Radio advertising’s core claim was controlling when the audience received its message.

Evidence

“Here you have the advertiser’s ideal—the family group in its moments of relaxation awaiting your message,” said CBS. “Nothing equal to this has ever been dreamed of by the advertising man.” It is, as we shall see, one thing to sell access to the minds, quite another to predict reliably the audience’s frame of mind; and by dictating the moment of infiltration, radio claimed to do just that. At the time and place of CBS’s choosing, the audience would be “at leisure and their minds receptive.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 344

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to modern platform advertising that likewise claims to reach users at the perfect moment. — connects to: Early radio advertising worked indirectly through sponsored content — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 292; Early broadcasters saw audience size as the key to advertising profit — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 342

Broader Connections

• Early radio advertising worked indirectly through sponsored content #qualifies (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 292
• Early broadcasters saw audience size as the key to advertising profit #expands (0.78) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 342