The Wall Street Journal wisely turned to Terry Teachout, its drama critic, for an important lesson in media history.
Americans of all ages embraced TV unhesitatingly. They felt no loyalty to network radio, the medium that had entertained and informed them for a quarter-century. When something came along that they deemed superior, they switched off their radios without a second thought. That’s the biggest lesson taught by the new-media crisis of 1949. Nostalgia, like guilt, is a rope that wears thin.
Teachout also points out that the new TV networks operated at a loss for many years before finding a path to profitability–a great reminder for new media entrepreneurs to keep tilling the soil.