AIR) was established as the only national broadcasting organization in India; it is controlled by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The domestic services are regionalized, with headquarters at Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. There are nine principal broadcast and 51 local languages, served by numerous local stations with a total of over 60 channels. More than 40% of total programme time in AIR is given over to music. Between 1952 and 1961 AIR popularized Hindu classical music as India’s ‘national’ music. Part of its effort included founding the 27-piece AIR Vadya Vrind (National Orchestra) in New Delhi and commissioning new compositions. The concept was an entirely Western one and was poorly received by listeners; the orchestra was soon disbanded. Hindu classical music, however, flourished through the influence of radio. In 1957 the Vividh Bharati station was founded to broadcast popular music and provide light entertainment, and in 1969 Yuv Yani was set up to broadcast popular music for the urban youth market. AIR began stereophonic broadcasting in 1988. Western classical music occupied 4%, Indian classical music 13%, folk music 4%, light music 11% and film music 6% of total AIR programme time in the 1980s. The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation was founded on the birth of the country in 1947. It was the radio that popularized film music in Pakistan in the early 1950s and the 1960s, film being the mainstay of national entertainment.

(iii) Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore.

The Australian Broadcasting Commission (later Corporation; ABC) was established in 1932; it is state-supported. In association with civic and state authorities it maintains orchestras in each of the country’s six states; the first two, in Sydney and Melbourne, date from the first year of broadcasting, whereas those in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart were formed in 1936, when the original two were enlarged. As early as 1932, ABC launched the first of its ‘Australian Composers’ competitions to encourage local talent. In addition to the regional orchestras, the ABC also founded choruses, dance bands and the National Military Band. The Australian Broadcasting Authority was established in 1992 to regulate private and public broadcasting in the country. ABC Classic FM is the main national stereophonic network for classical music (including some jazz), with an emphasis on Australian performers, concerts, festivals (e.g. the Festival of Perth and the Adelaide Festival) and compositions, with programmes such as ‘New Music Australia’, ‘Australia Made’ and ‘Young Australia’. ‘Sunday Live’ broadcasts concerts in collaboration with local venues and communities. ABC Classic FM also organizes such events as the annual Young Performers Awards, Recording Awards and 24 Hours Listeners Choice Awards. One of its most innovatory programmes, ‘The Listening Room’, explored imaginative programming: in October 1997 it broadcast live an interactive improvisation by musicians in Melbourne and Frankfurt, linked by ISDN lines. ABC’s six orchestras employ over 480 musicians, performing more than 670 concerts to a total audience of over 900,000 a year. Concert presentations range from outdoor ‘pops’ programmes to the symphonic repertory and new music in the concert hall. ABC also releases commercial recordings made by the orchestras. Triple J, the ABC national youth network, broadcasts much popular music, particularly by indigenous Australian artists. ABC Classic FM collaborates with ABC-TV in simulcasts of operas, ballets and concerts.

Radio Republic Indonesia (RRI) began operation in 1945. As the government station, it provides mainly news and information. By the 1990s more than 600 private local and regional stations were operating in the country, under the aegis of the Federation of Indonesian Commercial Broadcasters. Most of the private stations broadcast indigenous and imported contemporary popular music and entertainment programmes. Of note is Radio Klasik FM, based in Jakarta, which broadcasts 20% ‘popular classics’ (Anglo-American popular music from the 1950s to the 1970s) and 80% ‘Western classics’ (18th- and 19th-century symphonic, chamber and instrumental repertory).

Radio Malaya began operation in 1946, soon after its independence. By 1992 there were four national radio networks broadcasting in four languages, with music occupying 70% of the programmes. Cable radio, offering five channels, began operating in the three main cities, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ipoh, in the early 1990s, allowing more specialized programmes including classical music broadcasts.

