Talking Radio: An Oral History of American Radio in the Television Age: An Oral History of American Radio in the Television Age

by Michael C. Keith

Overview

Includes interviews with such well known personalities as Walter Cronkite, Dick Clark, Steve Allen, Art Linkletter, Paul Harvey, Howard K. Smith, Ed McMahon, Bruce Morrow, as well as more than fifty other individuals who were or continue to be actively involved in radio.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000161380
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/24/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Michael C. Keith ranks among the most prolific authors on the subject of broadcast media, in particular radio. He is senior lecturer of communication at Boston College and is the author of over a dozen books, including Voices in the Purple Haze, Signals in the Air, and the classic textbook, The Radio Station. In addition, with Robert Hilliard he has coauthored Waves of Rancor and The Hidden Screen for M.E.Sharpe, as well as several other titles. He is also the author of numerous journal articles and has served in a variety of editorial positions, including that of coeditor of the M.E. Sharpe series, "Media, Communication, and Culture in America." He is past chair of education for the Museum of Broadcast Communications and a former broadcaster.

Table of Contents

Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Cast of Contributors -- Part I. The War Ends and the Picture Begins -- 1. The Quiet After and Before: Radio's Victory and Short Peace -- 2. Assault of the Infant: Television Takes Over the Living Room -- 3. Together ... but Separate: When the Two Worked as One -- 4. The Word Is the Thing: The Substance of Sound -- 5. In Mourning and Evening: "The Way It Was" Radio -- 6. Reinventing Itself: A Winning Formula Is Found -- Part II. The Second Coming of Radio -- 7. Home of the Hits: Going to the Top 40 -- 8. Airy Personas: New Legends of the Of' Airwaves -- 9. At the Top of the Hour: And Now the News -- 10. Chatter that Matters: Words Without Music -- 11. The Good Air: As a Public Trustee -- 12. The Bad Air: Those Tuneout Factors -- Part III. The Times and Bands Are A-Chan gin' -- 13. People's Radio: A Medium for Everyone -- 14. Under Suspicion: Behind Every Set -- 15. Equality for Some: A White Man's Medium -- 16. Descent from Dominance: AM's Fall from Grace -- 17. Ascent of Fidelity: FM 's Rise to Power -- 18. Shock Waves: Polluting the Air -- Part IV. Into the New Millennium -- 19. Business by the Book: Impressions Count -- 20. Going Public: Noncommercial Radio -- 21. Tum of the Screw: Tubes and Wires in a Box -- 22. Hoarding the Air: Stations in the Fold -- 23. In the Air Ahead: The Future of Radio -- 24. Seems Radio Is Here to Stay, by Norman Corwin: A Play for Broadcast -- Further Reading -- Index.

Editorial Reviews

Twenty-three roundtable interviews discuss the impact of the arrival of television, the rise of transistor radios, the popularity of rock `n' roll, FM stereo stations, underground radio in the 1960s, the relaxing of regulation in the Reagan era, talk radio, public radio, and how technology and the Internet will affects radio's future. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

While the birth of television didn't bring about the death of radio as predicted by many, including the then president of NBC, it did cause it to fall on troubled and uncertain times. The stars of radio, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Groucho Marx, Burns and Allen et al, followed "Mr.Television" Milton Berle on to the television screen and radio was no longer the household's number one entertainment medium.
Michael C. Keith, a former broadcaster, senior lecturer of communications at Boston College and the author of over a dozen books on radio, lets us "listen in" on more than one hundred broadcasting executives and personalities as they trace radio's history from its sharp decline in the early fifties to the influential and profitable position it enjoys today.
Keith has done a good job in assembling people with varying backgrounds, different points of view and from all sections of the country. From Studs Terkel recalling the "brilliance and creativity" of radio's early years to True Boardman remembering an "overemphasis on evil doings and foul deeds." From Paul Harvey calling the Howard Stern style of broadcasting "inexcusable" to Dick Orkin finding Stern "unique" and a "reminder of radio's strength as an up-close and intimate medium." As to its future, Walter Cronkite is one of several who suggests that it might become an adjunct to the Internet while Larry Gelbart laments that "despite all these new technologies, it will be just an outbox filled mostly with prattle (except for Garrison Keilor) and the same old same old."
The book's wide range of discussions and debates leaves it up to the reader to conclude the impact of radio's contributions in the past, what it's contributing today and what might be expected of it in the future. It merits a place on the bookshelves of anyone who is or has been a part of the broadcast industry, and should also be of almost equal interest to the members of its audience.
—Foreword

Frank Sisson