ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the different types of television programs and explains how program ideas are developed, how programs make it to the air, and how program-scheduling strategies are used to keep the audience tuned to a channel. Television programs can be categorized as either narrative or non-narrative. Narrative programs weave a story around the lives of fictional characters played by actors. In the early days of radio, amateur operators just put something on the air – often on the spur of the moment. Among the most popular radio programs were daytime serial dramas, which came to be known as soap operas because laundry soap manufacturers were the primary sponsors. Radio comedies took listeners’ minds off the depression and their financial worries. Non-commercial stations have long existed as educational radio with the aim of providing traditional school subjects and scientific and social information to children and adults.
