Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960 (Library Binding)

by Luther F. Sies (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
American radio's first 40 years was a period of great innovation and growth, resulting in a medium that flourished as a source of both entertainment and information. This massive encyclopedia from Sies, a retired college professor who has coordinated programs in speech, hearing, and language, contains thousands of numbered, alphabetically arranged entries describing specific radio programs and performers. Several different indexes help readers search the entries. For informative, capsulated information on radio programs during the Golden Age of radio, Sies's book is a great start. Although much of the time it doesn't go beyond providing introductory information, it does give in-depth coverage of general areas of radio study such as sports broadcasting and daytime dramatic serials. To date, this work is one of the most comprehensive relating to radio programming of the period, containing far more entries than Ron Lackman's recent Encyclopedia of American Radio A-Z (LJ 3/1/00), though it lacks illustrations. Recommended for academic and public library media collections.DDavid M. Lisa, Mercyhurst Coll. Lib., Erie, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In the second edition of a well-received work, Sies continues his quest to document the programs and performers of American “radio’s golden age.” This “revised, expanded and corrected edition” offers a number of new entries that expand the coverage of the role of radio in our social and cultural history. Among them are lengthy articles that address such issues as Scopes “monkey” trial broadcasts, Gender discrimination, and American traitors on radio. Among other new entries are those on holiday programs, minstrel shows and vaudeville, and superheroes. The arrangement of material is the same as in the first edition although the number of entries has increased from 28,848 to 35,976. Many entries consist of a single line identifying an individual broadcaster. Appendixes include a concise chronology of radio covering the years from 1906 to 1960 and a list of broadcasters classified into some 83 different categories, among them comedy teams, imitators and impersonators, musical comb-music performers, quiz masters, and yodelers. There are a sizable bibliography and detailed indexes by station, program, and name. These indexes, as in the first edition, refer to entry rather than page numbers. In a time when so much of radio programming seems to consist of political rants of one kind or another, it is important to recall an era in which radio offered a real variety of programming, from news to entertainment to live cultural events. Scholarship on this golden age continues, and the Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920–1960 serves as its definitive reference source. Recommended for performing-arts and popular-culture collections in academic and large public libraries. --Carolyn Mulac --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 904 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786404523
• ISBN-13: 978-0786404520
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.9 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,434,684 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book is too expensive and has too many errors, July 31, 2002

By A Customer

I was disappointed with this book because I felt it was going to be the definitive Old Time Radio show reference book and it certainly was not. It is full of errors and has many misspellings...names of performers...show information in often incorrect (apparently gathered from other book sources and fan magazines, which are highly unreliable). But I was really outraged at the cost of the book. Outrageous for a one volume book. There are other books on old time radio....John Dunning's book,for example, which is much more interesting visally and are entertainly written. Perhaps this book should be revised with a more general audience in mind!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boringly written and too many errors, July 31, 2002

By A Customer

This book has none of the interest, as far as entertainment value is concerned as HOW SWEET IT WAS and THE AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RADIO by Ron Lackmann. It only has entries for shows and no biographies of major radio personalities. I was most disappointed by this fact. The author, is, unfortunately a rather amateurish writer and many of his remarks are not very clear. Where did he do his research? I was not at all pleased with this purchase.