the.com/broadcast
Originally a farming term for scattering seeds, now we scatter signals instead.
means To transmit audio, video, or signals widely to a dispersed audience, or to spread information far and wide.
from A compound of 'broad' (wide) and 'cast' (to throw or scatter), this is exactly what it sounds like: a farmer flinging seed across a field with a wide sweep of the arm, rather than planting it in tidy rows. The agricultural sense is old, dating to the 1700s. When radio arrived in the early 20th century, the metaphor was irresistible — scattering signals through the air just as one once scattered grain — and the word leapt from the field to the airwaves.
- farm roots
- Meant tossing seeds widely across a field
- first radio
- 1920 Pittsburgh aired election results to nobody
- speed
- Signals reach millions before you finish blinking
- the bbc
- Founded 1922, still spreading its seeds globally
- narrowcast
- Its opposite targets tiny niche audiences instead
bbc world service — radio service launched 1932, reaches 374 million weekly listeners globally
super bowl lviii — 2024 broadcast watched by 123.4 million viewers in the us alone
apollo 11 moon landing — july 20 1969 broadcast seen by 600+ million people worldwide