No radio as a mass medium

What if radio as a mass medium- i.e. one-way broadcasts providing information, entertainment etc. to audiences/consumers, was never concieved? We might assume it was used for signalling purposes or two-way communication (would it ever work as a widespread means of communication instead of for the military, air, marine, police and a handful of ham operators?)

Other social effects? Knock-on effects on development of technology? Etc.?
 
Well, no broadcasting means that people will still rely on newspapers for the news, and on networks for the rest. Really, it will only change the speed of transmission of news/propaganda, and the lack of audio transmission will possibly make mass politics harder, as people feel more distant to the leadership. Technology-wise TV might be spirited away, but eventually there'd be a 'neutral information carrier' derived from telephones. This 'Internet' as we may call it, might develop more earlier than in IRL, when people start to hack up their computers (if a cheap enough screen is developed that is. Will probably happen due to the many advantages of online editing of text for example) to the telephone grid, creating an adhoc, p2p network. Maybe something like OTL FIDOnet?

Anyway, once the internet comes around to most people, lack of broadcasting will be irrelevant. Also, due to the fact that a lack of radio and TV most likely will lead to a lower interest in pop music and movies (even cinemas would probably have lesser customers), the 'content industry' will be weaker, and the Internet could develop naturally with less attempts to try to control it centrally.
 
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