The New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS) was created in 1936 from the government Broadcasting Board (1932) and was amalgamated with a public radio station (1926) in 1943; it became the New Zealand Broadcasting Council (NZBC) in 1962 and was reorganized as New Zealand Public Radio in 1989. A string orchestra was formed in 1939, followed in 1947 by the National Orchestra of the NZBS, which became the NZBC SO in 1962 and the New Zealand SO in 1975. Concerts by the New Zealand SO (and its predecessors) have been broadcast regularly on public radio since the late 1940s. The orchestra became an independent institution in 1988, and has since recorded for international commercial radio labels. In 1989 New Zealand On Air was established by the Broadcasting Act as the regulatory body for private and public radio and television. New Zealand On Air promotes the country’s indigenous music, both classical and popular. There are two public radio networks, National Radio and Concert FM. Up to 14% of the music broadcast by the latter is by New Zealand composers.

Radio Broadcasting in the Philippines started in 1922. Although the government runs two national radio stations, it is the few hundred provincial stations that provide the population with popular musical entertainment.

The first radio transmission in Singapore was in 1938. The Radio Corporation of Singapore (RCS), founded in 1980, is a private body that manages and operates ten local and three international (short-wave) stations. The local stations in this multilingual city-state consist of four English, three Mandarin, two Malay and one Tamil stations. Symphony 92·4 FM, the classical music station, broadcasts 18 hours a day. It is the official station of the Singapore SO and the Singapore Dance Theatre and also presents a popular weekend programme entitled ‘Jazz Club’, which introduces the audience to music from Broadway shows to fusion jazz.

Radio, §III: Analysis by region

5. Middle East and Africa.

(i) Egypt, Israel.

Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ER-TU), the state broadcasting system, operates a notable network, ‘Voice of the Arabs’, throughout the Arab world, including a special programme for Palestine. 16% of the programmes centre on European culture and music.

The Palestine Broadcasting Service was established by the British in 1936; programmes were presented in English, Hebrew and Arabic. In 1948 it was renamed the Zionist World Organisation Broadcasting Service and later became the Israel Broadcasting Service (IBS) broadcasting nationally in Hebrew and Arabic. Culture and serious music shared programming in Channel A (in Hebrew), the news and information station until 1983, when Channel B, in stereo, also known as ‘Voice of Music’, was created. Channel B is on the air 19 hours a day, of which 60% consists of recordings, the rest comprising broadcasts of live symphonic and chamber concerts, and the station’s own archival tapes. Channel C, which began in 1966, is the station for jazz and popular music. Channel D, the Arabic-language station, broadcasts 18 hours a day, of which 45% comprises music programmes. The Jerusalem SO is the resident radio orchestra of the IBS. In 1990, with the change in broadcasting laws, commercial and regional broadcasting licences became available.

(ii) Africa, South Africa.

In Africa broadcasting services are run directly by the state in all countries except South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Ghana, where there are autonomous public corporations under government control. African stations are generally on the air for less time than their European counterparts (often under 12 hours a day) and less time is given to music.

In South Africa amateur broadcasting began in 1924, and stations were established in Durban and Johannesburg in the same year. In 1936 the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) was established, and in 1954 it was centralized in Johannesburg, with other studios maintained elsewhere, the largest being in Cape Town. In the same year the SABC SO was formed; it became the National SO in 1971, and plays much contemporary music. SABC’s English-language arts and culture station, SAfm, broadcasts music series including ‘Sunday Recital’ and ‘Thursday Concert’, as well as arts and cultural programmes promoting South African performers, including its own radio orchestra.

Radio

IV. International organizations and networks

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) was established in Geneva in 1865 to promote international cooperation in the domain of the telegraph, and is responsible for the technical coordination of the world’s telecommunications systems, primarily through the allocation of wavelengths. In 1925 the Union Internationale de Radiodiffusion was founded with the aim of promoting and coordinating international programme exchange. Its activities were interrupted by the war, but a successor, the Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion (OIR), was formed in Brussels in 1946. In 1949 the stations of western Europe and Yugoslavia withdrew, and the OIR moved its headquarters to Prague, becoming the Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion et Télévision in 1959. An offshoot, Intervision, coordinated the exchange of music programmes among its member states, which included Vietnam, Mongolia, Iraq and other Arab countries, and, until the mid-1960s, China and Albania, in addition to the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries. In 1949 the western European stations formed the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes concert tours and live relays in addition to exchanges of recorded music. With the fall of the Berlin wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc in the early 1990s, countries of eastern and central Europe joined the EBU, although the OIR remained in existence.

