Page 95 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Information Revolutions
message announcing the outcome of the Whig convention in 1844, the
broadcast covered the outcome of the presidential race between Harding
and Cox. The next year, New York City Mayoral candidate John F. Hylan
made what is generally accepted as the first radio campaign speech. 116 As
President, Harding made occasional addresses carried by radio, begin-
ning with his inaugural speech on March 4, 1921. 117 Coolidge was the
first President to use radio regularly and effectively. His radio delivery
likely contributed to his successful election in 1924 against Davis and
LaFollette, making Coolidge arguably the first President whose political
success can be attributed at least in part to broadcast media. 118
Hoover relied on radio regularly on the campaign trail, and in a move
symbolicofwhatwastocome,theRepublicanPartyrescheduledaHoover
campaign speech from a Saturday evening to Monday, when officials esti-
mated that the radio audience would be larger, the first recorded instance
ofapresidentialcampaigneventbeingstructuredaroundthedynamicsof
the broadcast audience. 119 Both the Democratic and Republican conven-
tions had been broadcast in 1924, and by the 1928 race between Hoover
and Smith, radio had become a regular part of presidential campaigning.
If there is to be a single election that stands as a marker for the begin-
ning of the long displacement of the party organization by broadcast
technologies, it was the Hoover–Smith race of 1928.
Between 1924 and the elections of 1928 and 1932, the modern
advertising-based model of campaign communication emerged. In the
1924 race, the Republican Party spent about $120,000 and the Demo-
cratic Party about $40,000 on the purchase of commercial radio time. 120
For the most part, however, these funds went toward the broadcasting of
speeches. Commercial advertising of products by businesses was devel-
oping at the same time, and strong norms existed moderating the aggres-
siveness and directness of radio salesmanship. Many advertisers in the
early to mid-1920s avoided announcing prices or making direct pitches

116 Craig, Fireside Politics.
117
William Banning, Commercial Broadcasting Pioneer: The WEAF Experiment 1922–
1926 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1946); Craig, Fireside Politics;
Lawrence Wilson Lichty and Malachi C. Topping, American Broadcasting: A Source
Book on the History of Radio and Television (New York: Hastings House Publishers,
1975); Settel, A Pictorial History of Radio.
118
SeveralscholarsofradiocreditCoolidge’sradioskillsascontributingtothemagnitude
of his win against Davis and LaFollette. See Head, Broadcasting in America, and
Settel, A Pictorial History of Radio.
119
Orrin Elmer Dunlap, Advertising by Radio (New York: Ronald Press, 1929).
120
Edwin Diamond and Stephen Bates, The Spot: The Rise of Political Advertising on
Television (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 1984).
78