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Introduction
This timeline looks at the evolution of commercial media from radio in the 1920s to television to modern commercial social media. Today commercial media plays a large role in everyone's daily lives as they are increasingly exposed to this type of media. -
First National Commercial Broadcast
Philadelphia radio station KDKA made the nation’s first commercial broadcast by announcing the results of the presidential election, by 1924 there were 600 commercial stations and to keep up with the costs of improving equipment and paying for performers, stations turned to advertisers. The popularity of radios helped develop a mass culture as people across the country were hearing the same songs, news, and given access to celebrities. -
First Radio Commercial
WEAF (NYC radio station) broadcasted its first radio commercial which was a 15 minute real estate offering apartments in Jackson Heights, Queens. -
First Television Commercial Licenses
Advertising had previously been banned on TV until the Federal Communications Commission gave licenses to 10 stations on May 2, 1941 to go into effect on July 1, but WNBT was the only station that aired a commercial that day. -
First Legal Television Commercial
NBC owned station WNBT in New York aired the first legal commercial in television history. The commercial aired before a Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies game. The commercial was for Bulova watches and showed a watch face in front of an image of the United States. Bulova paid $4 for air fees and $5 for station fees which is equivalent to $147 in 2016 dollars. It is worth noting that there were only about 4,000 TVs in the New York area at the time. -
Commercial Social Media
Facebook began to place advertisements on its site beginning in 2006. Twitter did the same in 2010. LinkedIN, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok have also incorporated sponsored advertisements. This has evolved to more targeted advertisements across these platforms. Forbes found that people today are exposed to between 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements everyday. -
Commercial Media Today
“Commercial media today is looked at as one of the most powerful and expensive industries. It has reign over political, social, and cultural issues that are currently going on today. Using advertising to influence consumers, bribing politicians to set the political agenda, or pressuring their viewpoints and beliefs as the status quo, forcing people to believe in them too. Minorities lack a voice in the media, which leads to lack of proper representation and the formation of stereotypes.” -
Bibliography
First Radio Commercial Hit Airwaves 90 Years Ago : NPR. https://www.npr.org/2012/08/29/160265990/first-radio-commercial-hit-airwaves-90-years-ago. “WEAF.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/WEAF. “The Evolution of Social Media: How Did It Begin and Where Could It Go next?” Maryville Online, 3 Mar. 2021, https://online.maryville.edu/blog/evolution-social-media/. -
Bibliography (part 2)
Simpson, Jon. “Council Post: Finding Brand Success in the Digital World.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 25 Aug. 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/08/25/finding-brand-success-in-the-digital-world/?sh=3b1d128c626e. “A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: KDKA Begins to Broadcast.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dt20ra.html. -
Bibliography (Part 3)
“History of Commercial Radio.” Federal Communications Commission, 12 Apr. 2021, https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/history-of-commercial-radio. Newman, Lily Hay. “Watch the First Commercial in TV History, Which Aired 75 Years Ago This Weekend.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 3 July 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-the-first-commercial-in-tv-history-bulova-watch-2016-7.