Communities of the Air

Susan Merrill Squier

Description

A pioneering analysis of radio as both a cultural and material production, Communities of the Air explores radio's powerful role in shaping Anglo-American culture and society since the early twentieth century. Scholars and radio writers, producers, and critics look at the many ways radio generates multiple communities over the air-from elite to popular, dominant to resistant, canonical to transgressive. The contributors approach radio not only in its own right, but also as a set of practices-both technological and social-illuminating broader issues such as race relations, gender politics, and the construction of regional and national identities.Drawing on the perspectives of literary and cultural studies, science studies and feminist theory, radio history, and the new field of radio studies, these essays consider the development of radio as technology: how it was modeled on the telephone, early conflicts between for-profit and public uses of radio, and amateur radio (HAMS), local programming, and low-power radio. Some pieces discuss how radio gives voice to different cultural groups, focusing on the BBC and poetry programming in the West Indies, black radio, the history of alternative radio since the 1970s, and science and contemporary arts programming. Others look at radio's influence on gender (and gender's influence on radio) through examinations of Queen Elizabeth's broadcasts, Gracie Allen's comedy, and programming geared toward women. Together the contributors demonstrate how attention to the variety of ways radio is used and understood reveals the dynamic emergence and transformation of communities within the larger society.Contributors. Laurence A. Breiner, Bruce B. Campbell, Mary Desjardins, Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Nina Hunteman, Leah Lowe, Adrienne Munich, Kathleen Newman, Martin Spinelli, Susan Merrill Squier, Donald Ulin, Mark Williams, Steve Wurzler

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Cultural studies
• Radio

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 19 juin 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822384816
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

COMMUNITIES OF THE AIR

COMMUNITIES OF THE AIR

r a d i o c e n t u ry, r a d i o c u lt u r e

e d i t e d b y s u s a n m e r r i l l s q u i e r

L

d u k e u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s

d u r h a m a n d l o n d o n

2 0 0 3

∫2003 Duke University Press

All rights reserved. Printed in the United

States of America on acid-free paper$Designed by

Amy Ruth Buchanan. Typeset in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data appear on the last printed

page of this book.

To the radio lovers: JDS (The Shadow knows), CCSandRDS ( bbc World Service), NCBS ( koto )andVLS ( kdnk )

To theSociety for Literature and Science,

a good community in which to think about

communities of the air.

And toGowen, Caitlin,andToby,

for sharing the same frequency

for so many years.

ix Acknowledgments

1susan m. squier World

CONTENTS

Communities of the Air: Introducing the Radio

Radio Technology across the Twentieth Century 39steven wurtzlerAT&T Invents Public Access Broadcasting in 1923: A Foreclosed Model for American Radio

63bruce campbellCompromising Technologies: Government, the Radio Hobby, and the Discourse of Catastrophe in the Twentieth Century

76nina huntemann Power Radio

A Promise Diminished: The Politics of Low-

Radio Cultures 93laurence a. breinerCaribbean Voices on the Air: Radio, Poetry, and Nationalism in the Anglophone Caribbean

109kathy m. newmanThe Forgotten Fifteen Million: Black Radio, Radicalism, and the Construction of the ‘‘Negro Market’’

134lauren m. e. goodladPackaged Alternatives: The Incorporation and Gendering of ‘‘Alternative’’ Radio

164donald ulinScience Literacies: The Mandate and Complicity of Popular Science on the Radio

195martin spinelli

Not Hearing Poetry on Public Radio

viii

contents

Radio Ideologies 217adrienne munichIn the Radio Way: Elizabeth II, the Female Voice-Over, and the Radio’s Imperial E√ects

237

leah loweIf the Country’s Going Gracie, So Can You’’: Gender Representation in Gracie Allen’s Radio Comedy

251mary desjardins and mark williams‘‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’’: Gendered Address inThe Lonesome GalandThe Continental 275susan m. squierWireless Possibilities, Posthuman Possibilities: Brain Radio, Community Radio, Radio Lazarus

305

307

Contributors

Index

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

I would like to thank the members and audience of the radio panels at the 1998 Modern Language Association Convention, in San Francisco. The energy of our discussion convinced me this book should happen. Thanks, too, to my research assistants, Christina Jarvis, Julie Vedder, Elizabeth Mazzolini, and Megan Brown, who helped round up information on low- power radio, clip newspaper articles, communicate with the contributors, and check copy. Thanks to Sandy Steltz, of the Penn State University Rare Book Room, who kept her eyes peeled for anything relating to radio. And finally, a huge thank you to Reynolds Smith, whose enthusiasm for radio and engagement in this project made him the perfect editor.