In 1996 the EBU had 117 members in 79 countries and operated two satellite channels. The EBU’s Music Programme Group organizes the annual Euroradio season, with about 100 coordinated music events, divided between series covering concerts, opera, jazz, early music and live, whole-day themed broadcasts. It also offers exclusive access to the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Broadcasts. In addition, the EBU coordinates members’ exchange programmes, which number around 1600 a year. Euroradio offers about 250 live broadcasts of summer festival concerts. Other programmes organized by the EBU included Euroclassic-Notturno (a night-time music channel transmitted by satellite and produced by the BBC on behalf of the EBU, using recordings of live events made available by EBU members), a CD series of traditional music on the Ocora label, Euroring (a big-band music venture) and the EBU Jazz Festival. It also contributes to the Masterprize (London) and the International Forum of Young Performers (IFYP) competitions, and publishes many reports and proceedings of meetings, helping its member stations in targeting audiences and in technological and programme development.

The American NPR and PRI, along with the WFMT Fine Arts Network, Beethoven Satellite Network and the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera International Broadcasts, are exemplary in showing the vitality of the classical music market outside direct state subsidy. The distribution of the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera series through the EBU establishes another level of international collaboration. Numerous broadcasts are made by cable and on the Internet, and the accessibility and sound quality of such transmissions continue to reach ever higher levels of sophistication.

Radio

V. Impact on musical life

When broadcasting began there were many who claimed that the immediate availability of music in the home would make live concerts obsolete. There is no evidence to suggest that this has been the case. On the contrary, radio has inspired the development of musical life in many areas without established musical traditions. Both the radio and the gramophone have been criticized for being ‘sterile’ as a result of studio recording. Naturally ‘live’ or recorded relays of public concerts or operas convey the atmosphere of an event, which includes a sense of tension and audience participation that often manifests itself both in technical imperfections (usually edited out of commercial recordings) and in a more vital performance. Indeed many artists are at their best only in the presence of an audience. Texaco-Metropolitan Opera International Broadcasts and concerts such as the BBC Proms have been successful in attracting radio listeners because they are transmitted live.

Many national public broadcasting organizations are the chief employers of professional musicians in ensembles ranging from symphony and concert orchestras to choirs and big bands. At the beginning of radio broadcasting in the 1920s there were few commercial records available, hence the need to broadcast a large amount of music on the air, with the consequent founding of radio orchestras. Although many radio stations now have an extensive archive of commercial recordings and others made by their own ensembles, such performing groups continue to make a valuable contribution to the public profile of their parent institutions, as many of their concerts (and some studio recordings) are given in front of an audience. These performances are by their nature outreach programmes and therefore affect the concert life of their countries of origin. A radio orchestra, free from commercial marketing constraints, is able to explore the widest possible repertory and to perform new works. It also enjoys the guarantee of an audience among radio listeners loyal to ‘fine’ and ‘serious’ music programmes. Extended orchestral, chamber and recital series have been common – cycles of Beethoven quartets, for example, or Bach’s cantatas in their entirety – and programmes have become far more diverse in response to the broadening of taste effected by radio. Mixed programming, in which the standard repertory is played alongside new works, has become common practice since 1945 for the BBC Promenade concerts and some German radio series. British and German radio orchestras played a key role in performances of the post-1945 avant garde, participating in radio new music festivals and giving world premières of commissioned works. In Denmark since the mid-20th century, nearly all records of Danish orchestral music have featured performances by the Danish RSO. Many radio orchestras tour nationally and internationally, achieving wider public recognition of their nations and their respective radio stations. The Finnish RSO’s 1995 series, for example, included tours to rural areas of Finland, concerts in parks and railway stations, the introduction of new and old music, and crossover genres (e.g. works for electric guitar and orchestra). Some radio orchestras also record on their stations’ own labels or with other commercial companies; one of the most distinguished collaborations between a commercial record company and radio orchestras is Decca’s series Entartete Musik, begun in the 1980s and including many recordings first made for German radio stations.

