Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio [Paperback]

Michele Hilmes (Editor), Jason Loviglio (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0415928214 | ISBN-13: 978-0415928212 | Edition: 1

While cultural historians and media scholars have been looking at television for decades, they have only recently turned their eyes (and ears) to radio. Studies of television rarely acknowledge that many of its forms-soap operas, situation comedies, quiz shows, sportscasts, etc.-all evolved out of the earlier medium. The essays collected here demonstrate that radio set patterns that have effected all forms of media that have followed it, and also look at how it has survived the coming of media that supposedly made it obsolete.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The contributors to this volume persuasively argue that the radio has been at the center of the American imaginative and political life in the twentieth century.an important and entertaining book by two leading scholars. -- Lary May, author of The Big Tomorrow, Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way
From music to mysteries, call-ins to comedy, advertising to advocacy, and religion to racial uplift, it's all here in Radio Reader. -- George Lipsitz, author of Time Passages
Radio had been ubiquitous in American life since the late 1920s. With this seminal book, we may now begin to understand what this has meant to our civilization. Bravo! -- J. Fred MacDonald, Professor Emeritus, Northeastern Illinois University
Long marginalized in American media historiography, radio finally receives fitting scholarly treatment. Radio Reader should be required reading for any serious student of media history. -- Robert C. Allen, Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Radio Reader re-invents the radio as an object of study by letting us hear disembodied and contradictory voices from the past. An indispensable collection! -- Janet Staiger, William P. Hobby Centennial Professor of Communication, University of Texas at Austin.
Long marginalized in American media historiography, radio finally receives fitting scholarly treatment. Radio Reader should be required reading for any serious student of media history. -- Robert C. Allen, Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Radio Reader re-invents the radio as an object of study by letting us hear disembodied and contradictory voices from the past. An indispensable collection! -- Janet Staiger, William P. Hobby Centennial Professor of Communication, University of Texas at Austin.
Radio Reader is a powerful report on the powerful history of a powerful medium. It weaves tales of everyday life with stories about the transformation radio has gone through. It is captivatingly told, and ;eaves the reader not only with a wistful longing for the early period of radio, but also a wish to do research on the subject oneself. That is how strong this book is. -- Oystein Hide, University of Southampton,Techné
The Radio Reader offers a broad, interdisciplinary perspective on radio broadcasting in the 20th century. -- Elizabeth Hayes, University of Iowa, Journal of Communication

About the Author

Michele Hilmes is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of Hollywood in the Age of Television: From Radio to Cable and Radio Voices: American Broadcasting 1922-1952. Jason Loviglio is Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (October 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415928214
• ISBN-13: 978-0415928212
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,095,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you love radio, you'll buy it., March 12, 2002

By 

B. Freeman (poughkeepsie NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio (Paperback)

Okay, well if you have read Susan J. Douglas' book "Tuning in" or "Inventing American B'casting." Or Hines' "Radio Voices" or Smulyans' "Selling Radio" -- you'll know exactly where this book comes from (this book is like an extension of these books - only up to modern day). I am very pleased that we are seeing more published books on radio in the academy, however, the majority of these are coming from the cultural studies perspective -- I guess because any quantitative study is thought to be largely the purveyance of the industry. So, it's a qualitative romp through the garden of radio past and the impact the medium has had on the American Psyche that perhaps we have overlooked due to our (new?) obsession with television. It's a step above the general "I recall when radio was great..." books due to the caliber of essayists in the thing. WHile it's not extremely original, the writing is superb and offers some more insights into the medium of radio. It benefits too from the fact that these essays are not overly written about (and published) in the academy. So, in other words, there is certainly more than enough room for it in the literature.