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radio
This page looks at radio broadcasting as background to considering
the internet.
It covers -
In
contrast to print, there are few outstanding studies of how
broadcasting has affected western culture, society and economies
overall. We've therefore pointed to some of the more provocative
or entertaining writing, particularly from the US, with a
restricted scope.
the shape of the revolutions
EB White commented that
When
they say The Radio, they don't mean ... a man in a studio.
They refer to a pervading and somewhat godlike presence
which has come into their lives and homes. It is a mighty
attractive idol.
Vaudeville and cinema magnate Marcus Loew, at a 1927 Harvard
seminar on film, commented
Q:
Does a strong vaudeville act tend to bolster up a weak picture?
A: A great name will help bolster up what is lacking in
a picture.
Q: Does broadcasting hurt your business any?
A: Not at all. The only time radio hurts is when there is
a big fight on or some other occasion that makes everybody
stay home and listen in. That particular night we are hurt.
Q: Is the Vitaphone going to cut into the vaudeville business
in the near future?
A: That is hard to say. I put that on a par with anything
else that is new. Personally, I do not think that it is.
Uptake
of radio in the US during the 1920s provides a perspective
on the 'internet boom' of the 1990s. Susan Douglas' Inventing
American Broadcasting (1987) notes US growth in the sale
of radio equipment - from US$60 million in 1922 to US$843
million in 1929.
For a view of the broadcasting industry we recommend a grab-bag
of books. Susan Douglas's Inventing American Broadcasting
1899-1922 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni Press 1987) and
Clifford Doerksen's American Babel: Rogue Radio Broadcasters
of the Jazz Age (Philadelphia: Uni of Pennsylvania Press
2005) are insightful studies of early days in the US. Erik
Barnouw's three volume A History of Broadcasting in the
United States (New York: Oxford Uni Press 1966-70), is
a lively journalistic account, complementing Asa Briggs' staid
four volume The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom
(Oxford: Oxford Uni Press 1961-79), Michele Hilmes' Radio
Voices: American Broadcasting 1922 to 1952 (Ann Arbor:
Uni of Minnesota Press 1997) and Only Connect: A Cultural
History of Broadcasting in the United States (Wadsworth
2001). Zuhren und Gehrtwerden. Vol 1: Rundfunk im Nationalsozialismus
zwischen Lenkung und Ablenkung (Tubingen: Diskord 1998)
edited by Inge Marssolek & Adelheid von Saldern, Corey
Ross' excellent Media and the Making of Modern Germany:
Mass Communications, Society and Politics from the Empire
to the Third Reich (Oxford: Oxford Uni Press 2008) and
Kate Lacey's Feminine Frequencies: Gender, German Radio
& the Public Sphere 1923-1945 (Ann Arbor: Uni of
Michigan Press 1997) offer an alternative view.
For Australia see Ken Inglis' This is the ABC (Melbourne:
Melbourne Uni Press 1984), Alan Thomas' Broadcast &
Be Damned: The ABC's First Two Decades (Melbourne: Oxford
Uni Press 1980), Lesley Johnson's The Unseen Voice: A
Cultural Study of Early Australian Radio (London: Routledge
1988) and John Potts' Radio in Australia (Kensington:
UNSW 1989).
For amateurs see Ham Radio's Technical Culture (Cambridge:
MIT Press 2007) by Kristen Haring.
foundations
Much of the literature on the invention of radio is triumphalist
or narrowly technical.
Works of particular value are Sungook Hong's Wireless:
From Marconi's Black Box to the Audion (Cambridge: MIT
Press 2001), Hugh Aitken's Syntony & Spark (New
York: Wiley 1976) The Continuous Wave: Technology and
American Radio, 1900-1932 (Princeton: Princeton Uni Press
1984), The Early History of Radio: From Faraday to Marconi
(San Francisco: IEE 1994) by G R Garratt and The Worldwide
History of Telecommunications (New York: Wiley 2003)
by Anton Huurdeman
For a view of Marconi see Gavin Weightman's Signor Marconi's
Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention of the 19th Century
and the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution
(London: 2003)
impacts
Christopher Burton's The Radio Revolution (PDF)
is a thoughtful introduction from the US Center for Information
Strategy & Policy, publisher of the Magazine of Information
Impacts. US perspectives are provided in The Radio
Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of US Radio Broadcasting
(New York: Routledge 2002) edited by Michele Hilmes &
Jason Loviglio. Michael Schiffer's thin The Portable Radio
in American Life (Tucson: Uni of Arizona Press 1991) argues
that 'portability' is as American as apple pie and predates
the Japanese transistor.