Radio has had a powerful influence on public taste in record buying. In the 1920s and 30s a wide variety of gramophone records became commercially available, and those introduced into the home by radio tended to sell best; that is still true of popular music, whose development in the 20th century was inseparably connected with broadcasting, but it applies also to serious music, which is served by review programmes and selections of new releases to keep the public informed of what is available. In the late 1980s reissues on CD of landmark recordings from the earlier part of the century were promoted assiduously by commercial radio stations. As new record labels have proliferated, radio has become a valuable promotional tool. Commercial stations broadcasting classical music have made airtime and programme slots available through direct sponsorship, while public radio stations promote such new recordings for their artistic worth or because they focus attention on a neglected repertory.

An ethical question faces all broadcasting organizations: to what extent they should cater for public demand and to what extent mould it, and how they should balance entertainment and education. In the early days the missionary zeal and cultural confidence of men like John Reith of the BBC led to a strong emphasis on education and high standards in general (and political factors may lead to similar attitudes in some countries). But it is now fully recognized in the broadcasting and recording worlds that serious music is listened to only by a minority. In the USA the commercial basis of radio means that this type of music is restricted to the local ‘fine music’ stations, some of them run by universities. The BBC Third Programme took a decisive step (and set an example widely followed in Europe) in deliberately catering for a cultural minority; its purpose on its launching in 1946 was to aim at ‘the alert and receptive listener, who is willing to make an effort and select his programme in advance and then meet the performer halfway by giving his whole attention to what is being broadcast’. The enormous advantage of running such ‘minority’ stations free from commercial pressures is that they provide opportunity for experiment and instruction within the sphere of serious music; even a cursory survey of the broadcast repertory reveals a mixture of established and unfamiliar works and styles, including a means of bridging the gap between the contemporary composer and a mass audience (see §VI below).

Since the 1950s German public radio has also organized (or produced in association with municipal authorities) music festivals, often broadcast live. By the 1980s many of these festivals were attempting to bridge the divide between ‘serious’ and ‘light’ music, high art and entertainment. The occasional nature of such festivals fits into the outreach policy of German radio, enhancing their cultural value and justifying public radio’s existence amid competition from private commercial stations. Most German summer festivals organized by regional radio stations combine jazz, orchestral, world music and popular programmes in order to attract the widest possible public. The Schwetzinger Festpiele, founded by SDR in 1952, puts on world and German premières of operas, drama and ballet, including many newly commissioned works. Performance sites include not only concert halls but also city public spaces and parks, where tens of thousands can attend. These public festivals exist alongside conventional new-music series, which continue their tradition, established after World War II, of supporting the avant garde (see §VI below).

The ability of radio to ‘educate by stealth’ must take much of the credit for the enormous broadening of musical taste that occurred during the 20th century. The standard 18th-century and Romantic repertory remains central to the broadcasting networks of European cultures – indeed, its central position has partly been supported by them – but much music of other periods and other cultures has been made known by the radio. Pioneers in the broadcasting of early music include the London Chamber Orchestra under Anthony Bernard in the 1930s and after World War II, and the Capella Coloniensis established by WDR in 1954 under August Wenzinger. The long historical series on the BBC Third Programme in the late 1940s was probably the first systematic attempt to give full broadcast coverage of the whole tradition of Western music. Programmes of traditional indigenous music had become a staple in radio broadcasting throughout the world by the 1980s, and projects initiated to preserve folk and national music came to the fore in public radio policy. Crossover music (incorporating jazz and popular elements, or such 20th-century genres as American musical theatre) has also found niches in broadcasting, and experiments to extend listeners’ horizons are being conducted continually, such as the live improvisation broadcast in ABC’s ‘Listening Room’ described above (§III, 4(iii)).

The trend towards specialization has been manifested in the tendency to build programmes containing a diversity of music connected by a specific theme (music written in a single year; contrasting works of a single composer; settings of the same poet; the development of a genre; historic organs etc.). The consequent moulding of the public’s musical attitudes is reflected in the record market, which since the mid-1960s has seen a striking proliferation of boxed complete works and other composite anthologies; but the phenomenon must also depend upon economic factors, and is restricted to the more affluent parts of Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and other westernized countries.

