nicians and executives of Westinghouse Electric company were convinced that radio was commercially and scientifically feasible, and within 18 months radio was sa national fad. Those first radios were crystal sets built by individuals all over the country, and by 1921 stores were selling factory-made radios. The financial potential in opening a radio station caused many businesses, institutions, and wealthy individuals to acquire federal licenses and establish their own broadcasting facilities:
Two years after the KDKA inaugural broadcast, there were 1.5 million sets in the country; there were more than 550 stations; and there was at least one station in every state. . . (MacDonald 4).
Radio developed simultaneously as an entertainment medium and as a means for conveying the news and public events to the people:
If the development of drama broadened creativity within radio, the heavy usage of radio by politicians made broadcasting an influential medium within American society. Because of its ability to reach millions of voters simultaneously, political office-holders and candidates quickly adopted radio (MacDonald 7).
By 1925, there were millions of radio receivers in American homes, and the consumers spent $430 million on radio products. Radio was now a major part of both the economy and American popular culture, and it would remain so in basically the same niche until the advent of television more than two decades later. Radio was a harbinger of a panoply of technological changes to come:
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