The Rise of Radio, from Marconi through the Golden Age

by Alfred Balk

Overview

As the dominant form of electronic mass communication in the United States from the 1930s into the 1950s, radio helped to forge a modern continental nation. It fused myriad subcultures—heavily rural, ethnic, and immigrant—into a national identity, unifying the nation in the face of the Depression and war. Later, federal deregulation allowed the radio of the "Golden Age," 1926-1952, to devolve into a chain-dominated, satellite-fed plaything of Wall Street. Today, radio has the highest profit ratio of all the media outlets—and Golden Age traditions of programming taste, diversity, balance, and localism are a legacy squandered.

This anecdote-rich sweep of radio history, from its birth as Marconi's "wireless telegraph" through its current status under deregulation, analyzes the changing medium's social, political, and cultural impact. It casts new light on many topics, including the roles of women and African Americans, programming sources outside the Hollywood-Broadway nexus, and arguments about Amos 'n' Andy—once the hit that jump-started radio's young networks, now a controversial remnant of a bygone era. The book is augmented with more than sixty photos, extensive source notes, and a bibliography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786423682
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	12/01/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.72(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late Alfred Balk was a former editor at Columbia Journalism Review, Saturday Review, and other magazines. He wrote more than 100 articles for Harper’s, Reader’s Digest, and other publications, taught at Columbia and Syracuse, and was the author or co-author of seven other books.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Preface     

Part I: Radio’s Rise
1. Radio’s Roots     
2. An Industry Is Born     
3. The Radio Craze     
4. AT&T Tries a Takeover     
5. Programming’s Ascent     
6. Enter Advertising     
7. Regulation Arrives, Set-Making Thrives     
8. And Now, Networks     
9. “Playboy” Paley Surprises     
10. Amos, Andy, and Liftoff     
11. Chicago’s Innings     
12. Cincinnati, Detroit, and Tonto     
13. Westward, Ho!     
14. Mutual Arrives, Ad Agencies Program     
15. The Great Press and Identity Wars     

Part II: The Age’s Stage
16. Comedy’s Trail Blazers     
17. Comedy’s Second Wave     
18. Sitcoms Tonight     
19. Adventure, Crime, Mystery     
20. “Get Your Decoders Ready”     
21. Uncle Don to “School of the Air”     
22. “Can a Young Woman Who...”     
23. Playwrights Stage Center     
24. Baritones to Barn Dances     
25. Blues to Big Bands     
26. Talking Heads     
27. The Jackpot Question Is...     
28. We/You Are There     

Part III: Pinnacle, Precipice, Abyss
29. Maturity Blooms     
30. War, NBC’s Split, ABC     
31. By the Home Fires     
32. Before the Fall     
33. An Old Order Dies     
34 A Legacy Lost     

Chapter Notes     
Bibliography     
Index     

What People are Saying About This

Radio & Television Museum News

"Well-researched."

Everette E. Dennis

"A masterful work and a pleasure to read...ought to be the lasting work on the subject."
—Fordham University

Mike Wallace

"A fabulous book...the research that went into it is stunning!"
—60 Minutes

Robert Lewis Shayon

"Should become a classroom standard."
—Saturday Review

Editorial Reviews

it’s a fabulous book and the research that went into it is stunning!”—Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes; “will live long in the literature of radio and deservedly so”—Norman Corwin; anyone teaching a...broadcast history course would do well to consider this book”—Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly; “admirable...informative and entertaining...writing is clear...language is vivid...a fresh collection of anecdotes”—IEEE Technology and Society Magazine; “[its] admirably clear prose sums up a dizzying array of previous histories”—Journal of Radio Studies; “a fascinating history...and Balk’s depth of research is astounding”—Chicago Life; “probably the best general history of the topic...excellent job”—The Illustrated Press; “thoroughly researched and documented”—The Antique Wireless Association Journal; “I could not put it down...excellent...I think I will read the book again”—Antique Radio Classified; “valuable”—Friends of the Old-time Radio; “should become a classroom standard”—Robert Lewis Shayon, Saturday Review; “The Rise of Radio is excellent”—Newton N. Minow, former FCC Chairman; “research is staggering”—Thomas Fleming, author; “a masterful work and a pleasure to read...ought to be the lasting work on the subject”—Everette E. Dennis, Fordham University; “well-researched”—Radio & Television Museum News; “entertaining”—Columbia Journalism Review.

From the Publisher

will live long in the literature of radio and deservedly so

Norman Corwin

anyone teaching a...broadcast history course would do well to consider this book"

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

it's a fabulous book and the research that went into it is stunning!

60 Minutes - Mike Wallace

Thoroughly researched and documented.

Antique Wireless Assoc. Journal

Well-researched.

Radio & Television Museum News

Should become a classroom standard.
— Robert Lewis Shayon

Saturday Review

A fabulous book...the research that went into it is stunning!

Mike Wallace

Entertaining.

Columbia Journalism Review

"One of the first truly scholarly histories of radio...excellent job."

The Illustrated Press