In terms of music education, radio has probably had as great an effect simply through the broadcasting of music as through formal education programmes to be listened to in the classroom, but the significance of music appreciation programmes in school broadcasting should not be underestimated. At the higher, non-formal levels of music education – biography, analysis and history – radio is particularly effective, and most serious music stations carry talks or musical series with introductory notes. Talks and magazine-style programmes have an enormous advantage over their printed equivalents in that they can illustrate their points with the music itself. Feature programmes on composers can also draw on the radio’s abilities to stimulate the visual imagination, using the techniques of the radio play, and are often more effective than their television counterparts. Radio’s largest contribution to music education, however, has simply been to make a vast amount of music immediately available in the home.

The tendency of radio to carry Western culture (particularly Anglo-American popular music) throughout the world is widely recognized as a danger by public broadcasting authorities, many of whom, according to responses to an EBU questionnaire in 1995, require a minimum percentage of ‘indigenous music’ to be included in public radio programmes. A greater danger, in the view of many serious musicians, is the tendency of broadcasting organizations and other media to decrease musical appreciation through saturation and the provision of music to accompany every human activity. (A number of commercial classical music stations concentrate on Baroque music because audience statistics indicate that it is the preferred historical period for background music to everyday activity.) Much popular music is produced with the purpose of not being listened to, and there are composition techniques designed to produce mood-influencing music: for relaxation in restaurants and alertness while driving, to generate the impulse to buy in shops and to maintain productivity in factories. Several broadcasting organizations have recognized the need for light music of high quality, and the BBC, SDR, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Czech and Dutch radios, among others, have organized festivals of light music and sponsored works for the occasion; even so, the popular-music stations tend to restrict themselves to music of uniform style and duration (with rare exceptions, the BBC broadcasts jazz and more serious kinds of popular music safely out of the way on Radio 3). In 1969 the International Music Council passed a resolution denouncing ‘the intolerable infringement of individual freedom and the right of everyone to silence, because of the abusive use, in private and public places, of recorded or broadcast music’. The economic gains to be derived from the psychological effects of such ‘musical wallpaper’ are nevertheless likely to ensure its continued use. With the introduction in the 1970s of personal headsets and battery-operated radio-cassette players, allowing individual choice of what to listen to while performing daily tasks, radio has gained the potential to reach the widest possible audience.

Radio

VI. Radio as patron

In most parts of the world, radio has become not only one of the leading employers of performing musicians but also the most important patron of new music; its technical and artistic resources, financial independence and influential position make it the modern equivalent of the courts of previous centuries in this respect. The ISCM was founded in 1922, the same year as the BBC, and in Europe at least new music and broadcasting have developed in close association. The effect of radio on composition has in some ways been ambivalent; it has removed the composer further from direct contact with the public (thus accentuating a trend already evident in the first two decades of the century, before the advent of public broadcasting), but has also made new music generally available, bringing works to the attention of those who would not normally make the effort to go to a concert or buy a record of contemporary music.

New music commissioned or promoted by radio falls into two categories: that written for traditional concert performance, and that written with the specific medium of radio in mind. In the early days of broadcasting, the former predominated, although the dividing line between the two has been eroded by the introduction of electronic techniques of the type used in broadcasting (notably the tape recorder and the synthesizer) into concert performances. Among the notable works written for radio before World War II were Weill and Hindemith’s cantata Der Lindberghflug (1929), Turina’s Radio Madrid for piano (1931) and Copland’s orchestral Prairie Journal (1937). It was only after the war, however, that technical advance enabled radio to offer composers anything really new (although radio drama had always provided opportunities for original uses of music). Most European electronic music studios are supported by or work in collaboration with a radio station; the pioneers were the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC), founded in 1951 and affiliated to the RTF, under whose auspices Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry developed musique concrète, using various natural or mechanical noises ‘composed’ on tape (itself developed in the 1940s) and thus ideally suited to radio broadcast. Electronic music was created by Herbert Eimert in the Studio für Elektronische Musik at WDR in Cologne (1951) and was subsequently developed there by Stockhausen. The former DDR has maintained its position as a leading patron of the avant garde: the Donaueschingen Festival is run by SWF; Hessischer Rundfunk gives active support to the Darmstadt summer courses; and other German stations have important contemporary music series (WDR’s ‘Musik der Zeit’, NDR’s ‘das neue werk’ and Bayerischer Rundfunk’s ‘Musica viva’). The ORTF was an important French patron of the avant garde through the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (1958), which developed from Schaeffer’s activity with the GRMC and was linked from 1964 with the Royan Festival. In Italy the RAI Studio di Fonologia Musicale (1953) aided the development of such distinguished figures as Berio, Nono and Maderna. The avant garde has also been supported by radio organizations in Canada, Japan, Poland and Sweden. (See also Electronic instruments.)

