ABSTRACT
Advertising plays an important role in the US economy and fulfills many consumer needs. Most people tend to think of advertising as a modern-day phenomenon when actually it has been around for thousands of years. Advertising is not a modern-day phenomenon but has been around since the days of clay tablets. A new form of advertising was born with the advent of radio. At first, radio was slow to catch on with the public, because there were not very many programs on the air. At first, sponsored radio seemed like a good idea for the audience and the broadcasters. Throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s, the various broadcast television networks shared about 90% of the viewing audience and television advertising dollars. Television advertising was based largely on radio’s sponsorship model. Cable television has been around for many years, but only recently has it challenged broadcast television for audience share.
