The Broadcast Century and Beyond, 4th Edition

The Techno-Edged 80s

Teflon, Tinsel, and me

Were the 1980s a replay of the 1920s? The similarities were remarkable. For the media, both decades were marked by technological advancement. In the 1920s radio technology advanced and television technology arrived; in the 1980s cable and satellites advanced and fiber optics, high-definition television, digital broadcasting, and other new technologies were introduced. In the 1920s the business of broadcasting grew by leaps and bounds and managed to survive the economic crash of 1929; in the 1980s broadcasting business—including record sums for sales of properties, as well as record advertising revenues—reached its highest peaks before the economic recession began at the decade’s end.

Both decades were ...