- Image via Wikipedia
Baseball
The other night there was a program on PBS talking about some of baseball’s history. The show focused on the early 1900′s through the 1920′s. Prior to the 20′s, almost all the attendees at baseball games were men.
- Image by The Rocketeer via Flickr
Radio
This all changed on August 5th, 1921 – when the first radio broadcast of a baseball game happened (Pirates-Phillies). It was funny when they said most of baseball’s owner, at that time, were not in favor of the free radio broadcast.
They were fearful that if they give away their product – then they would have no way to make money. They felt like the men who had paid to see the game int he past would quit coming and listen for free.
What the owners failed to realize is they may lose a few of the men to the radio broadcast – but they introduced the game of baseball to women and children. Women and children were intimidated by the game prior to radio, because they didn’t understand the game…but once they knew more – they became hooked. Once they were hooked – they began to buy tickets and the overall audience of baseball increased. It took a while, most of the 1930′s, but the owners finally came around and the rest is history.
Newspaper
- Image via Wikipedia
This sounds a lot like the struggle today’s newspaper/media companies are in right now. Media companies are keeping a tight grip on the business model that worked a decade ago. But what has happened is the game has changed. The internet is introducing news and information to many more people – people who are not newspaper natives.
Conclusion
So – will the internet be the radio for the media industry? Who knows, but it is pretty clear that baseball benefited from introducing their product to a whole new group of people. And it really made me think about the similarities of the two stories…
Sources: Wikipedia, PBS Baseball
tom.altman
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