Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination, from Amos 'n' Andy and Edward R. Murrow to W olfman Jack and Howard Stern
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.66 (761 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0812925467 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 415 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-10-13 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Susan Douglas, author of the much praised Where the Girls Are, explores how radio -- how we listened, where we listened, and whom we listened to -- has influenced the national psyche.
Douglas's main interest is not in the innovations themselves, however, but in how they affected the Americans who were listening to shows from Victor Lopez's jazz band broadcasts in the '20s to Eddie Cantor's Chase and Sanborn Hour in the '30s; Alan Reed's mixed-race rock 'n' roll broadcasts in the '50s; "White Rabbit" on KSAN in San Francisco in the late '60s; Larry King in the '80s; and Dr. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. She finds that each new technological innovation in radio was pioneered by amateurs, resisted by the mainstream media, made popular by a daring few and finally watered down and exploited by commercial interests. She shows us how radio has opened up new w
arthur marcus said If you like old radio This is a great read. Like very much. F. Behrens said Not just a history, not just a textbook. Please take note that Susan J. Douglas' (Times Books, 1999) is no mere history of radio. It was triggered by a request from the Sloan Foundation that was preparing a series of books on technology and American culture; and the emphasis is not on the details but on the general effect radio has on us from its beginnings. And take another note. This is too enjoyable a read to be considered a textbook. My favorite chapter was the one called "Radio Comedy and Linguistic Slapstick." Here only a few comics are used as . Superb social and cultural history of the medium A Customer Radio has become such a background part of our lives, we forget just how astounding an impact it has had on our culture and psyche. Susan Douglas brings it all back to the foreground in her book "Listening In." This is not just a chronicle of the development of the media, this book takes us deep into the social impacts of radio, and how it changed how we react and interact with each other. Douglas has perfectly captured the feel and "tone" of different periods of radio listening, and explores a lot of the psycho