Radio Advertising: A Long History Of Excellence

Radio advertising is one of the oldest, most reliable and effective advertising methods in all of history. From the beginning of radio broadcasting to now, advertisers have been united by two things: passionate commitment to a great medium and a desire for excellence. We've put together a timeline below that captures some of the milestones from radio advertising history—from its invention to today's on-demand channels.

1927 American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) begins using radio to advertise its new long-distance telephone service.

1930s-40s Over the next 20 years, AT&T begins to experiment with other marketing tactics including product ads, billboards, print ads and direct mail.

1938 The FCC creates a broadcasting division within the Radio Division of its Office of Public Affairs. Its purpose is to "tell America about itself." First campaign: "Visiting Washington" shines a spotlight on Washington, DC using 2-minute news segments.

1939 The first national spot is heard on radio as the American Tobacco Company announces it will start selling Lucky Strike cigarettes in October.

1940s-50s During the early days of TV, radio continues to flourish. Advertisers like Ford, General Electric, and Procter & Gamble turn to it for effective and affordable ways to reach their customers.

1947 The FCC authorizes the first "free format" FM station in San Antonio, Texas. Free format stations are now known as "adult hits" stations.

1948 First color TVs hit the market. They're prohibitively expensive and bulky—and they're loaded with bugs: many don't display reds or greens properly.

1950 The NAB establishes the National Radio Advertising Bureau (now called the Radio Advertising Bureau).

1954 The FCC establishes an Advisory Committee on Radio. The committee's purpose was to study the industry and make recommendations on how to improve it.

1970s-80s Radio stations generate ad revenue by selling local, non-networked advertising. FM stations become wildly successful as a result of their ability to attract young listeners with rock music programming and DJs that appeal to that audience.

1971 First FCC rules regulating public radio's editorial content are established after stations were found airing programs containing "indecent language and explicit description of sexual activity." This would become the first of many instances where public (noncommercial) radio stations would be challenged over the content they aired or wanted to air.

1974 After realizing the amount of revenue that could be made, Congress passes the Telecommunications Act in a bid to deregulate and de-monopolize the airwaves.

1978 Commercials are added to all public radio stations. Stations are able to sell local non-networked advertising, helping them to generate revenue.

1980 Molly Ringwald appears in a series of Diet Coke commercials that feature her listening to music while doing household chores. The ads would go on to win more than 50 awards, including two Clio Awards for best advertising campaign of the year. They were also named by "Advertising Age" as the best campaigns of the decade (1980s).

1981 The FCC imposes a limit on the amount of music that can be aired by radio stations. The music format is referred to as "Top 40."

1984 First advertising buy for a product placement occurs in an IMAX film when diet coke appears in the scene. Diet Coke also supports Mars' Snickers campaign and later, Doritos' Cool Ranch chicken chips.

1986 The Entertainment and Leisure Programming Service (formerly Laff) is launched by the NAB. It's now known as iHeartRadio, and has become one of the most well-known brands in digital media—as technology continues to advance, so has its ability to connect with consumers.

1987 The FCC recommends the deregulation of TV's airwave frequencies by splitting off channels and requiring stations to sell programming time to advertisers. This is set in motion by Congress when it passes the Television Broadcasting Act.

1989 The first commercial satellite radio channel begins broadcasting. John S. let us know about this milestone in the iHeartRadio comments section at the bottom of our page on satellite radio history . Thanks, John!

1990s Commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) emerge, allowing people to connect to the internet and send emails for the first time: AOL (1991) and CompuServe (1991). And thanks again to John S. for letting us know about these milestones in digital history .

1991 The United States Supreme Court rules that cable TV is a common carrier, making it subject to FCC regulations.

1992 AMI Entertainment Network launches as the first 24-hour music video channel.

1993 The FCC requires stations to broadcast at least 3 hours of children's programming per week (previous requirement was 2 hours). Under the new mandate, Nickelodeon receives over 800 requests for TV series. This leads them to launch Nick at Nite in 1985 and Nick Jr. in 1988.

1994 Congress passes the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act which requires cable companies to carry local broadcast stations on their service and prohibits cable operators from exercising program control over channels that they don't own. Thanks again to John S. for sending this info in to us via the iHeartRadio comments section on our satellite radio history page .

2000s-2010s The first "on demand" video streaming service, DirecTV Now, launches in 2017. But as we're writing this, still no word on live streaming. We'll let you know when we find out.

2013 Over-the-air (OTA) radio broadcasting begins using digital multicasting technology developed by General Electric and MPEG LA (a consortium of companies including AT&T, Viacom and Warner Bros). You can check out the announcement at iheartradio.com .

2014 Online streaming radio service Pandora is launched. It's the most popular online radio network in the United States today.

2015 Podcasting, which allows listeners to stream audio and video programs from an on-demand library, is now a popular way to get news, entertainment and other programming. Radio listening continues to decline over the decades as technology makes it easy for people to access almost any content they want at any time on demand. We can only assume that this trend will continue into the future.

2016 DVRs allow users to record television programming and fast-forward through commercials.

2017 Station revenues come from traditional advertising, music licensing and station sales (such as Pandora). With streaming providers like Spotify, Apple Music and other music services now available, ads are more important than ever to stations' revenue-generating capability. As we've been reporting in our news coverage , streaming companies are making more money off of a show's ads than the network itself.

2018 We hear reports of the FCC preparing a new set of rules that would allow companies like Apple to stream entire radio channels via their apps or on their websites.

Conclusion: A Look at the Future of Radio and Podcasting Radio is a form of communication that is both old and new. It's as prevalent as ever, but it has evolved to fit with today's world of high-speed internet, mobile devices and podcasts. It's pretty safe to say that radio is an enduring art form -- even if it does take on a new look from time to time.

Molly Ringwald YouTube Screenshot Fact or Fiction? Molly Ringwald was paid $1 million for her Diet Coke ads We've been told by some readers that Molly Ringwald was actually paid $1 million for her Diet Coke commercials.