Customer Reviews

Hello, Everybody!: The Dawn of American Radio

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Was radio the second-most important communication medium that came into widespread use in the twentieth century? Many would say that only television was second to the Internet in its revolutionary impact, but it was radio that inaugurated the age of real-time mass communications.

In "Hello, Everybody!", Anthony Rudel examines the history of radio from Marconi's first transmission in 1895 through the early 1930s. The author provides details about the amateurs who dabbled in radio as a hobby early in the 1900s and cites some little-known pre-1920 experiments in radio transmission.

Rudel examines the rapid growth of radio in the 1920s (even Presidents Harding and Coolidge became avid listeners), with the explosion in the number of radio stations, the formation of the CBS and NBC networks, and station frequency assignments.

The 1920 election returns, widely regarded as the first radio program, are mentioned, and the author talks about early radio programming in areas such as music, entertainment, sports, politics, religion, and agriculture. Rudel discusses some important early stations and important personalities such as Graham McNamee, Aimee Semple McPherson, and Father Coughlin that were heard then.

In Rudel's closing remarks, he states that "radio provided the formidable foundation for all of the electronic mass media that followed". Those who are fans of both radio and history will enjoy this look back at an important chapter in American social history.

I often wish American schools would use regular books instead of textbooks for the teaching of history. The former are populated with thousands of great reads that cover just about any subject under the sun. This is one of them. This chronological study of the development of the radio business in America links together sports, politics, business, science, pop culture, mass entertainment and sociology into one amazing synthesis. By following key individuals within government, business, and among the masses, the author shows how radio turned from a novelty into a key feature of American society. Some of the people covered include presidents Hoover, Coolidge and FDR, sports greats Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Jack Tunney, religious figures such as Charles Coughlin, quacks such as Dr. John Brinkley, and others. The book shows how radio made some of them, broke some of the others, but affected them all. For a book on a technical subject, the amount of science is kept to a minimum as the focus is on the people who drove, or were driven by the business. Overall, a great and entertaining book.

I've always had a deep fascination with early mass media in America and had been reading a lot about early American Television. It seemed the next obvious progression in reading about this period would to continue back to the birth of the American Radio Industry in the book "Hello Everybody!: The Dawn of American Radio".

I couldn't help be reminded right away of the Woody Allen movie "Radio Days" with the first chapter of this book when it begins telling the story of Dr. Brinkley and KFKB of Milford, Kansas. At first I was curious where the author was going, but I realized just with the Woody Allen movie that what made radio was not only the shows and the technology, but the characters and stories that came with the medium.

Anthony Rudel does an absolutely masterful job in weaving the story of American radio with technical historical facts, characters that made the industry and perhaps a few tall tales. You begin to realize through the story how Radio really revolutionized the world and how it was the Internet of it's time. Truly a turning point in the history of the entire world (more so than television if you ask me).

This is a fantastic book and I couldn't recommend it enough for someone interested in history of communication and entertainment, or even a gift for a grandparent. I loved every second of reading this book.

Radio changed the face of religion, sports and even the country itself and the author spent years as a radio broadcaster on the radio station of the New York Times, so he observed these changes in action. His discussion of how the internet explosion paralleled the American radio changes, how radio was used by politicians to influence American hearts and minds, and how radio even led to modern marketing and business world changes makes for a lively social commentary perfect for general interest, American history, and social science libraries.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book fills a somewhat neglected niche in the area of mass media communication. For those of us of "a certain age," radio and the newspaper were the prime resources of information, with magazines and the movie newsreels following close behind. The early days of radio are covered in just enough detail to sustain interest without getting bogged down in mundane overkill. As both a trip down Nostalgia Lane for those who were there, or a trip down Discovery Drive for those who are interested in 20th. Century history, this book fills the bill quite nicely.

For anyone who loves American history this is a truly wonderful read! After the world was finally connected by the telegraph's dots and dashes, finally the human voice and man made sounds flew mysterially over the airwaves into people's homes and shops and truly changed lives; first came the snake-oil salesmen broadcasters and opportunistic hobbiest and entrepeneurs; then came crop and weather reports, music and entertainment into remote homes; then came Baseball's World Series suspense and major boxing matches and other sporting events; then politics was profoundly changed forever and Presidents won or lost elections due to their radio presence. All of the media coverage we take for granted today was added bit by bit, advance upon advance during the 1920's and late 1930's. This is a fascinating book for people who enjoy finding out how we got to where we are today in our daily media-filled lives! Highly recommended, but most valuable to older readers. We're sending this to family and friends.

Great book. If you have an interest in early radio you will love it. I was sorry when I finished it and there was no more left to read.

While I'm mainly interested in the technical aspects of modern radio, I do enjoy reading about all facets of radio development. Anthony Rudel's book "Hello Everybody!" is superbly written and covers early 20th century radio events and personalities you won't hear about elsewhere. If you love radio history, especially if you enjoy reading about the people behind early (American) radio programming, you'll love this book!

The first chapter of the book completely threw me off. After finishing the book it's apparent why John Brinkley was featured so prominently as the first anecdote of the book but frankly the whole goat story threw me off.

I would've preferred he had done a more conventional first chapter (detailing the technology or the inventors of radio)and saved Brinkley and his goats for the second chapter after we had been settled in.

Obviously Brinkley was a huge character in the history of radio but it felt so out of place as the first chapter. It felt so off-topic and frankly kind of gross.

The rest of the book was great, a chronological recap of the rise of radio from it's humble origins to the mass communications device it would become. I was struck by three things:

1. How isolated people must've been without radio.

2. How radio was dismissed as a fad similar to how people dismiss websites like Twitter.

3. How there was no broadcast infrastructure before radio. There was newspapers but no reporters or crew to deal with a live broadcast. It made me realize that all the stuff we have today: 24hour cable news, sports broadcasts, show sponsors, the concept of breaking news and the practice listening/watching something at a specific hour M-F all originated from radio.

It is kinda nice to know that even back then people were crazy about getting the news as fast as possible.

It's a great book and highly recommended. It makes you appreciate all the technology we have now compared to back then.

The past couple of years I've been reading nearly every "old time radio history" book I could find. They all tell about the same story with the same characters, and I thought I was about saturated.

"Hello, Everybody" is different. It has the IN DEPTH stories of major radio personalities (mostly performers, but also the "radio quack doctors" and evangelists) in an informal, narrative style. The other books I had read only scratched the surface of these interesting people.

I recommend "Hello, Everybody" as a follow-up to the other old time radio books, or even as an introduction to this fascinating subject.