The Wireless in the Window: Department Stores and Radio Retailing in the 1920s

Abstract

In the early 1920s, audiences for thejirst radio stations were primarily male hobbyists who had assembled their own receivers. By the end of the decade, radio had become widespread and factory-built receivers were the norm. Drawing from social construction theories of technology, this study explores the specific retail techniques used by department stores to promote this technology during broadcasting's initial boom. With classes, set-building contests, and window displays, the stores educated potential listeners and spurred the diffusion of this new innovation. Radio sales peaked during the Christmas season, and department stores based many promotions on recognized holiday traditions. As the decade progressed, the stores sought to overcome the summer recession in radio sales and to establish broadcasting as a year-round activity. These findings shed light on the process by which new media technologies are incorporated into the mainstream of society.

Mapping Media Developments and Issues: Topics, Clusters, and Content of JMCQ Articles on Communication Technology/Media Channels, 1935–2017

“…The passage, blockage, or delay of international treaties concerning freedom of information, especially news flows, were thoroughly interlinked with global political issues and conflicts of the time (Exley, 1953). Arceneaux (2006) revealed how the diffusion and domestication of early radio sets in the 1920s were heavily influenced by department store marketing strategies, including in-store radio stations.…”

Department store advertising in newspapers, radio, and television, 1920‐1960

“…Department stores would continue their loyalty to newspapers through the twentieth century, but in the 1920s, many began to tinker with the idea of radio as a promising new selling tool. Department stores were in the business of selling radios and had been among the earliest promoters of the technology at the turn of the century (Arceneaux, 2006, p. 583). Between 1922 and 1930, despite their expense, the number of radio receivers grew from 60,000 to over 13 million (Arceneaux, 2006, p. 582).…”

“…Department stores were in the business of selling radios and had been among the earliest promoters of the technology at the turn of the century (Arceneaux, 2006, p. 583). Between 1922 and 1930, despite their expense, the number of radio receivers grew from 60,000 to over 13 million (Arceneaux, 2006, p. 582). By 1930, half of all urban homes had a radio.…”

“…By the mid‐1920s, retailing trade literature still focused on newspaper advertising, not radio (Andersen, 1925). Department store trade publications and the NRDGA first addressed radio in 1922, encouraging stores to start their own stations as a way to stimulate the sale of radio receivers (Arceneaux, 2006, p. 583). As set sales increased, department stores began to purchase expensive radio equipment and install their own stations.…”

“…Among the first to gain licenses were the Hamburger department store in Los Angeles in 1921, which had a one‐hundred‐mile range, San Francisco's Hale Brothers, Philadelphia's Strawbridge & Clothier, and Newark's Bamberger's in 1922 (Whitaker, 2006, p. 135; Flamm, 1977, p. 37; Arceneaux, 2009, p. 2). By early 1923, at least twenty‐nine department store radio stations were in operation (Arceneaux, 2006, p. 593). Most of these were in Northeastern and Western states, with Pennsylvania host to ten department store stations and California, four (Arceneaux, 2009, p. 4).…”