For politics, local and national, consult Satellite Broadcasting:
The Politics & Implications of the New Media (London:
Routledge 1988) edited by Ralph Negrine, Communities of
the Air: Radio Century, Radio Culture (Durham: Duke Uni
Press 2003) by Susan Squier, Fireside Politics: Radio &
Political Culture in the United States 1920-40 (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins Uni Press 2000) by Douglas Craig and Waves
of Opposition: Labor and the Struggle for Democratic Radio
(Urbana: Uni of Illinois Press 2006) by Elizabeth Fones-Wolf.
Radio and television censorship is discussed in more detail
here.
Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution
That Shaped a Generation (New York: Random 2007) by Marc
Fisher offers a view of pop culture
propaganda
Works of particular interest are Michael Sproule's Propaganda
& Democracy: The American Experience of Media & Mass
Persuasion (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1997), Michael
Nelson's War of the Black Heavens: The Battles of Western
Broadcasting in the Cold War (Syracuse: Syracuse Uni
Press 1997), Errol Hodge's Radio Wars: Truth, Propaganda
& the Struggle for Radio Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge
Uni Press 1995), Volkswagen, Volksempfanger, Volksgemeinschaft:
'Volksprodukte' im Dritten Reich: Vom Scheitern einer nationalsozialistischen
Konsumgesellschaft (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schningh 2004)
by Wolfgang Knig and Secrets of Victory: The Office of
Censorship and the American Press & Radio in World War
II (Chapel Hill: Uni of North Carolina Press 2001) by
Michael Sweeney and Radio Goes To War: The Cultural Politics
of Propaganda During World War II (Berkeley: Uni of California
Press 2002) by Gerd Horton.
For Radio Liberty and the VoA see David Krugler's The
Voice of America and the Domestic Propaganda Battles, 1945-1953
(Columbia: Uni of Missouri Press 2000), Alan Heil's Voice
of America: A History (New York: Columbia Uni Press 2003),
Robert Pirsein's Voice of America: An History of the International
Broadcasting Activities of the United States Government, 1942-1962
(New York: Arno 1979), Gene Sosin's Sparks of Liberty:
An Insider's Memoir of Radio Liberty (University Park:
Pennsylvania State Uni Press 1999), George Urban's Radio
Free Europe and the Pursuit of Democracy: My War within the
Cold War (New Haven: Yale Uni Press 1997), Sig Mickelson's
America's Other Voice: The Story of Radio Free Europe
& Radio Liberty (New York: Praeger 1983), Arch Puddington's
Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free
Europe and Radio Liberty (Lexington: Uni of Kentucky
Press 2000) and Laurien Alexandre's Voice of America:
From Detente to the Reagan Doctrine (Norwood: Ablex 1988).
A sidelight is provided in Marilyn Matelski's Vatican
Radio: Propagation by the Airwaves (Westport: Praeger
1995).
regulation
For the FCC see Radio and Television Regulation: Broadcast
Technology in the United States, 1920-1960 (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins Uni Press 2000) by Hugh Slotten, Doerksen's
American Babel (2005), Selling the Air: A Critique
of the Policy of Commercial Broadcasting in the United States
(Chicago: Uni of Chicago Press 1996) by Thomas Streeter, American
Broadcast Regulation and the First Amendment: Another Look
(Ames: Iowa State Uni Press 2000) by Charles Tillinghast,
FCC: The Ups and Downs of Radio-TV Regulation (Ames:
Iowa State Uni Press 1989) by William Ray and Regulating
the Future: Broadcasting Technology and Governmental Control
(Westport: Greenwood 2001) by W A Kelly Huff.
A perspective is offered in Broadcasting Pluralism &
Diversity: A Comparative Study of Policy and Regulation
(Oxford: Hart 2006) by Lesley Hitchens, Radio, Morality,
& Culture: Britain, Canada, and the United States, 1919-1945
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois Uni Press 2005) by Robert Fortner.
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