over the airadv.adj.
/ˌəʊvə ðɪ ˈɛː/, U.S. /ˈˌoʊvər ði ˈɛ(ə)r/ Broadcasting.
A. adv.
By means of radio or television broadcast; (now frequently) spec. by the transmission of radio signals broadcast through the earth's atmosphere (as distinct from cable transmission); over the airwaves.
ΚΠ
1925 J. A. Holman in Liberty 14 Nov. 30/1 Radio broadcasting is, in fact, one of the big experiments of the age. We knew nothing of what our public wanted to hear over the air.
1939 K. Tynan Lett. (1994) i. 4 Thanking you once again for the many hours of happy listening, and fervently waiting for ‘..the next time..’ I hear you over the air.
1951 Time 25 June 49/1 Though not telecast over the air, the Louis–Savold fight was experimentally piped by coaxial cable over closed circuits to six cities.
1970 Radio Times 8 Oct. 11/1 Listeners will be able to ‘grill’ leading public figures over the air when It's Your Line, a new-style ‘live’ current affairs programme begins.
1998 New Scientist 25 July 6/1 To watch the programmes, the recorded data stream will have to be played back through the set-top decoder, as if the signal was being received over the air from a live broadcast.
B. adj.
Usually with hyphens. Of, involving, or by means of radio or television broadcasting, esp. as distinct from cable transmission.
ΚΠ
1972 Listener 6 July 3/2 As America becomes increasingly a wired nation, with cables reaching out already into millions of homes, the channel limitations of over-the-air television are being superseded.
1985 Village Voice (N.Y.) 8 Jan. 18/2 Cable's roots, after all, lie in the appropriation of over-the-air television signals..and the reselling of those signals for a profit.
2000 R. V. Bellamy & P. J. Traudt in S. T. Eastman Res. in Media Promotion v. 143 Almost all respondents (96.7%) indicated that they watched television, including over-the-air broadcast channels (79.9%), basic cable offerings (91.1%), premium cable channels (62.2%), and direct broadcast satellite services (17.6%).
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adv.adj.1925