The Politics of Radio

Radio - a new source of media that crisscrossed the entirety of the United States. In the 1930's radios were in almost every household in America. And presidents like FDR took full advantage of this opportunity. And one of the first major political casts on the radio was of President Coolidge's inaugural speech  and one of the most well known radio broadcasts was President Roosevelt's Fireside chats. These talk shows consisted of Roosevelt talking "one-on-one" with the American people about concepts and problems in the US like The New Deal and soldiers fighting in WWII. Besides having just direct connections to presidents it gave America the chance to hear about everything in a more personable way. Political life became more personal and it became a source for presidential candidates to open themselves up to the American public. The parties (Republican and Democratic) began to broadcast their candidates across their own stations and across public ones as Radio became more and more accessible.