Of the more traditional forms, opera has been the one most suited to conception in terms of radio. The enormous capacity of radio (particularly after the introduction of stereophonic sound) to create powerful pictorial images through the simplest combinations of music and sound effects has made possible a quite different approach to opera from that dictated by the theatre. Generally, the possibilities for aural symbolism and the sublimation of psychological or supernatural elements into the action are greater; but plots must be concise, using a handful of characters and lasting no more than 45 minutes, in order not to try the understanding and patience of a non-captive audience. Composers have tended to choose modern rather than historical or mythological subjects, and have concentrated on transparency, economy and sharp delineation. Notable works of this and similar genres include Cadman’s The Willow Tree (NBC, 1932); Egk’s Columbus (Bayerischer Rundfunk, 1933); Sutermeister’s Die schwarze Spinne (Swiss radio, 1936); Martinů’s Comedy on the Bridge (Czech radio, 1937); Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief (NBC, 1939); Wladimir Vogel’s Thyl Claes (Swiss radio, 1938–45); Honegger’s Les battements du monde (Swiss radio, 1944); Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero (Israel Broadcasting Authority, 1949); Chevreuille’s D’un diable de briquet (Belgian radio, 1950); Pylkkänen’s Sudenmorsian (Finnish radio, 1950); Henze’s Ein Landarzt (NDR, 1951); Ton de Leeuw’s oratorio Job (Belgian radio, 1956); Zillig’s Die Verlobung in St Domingo (NDR, 1956); Miyoshi’s Ondine (Japanese radio, 1959); Claude Prey’s Le coeur révélateur (RTF, 1961); Butterley’s In the Head the Fire (ABC, 1966); H.U. Engelmann’s Der Fall van Damm (WDR, 1968); Ohana’s Cris (ORTF, 1968–9); and Kox’s In Those Days (NOS, 1970). The Italia Prize, inaugurated in 1948, is awarded to members or associate members of the EBU for a musical work with text and for a dramatic work with or without music; a new prize for stereophonic radio works was created in 1961.

A number of non-operatic works have been written specifically for radio since the war, such as Theodor Berger’s Musikalischer Nachrichtendienst (1953) and Cage’s Radio Music (1956); however, because of the development of electronic music independently of broadcasting stations and the spread of the gramophone, radio has lost its unique position in this sphere, and most later works commissioned by radio stations are suitable for concert performance. The BBC commissions orchestral works annually for the Promenade Concerts.

As live performance in broadcasting became progressively less viable financially in the 1980s, many radio stations faced budget cuts that had a detrimental effect on classical music programmes, because listener surveys showed that such programmes attracted no more than 6–8% of any nation’s potential audience. However, music departments of radio stations have resisted the dismantling of symphony orchestras and abandonment of new composition commissions and music festivals, preferring to meet the challenge of changing times by extending the scope and style of music programmes. German radio stations have remained staunch in their support of new music, although the number of commissions has decreased. The idea of the radio music festival, however, has also become more populist: programmes have become all-embracing, with the aim of educating as well as entertaining all age groups.

Radio

BIBLIOGRAPHY

general, historical

A. Szendrei: Rundfunk und Musikpflege (Leipzig, 1931)

H.G. Kinscella: Music on the Air (New York, 1934)

P.W. Dykema: Music as Presented by the Radio (New York, 1935)

E. Newman, E.Schoen and A. Boult: ‘Music for Broadcasting’, B.B.C. Annual 1935, 168–78

‘La radio e la musica’, RaM, x (1937), 301–40

‘Music on the Air’, HMYB, ii–iii (1945–6), 160–81

G. Chase, ed.: Music in Radio Broadcasting (New York, 1946)

E. La Prade: Broadcasting Music (New York, 1947)

V. Kappel: Musik i aeteren (Copenhagen, 1948)

H. Barraud: ‘Grâce à la radio la musique est un art vivant’, Radio information-documentation (1951), no.3, p.16

A. Silbermann: La musique, la radio et l’auditeur (Paris, 1954)

W.B. Emery: National and International Systems of Broadcasting: their History, Operation, and Control (East Lansing, MI, 1969)

