It's fascinating to think that sound recording was so new it had to be explained. People needed examples of what someone would record or play back and why.
Every new technology goes through a period like this.
Every new technology goes through a period like this.
They held town meetings with a giant rotary dial onstage where someone explained it and demonstrated how to dial your calls.
And they made an instructional film about it!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/islander...
Electric cars were invented before gas ones and still don't dominate in most countries, maybe only one?
There were different executives getting bonuses from the institutional device sales than there were for the consumer radios and the factories that made the vacuum tubes.
Along with the media (78 rpm records) that was distributed by their record company whether it was recorded by their own artists in their own studios or not, with the tubes themselves you got to "own" them physically when you bought replacements. But like the 78s and the original tubes in the radios, they were only licensed for personal use.
For jukebox use, office music, or if you just wanted to play a retail radio, or records on your own in a place like a restaurant, there was a whole 'nother layer of licensing to be satisfied for both the media and the tubes it was playing through.
Does per-seat licensing ring a bell? Nothing new about that.
Tech needs explanation and even inducement to become popular, whereas useless tech like VR can't gain ground no matter how much it's demonstrated and hawked.
In 1939 80% of households had radios, there were over 1400 stations and 4 networks.
Even before electric cars got more common, basically everybody knew what an electric car is.