You Heard It Here

For the middle part of the century the only way to get your news, weather, and sports was on the radio. Anything from when were the troops coming home, to the local book sale on the corner filled homes nation wide. Urban America received their news from the radio, until television took a hold of society. The vast majority of society did not own televisions, so their news had to come from radio. Radio was the first and foremost mean for people to receive their news. The most important thing here is to talk about how to get the point across, and the effects of television.

During the tail end of World War II there was heavy rationing, and even the newspapers were being rationed so radio had to be the only way to get your news. Americans were still dealing with the effects of rationing in 1945, such things like buying a new car, since most companies had shut down their assembly lines during the war.

The Civic Center of Greater Des Moines

Excavations at the Birds Run Site, Des Moines, Iow...

English: A newer street level entrance to the Des ...

Even paper was limited, and magazines were being asked by the War Production Board to conserve the paper for the war effort. The only thing you could not ration completely was radios; the materials used for them could be rationed. So to get the news, the only way was through the radio, the prices must have gone up because of rationing, and radio is free to listen to. The families were on a budget at the time, so any extraneous money was not used. All the money people had gone to needs, like food, and general needs in life.

However, one cannot talk about this time without mentioning television in the 1940's. Then World War II came along. Everything stopped until 1945, as U.S. industry moved into large-scale production of armaments and related...