G. Czigány and E.Lázár: A muzsika hulláhosszán [On music’s wavelength] (Budapest, 1970)

H. Gutmann: ‘Die Rolle der Musik im Rundfunk’, Melos, xxxvii (1970), 281–3

S. Goslich: Musik im Rundfunk (Tutzing, 1971) [incl. extensive bibliography]

H. Pauli: ‘Music – Heard and Seen’, World of Music, xiii/4 (1971), 32–47

J. Bornoff with L.Salter: Music and the Twentieth Century Media (Florence, 1972)

K. Blaukopf, S.Goslich and W. Scheib, eds.: 50 Jahre Musik im Hörfunk (Vienna, 1973)

H.-C. Schmidt, ed.: Musik in den Massenmedien Rundfunk und Fernsehen (Mainz, 1976)

T.A. DeLong: The Mighty Music Box: the Golden Age of Musical Radio (Los Angeles, 1980)

M. Kagel: Worte über Musik: Gespräche, Aufsätze, Reden, Hörspiele (Munich and Mainz, 1991)

A.S. Weiss: Phantasmic Radio (Durham, NC, 1995)

regional studies

L.C. Hood: The Programming of Classical Music Broadcast over the Major Radio Networks (New York, 1956)

K. Sezensky: ‘Sovetskaya muzïka po radio’, SovM (1958), no.9, pp.58–60

S. Goslich: Funkprogramm und Musica viva (Lippstadt, 1961) [on the work of Radio Bremen 1948–58]

F.K. Prieberg: ‘Musik im sowjetischen Rundfunk’, Rundfunk und Fernsehen [Prague], ii (1961), 113–23

E. Barnouw: A History of Broadcasting in the United States (New York,1966–70)

T. Nikiprowetzky: ‘La radio et la musique africaine’, World of Music, ix/3 (1967), 18–26

B. Paulu: Radio and Television Broadcasting on the European Continent (Minneapolis, 1967)

P.K. Eberly: Music in the Air: America’s Changing Tastes in Popular Music 1920–1980 (New York,1982)

N. Drechsler: Die Funktion der Musik im deutschen Rundfunk, 1933–1945 (Pfaffenweiler, 1988)

R. Chapman: Selling the Sixties: the Pirates and Pop Music Radio (London, 1992)

L.E. Carlat: Sound Values: Radio Broadcasts of Classical Music and American Culture, 1922–1939 (Diss., Johns Hopkins U., 1995)

R. Ulm, ed.: ‘Eine Sprache der Gegenwart’: Musica Viva 1945–1995 (Mainz and Munich, 1995)

B.N. Goswami: Broadcasting, New Patron of Hindustani Music (New Delhi, 1996)

R. Jakoby, ed.: Musikleben in Deutschland: Struktur, Entwicklung, Zahlen (Bonn, 1996; Eng. trans., 1997)

sociology and education

W.R. Sur: Experimental Study of the Teaching of Music Understanding by Radio (diss., U. of Wisconsin, 1942)

T.W. Adorno: ‘A Social Critique of Radio Music’, Kenyon Review, vii (1945), 208–17

W.E. Hendricks: An Historical Analysis of Programs, Materials and Methods used in Broadcasting Music Education Programs (diss., Northwestern U., 1952)

Radio, musique et société: Paris 1954 [Cahiers d’études de radio-télévision, nos.3–4 (1955)]

G. Waddington: ‘The Radio as a Means of Music Education in Canada’, Music in Education: Brussels 1953 (Paris, 1955), 252–5

J. Bornoff, ed.: Music Theatre in a Changing Society (Paris, 1968)

P. Michel: ‘Ergebnisse musikpsychologischer Forschungen über den Einfluss von Rundfunk und Fernsehen auf die musikalische Entwicklung von Kindern und Jugendlichen’, Musik in der Schule, xix (1968), 452–9

F. Braniš, ed.: Výchovné poslanie hudobného rozhlasu [The educational mission of music broadcasting] (Bratislava, 1970)

N.W. Hooker: The Role of a National Broadcasting Service in Music Education: the Malawi Case (Lusaka, 1971)

