Radio Since 1980
20th Century Improvements
Radio in the last two decades of the 20th century was a thriving and growing industry of ever more stations and often narrower program formats. Many new stations appeared on FM, which grew to dominate radio broadcasting in many regions of the world. In Europe, FM continued to expand as low-cost receivers and transmitters encouraged the rise of small stations that could serve discrete communities or regions without causing interference to other stations or nearby countries. In some countries, AM transmitters declined in number as FM expanded.
Beginning in the 1980s and accelerating through the 1990s, economic pressures on industrial countries’ traditional public-service radio operations had a telling and growing impact. While the government-supported national systems saw themselves as protectors and disseminators of a high-quality vision of national culture and pride, their survival was threatened by the growing number of commercial competitors for audiences.
In the United States
By the last two decades of the 20th century, American radio was presenting two seemingly opposite trends to listeners. Program variety appeared to increase as more stations competed for listeners and each strove to sound different while seeking to retain its existing audience. At the same time, however, a number of radio formats declined or vanished entirely. Classical music and arts programming virtually disappeared from commercial stations, as did such “minority” musical fare as folk music and jazz, while educational broadcasts were restricted to noncommercial stations operating on reserved frequencies. Former regional differences also diminished, making American radio sound much the same no matter where one listened. Critics attributed such lack of diversity to the trend toward station-ownership consolidation.
