Distraction as the key component

When comparing the radio of today with the radio of yesteryear there seems to be more differences than similarities. Today the majority of what is being heard on the radio is music and commercials. You may catch the occasional sports or weather update or you may even catch a snippet of an actual news story (and I'm not talking about the lastest celebrity pregnancy gossip). This varies greatly from what we listened to in class on Tuesday. Back in the earlier days of radio it seems it was used more of an entertainment instrument than that of a musical distraction. I envision whole families gathered in the sitting room and listening intently to these radio dramas. This obviously wouldn't happen today, families can't even seem to gather around the dinner table together anymore. But back then radio was a new technology and was exciting and stimulating to its listeners and brought people together. Much like television did and still does for our generation. The closest example I can foster in connection to the family gathered around the radio in my life would be that of my Sunday nights way back in the day. Everyone in my family would gather around the tube and we would drink shakes and eat popcorn for dinner and watch America's Funniest Home Videos. This went on for I don't remember how long, but long enough. My point is this, it was a family tradition and brought everyone together, even if we did have to listen to Bob Seget tell really horrible jokes. I think one major connection that old school radio programming has with today has to do with public radio. This form of radio seems to be much more similar. Public radio has many more talk shows than FM radio. It also has a lot more news programming as well. It also seems to me that people who are listening to public radio are actually listening and processing the information they are recieving better than their counterparts who are mainly focused on the music. This seems more like the listeners of yesterday. I do believe that the commitment that the listeners had back then is still evident in today's society, just in a new form. The form is television, and most everyone has their favorites that they really want to watch and really try to catch. Ultimately I think that people used radio back then as a lot of people use television today, as a distraction. When people get home from a long trying day of work, or school, or whatever, they just want to relax. These two mediums allow people to do just that, without a lot of mental concentration or thought.