Republicans chose their presidential candidates. Broadcasting the selection of candidates live on national radio made the whole process much more open, bringing a previously secretive, backroom procedure into millions of American homes.

The Republicans proved much more adept at exploiting the new medium. In an extraordinarily prophetic internal memo, a party staffer predicted that the successful use of radio required a different kind of language. This meant that speeches must be short—certainly much shorter than the kind of marathon oratory one would normally expect to hear out on the stump. On the radio, ten minutes should be the absolute limit for a speech, with five minutes being the optimal length. Many years before short, snappy soundbites became the bread and butter of the modern news media, Republican strategists recognized the potential of radio to convey succinct, powerful messages.

For the most part, the radio is not used as a political instrument of the decade.  The technology was so new that it was more consumer based and for more commercial uses, such as listening to music broadcast, than anything else.  Its political inventiveness is not really seen in full force until President Roosevelt employs the radio as part of his drive to reclaim America from the clutches of the Great Depression.  His "Fireside Chats" were the first real and substantive use of the radio for both political measures and as an extension of his desire to bridge the gap between political institutions and the people.

Yet, the use of the radio was prominent in the administration of President Calvin Coolidge.  His inauguration was the first to be broadcast on radio.  President Coolidge also used the radio as the first President to deliver a speech on it.  In these ways, Coolidge demonstrated a unique ability to be able to understand the power of technology for politicians before others recognized it.  Yet, for the most part, the radio was not seen as a political instrument during the 1920s.  Like so many other elements, it was seen as a cultural force, one shaping the cultural really through the broadcast of music, subjugating politics to the "roar" of the 1920s time period.