30 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About Mass Media

21Elvis Presley first appearance

Elvis Presley first appearance

The peak of TV attention can be assigned an exact date: Sunday, September 9, 1956, when Elvis Presley made his first appearance on television, on CBS’s Ed Sullivan Show. Its 82.6% share of US viewers has never been equaled or bettered.


22Winston cigarettes

Winston cigarettes

In the 60s not only could you advertise cigarettes on television, but you could have cartoon characters be the pitchmen. For example, The Flintstones endorsed Winston cigarettes.


23Rainbow Connection

Rainbow Connection

In 1996, a man broke into a radio station in New Zealand, held the staff hostage, and made them play Kermit’s Rainbow Connection non-stop.


24John R. Brinkley

John R. Brinkley

Country music became popular in America partially through a pirate radio station of a quack doctor named John R. Brinkley based out of Kansas who built a fortune on a procedure to implant goat testicles into men's scrotums.


25Joe Kohlhofer

Joe Kohlhofer

In 2015, a radio DJ named Joe Kohlhofer in Austria barricaded himself into his studio and played Wham's 'Last Christmas' 24 times in a row. He did it as a protest for lack of holiday spirit and only stopped after his 4-year-old daughter called in to complain.


26The Loop

The Loop

When Chicago radio station “the loop” was replaced by a Christian music station, they signed off with the song ‘Highway to Hell.’


27Music on Hold

Music on Hold

The practice of playing music for callers on hold began with a faulty phone line connection. A loose wire touching the steel frame of an office building caused it to act as a giant radio receiver, allowing callers to hear music from local radio stations while they waited on hold.


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28Wanted Ads

Wanted Ads

Immediately after the end of slavery was declared in America, there was a surge in Wanted Ads placed in newspapers across the country. African-Americans used them to search for family members sold or escaped, sometimes decades earlier.


29The War of The Worlds

The War of The Worlds

The story of mass panic in New York caused by the radio broadcast of The War of The Worlds in 1938 is largely false and was caused by the newspaper industry sensationalizing the story, seeing it as an opportunity to attack the radio as being an untrustworthy source of news.


30The Mainichi

The Mainichi

The Mainichi, one of the most popular national daily newspapers in Japan once circulated an entirely recyclable newspaper. It had plant seeds embedded in the newsprint. After reading, you could plant the newspaper directly into the soil and it would grow.

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