The Not Quite So Inevitable Origins of Commercial Broadcasting in America

The development of radio in the US shows the debates about how the new medium of communications should be controlled and financed. Generalisations about capitalist business ethics having uncontested sway in creating an advertiser‐supported, private‐sector medium rest on ignorance of the concerns aired in the press during the 1920s. However, the final outcome in the US did depend on a reliance on advertising to pay for the medium.