R. Wangermée: ‘La radio, la musique et les moralistes de la culture’, Publics et techniques de la diffusion collective: études offertes à Roger Clausse (Brussels, 1971), 435–64; pubd separately in Ger. trans. as Rundfunkmusik gegen die Kulturmoralisten verkeidigt (Karlsruhe, 1975)

E. Helm, ed.: Music and Tomorrow’s Public (Paris, 1977)

special studies

M.J. Haggans: The Broadcasting of Sacred Music (Boston, 1945)

R.U. Nelson and W.H.Rubsamen: ‘Bibliography of Books and Articles on Music in Film and Radio’, HMYB, vi (1949–50), 318–31

K. Blum: Die Funkoper (diss., U. of Cologne, 1951)

L.A. Varady: ‘Rádió operafelvételei’, Új zenei szemle, iii/5 (1952), 25–6

J.E. Potts: ‘European Radio Orchestras’, MT, xcvi (1955), 473–5, 525–7, 584–6

Opera in Radio, TV and Film (Salzburg, 1956) [pubn of Internationales Musikzentrum]

W. Glock: The BBC’s Music Policy (London, 1963)

L. Salter: ‘Opera at Home’, E.B.U. Review, ser.B, no.96 (1966), 12–18

E. Kötter: Der Einfluss übertragungstechnischer Faktoren auf das Musikhören (Cologne, 1968)

J. Pechotsch: ‘Musik und Anschauen’, ÖMz, xxiii (1968), 135–40

F. Pellizi: ‘Ethnomusicologie et radio-télévision’, Diogène, no.61 (1968), 91–123

‘Organismes de la radiodiffusion: bibliothèques et archives sonores’, IAML Congress IX: St Gallen 1971 [FAM, xix (1972)], 113–48

I. Grünberg: ‘Operette und Rundfunk: die Entstehung eines spezifischen Typs massenwirksamer Unterhaltungsmusik’, Angewandte Musik 20er Jahre, ed. D. Stern (Berlin, 1977), 59–80

S. Frith, ed.: Facing the Music: a Pantheon Guide to Popular Culture (New York, 1988)

J.C. Hickerson, ed.: Radio-Related Field Recordings and Broadcasts Involving Archive of Folk Culture Collections, Personnel, and Radio Projects: Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture through 1986 (Washington DC, 1990)

D.L. Halper: Radio Music Directing (Boston, 1991)

P. Jackson: Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met: the Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1931–1950 (Portland, OR, 1992)

M. Engeler: Gehobene Unterhaltungsmusik: vom Radio-Unterhaltungsorchester Cedric Dumonts bis heute: musikethnologische und sozialgeschichtliche Aspekte der leichten Musik am Schweizer Radio (Basle, 1993)

S. Frederiksen, ed.: Radio Orchestra Policy: Geneva 1992 (Geneva, 1993) [pubn of the EBU]

A .A. Wernsing: E- und U-Musik im Radio: Faktoren und Konsequenzen funktionsbedingter Kategorien im Programm: Musik-Programmanalyse beim Westdeutschen Rundfunk (Frankfurt, 1995)

H. Carpenter with J. Doctor: The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the Third Programme and Radio 3 1946–1996 (London, 1996)

P. Jackson: Sign-Off for the Old Met: the Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1950–1966 (Portland, OR, 1997)

Radio.

I. Introduction

II. General history

III. Analysis by region

1. Western Europe (including Scandinavia).

2. Central and eastern Europe.

(i) Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania.

(ii) Former Yugoslavia.

(iii) Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria.

(iv) Former USSR.

3. The Americas.

(i) Canada.

(ii) The USA.

(iii) Latin America.

4. East Asia, South Asia, Pacific Rim.

(i) China (including Hong Kong), Japan, Korea, Taiwan.

(ii) India and Pakistan.

(iii) Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore.

5. Middle East and Africa.

(i) Egypt, Israel.

(ii) Africa, South Africa.

IV. International organizations and networks

V. Impact on musical life

VI. Radio as patron

BIBLIOGRAPHY

general, historical

regional studies

sociology and education

special studies