Beginning in 1935, the program billed itself as an unrehearsed “cross-section of what the average person really knows” by asking random people an assortment of questions. Vox Pop, a show originally based on person-in-the-street interviews, was an early attempt to quantify the United States’ growing mass culture. Radio programs reflected this nationwide cultural aspect of radio. This unprecedented reach made radio an instrument of social cohesion as it brought together members of different classes and backgrounds to experience the world as a nation. Neither illiteracy nor even a busy schedule impeded radio’s success-one could now perform an activity and listen to the radio at the same time. Newspapers had the potential to reach a wide audience, but radio had the potential to reach almost everyone. Although this idea gave early proponents a useful, familiar way to think about radio, it underestimated radio’s power as a medium. In fact, radio was initially considered a kind of disembodied newspaper. Mass media such as newspapers had been around for years before the existence of radio.
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