Research Guides
Communication Studies: Radio
This subject guide is a starting point for communication-related research, including mass media, speech communication, and more.
Encyclopedias
Directories, Organizations & More
- AMARC : World Association of Community Radio BroadcastersAMARC is an international norganization serving the community radio movement.
- Current OnlineSelected content from Current, the biweekly newspaper that covers public broadcasting television and radio.
- Billboard BusinessProvides current industry news
- Radio LocatorDirectory of radio stations in the US, Canada & world.
- RadioSpace"Radio broadcasting agency that provides news and programming services to radio stations and organizations."
- US Radio StationsAJR NewsLink maintains this list of US radio stations, organized by state.
- World Radio Network (WRN)"WRN carries live newscast audio streams in RealAudio and StreamWorks 24 hours a day from 25 of the world's leading public and international broadcasters."
Historic Radio
- American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB)AAPB is a growing collection of pubic radio & public television broadcasts
- American Women Making History and Culture: 1963-19821900+ audio files from Pacifica Radio stations: KPFA-FM Berkeley, KPFK-FM Los Angeles, WBAI-FM New York City, KPFT-FM Houston, and WPFW-Washington, D.C.
- Broadcasting CollectionIncludes issues of 1920s and 30s Radio Age, Radio Broadcast, Radio Digest & more
- Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Includes early years of Billboard and Broadcasting magazines which covered radio.
- Historical Media Publications CollectionMagazines covering the "development of the moving image and broadcasting industries in the early to mid-20th century." Includes TV Radio Mirror (1934-1963), Broadcasting (1931-1963) & more
- National JukeboxRecordings were issued on record labels now owned by Sony Music Entertainment, which granted the Library of Congress a gratis license to stream acoustical recordings,1901-1925 and growing.
- Old Time RadioInternet Archives collection of 5000+ audio files. Part of Radio Programs collection that also includes newer programming
- Open Vault"Online access to unique and historically important content produced by the public television and radio station WGBH."
- Orson Welles/Mercury TheatreSite includes streamed audio of complete productions.
- Radio DaysThis site features text and RealAudio clips of classic radio drama, news, comedies, and mysteries.
- Radio Guide 1932-1935"A weekly publication in the early network era of radio ... predecessor of TV Guide."
- September 21, 1939: A Day in RadioComplete day of radio broadcasts from WJSV in Washington, DC
Book Sampler
The UW Libraries has many books about radio. To find additional books, use UW Libraries Search.
Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City by
Started by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company in 1925, WSM became one of the most influential and exceptional radio stations in the history of broadcasting and country music. WSM gave Nashville the moniker "Music City USA" as well as a rich tradition of music, news, and broad-based entertainment. With the rise of country music broadcasting and recording between the 1920s and '50s, WSM, Nashville, and country music became inseparable, stemming from WSM's launch of the Grand Ole Opry, popular daily shows like Noontime Neighbors, and early morning artist-driven shows such as Hank Williams on Mother's Best Flour. Sparked by public outcry following a proposal to pull country music and the Opry from WSM-AM in 2002, Craig Havighurst scoured new and existing sources to document the station's profound effect on the character and self-image of Nashville. Introducing the reader to colorful artists and businessmen from the station's history, including Owen Bradley, Minnie Pearl, Jim Denny, Edwin Craig, and Dinah Shore, the volume invites the reader to reflect on the status of Nashville, radio, and country music in American culture.
Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty by
Among America's most unusual and successful weapons during the Cold War were Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. RFE-RL had its origins in a post-war America brimming with confidence and secure in its power. Unlike the Voice of America, which conveyed a distinctly American perspective on global events, RFE-RL served as surrogate home radio services and a vital alternative to the controlled, party-dominated domestic press in Eastern Europe. Over twenty stations featured programming tailored to individual countries. They reached millions of listeners ranging from industrial workers to dissident
Fireside Politics: Radio and Political Culture in the United States, 1920-1940 by
In Fireside Politics, Douglas B. Craig provides the first detailed and complete examination of radio's changing role in American political culture between 1920 and 1940--the medium's golden age, when it commanded huge national audiences without competition from television. Craig follows the evolution of radio into a commercialized, networked, and regulated industry, and ultimately into an essential tool for winning political campaigns and shaping American identity in the interwar period. Finally, he draws thoughtful comparisons of the American experience of radio broadcasting and political culture with those of Australia, Britain, and Canada.
Lum and Abner: Rural America and the Golden Age of Radio by
In the 1930s radio stations filled the airwaves with programs and musical performances about rural Americans -- farmers and small-town residents struggling through the Great Depression. One of the most popular of these shows was Lum and Abner, the brainchild of Chester "Chet" Lauck and Norris "Tuffy" Goff, two young businessmen from Arkansas. Beginning in 1931 and lasting for more than two decades, the show revolved around the lives of ordinary people in the fictional community of Pine Ridge, based on the hamlet of Waters, Arkansas. The title characters, who are farmers, local officials, and the keepers of the Jot 'Em Down Store, manage to entangle themselves in a variety of hilarious dilemmas. The program's gentle humor and often complex characters had wide appeal both to rural southerners, who were accustomed to being the butt of jokes in the national media, and to urban listeners who were fascinated by descriptions of life in the American countryside. Lum and Abner was characterized by the snappy, verbal comedic dueling that became popular on radio programs of the 1930s. Using this format, Lauck and Goff allowed their characters to subvert traditional authority and to poke fun at common misconceptions about rural life. The show also featured hillbilly and other popular music, an innovation that drew a bigger audience. As a result, Arkansas experienced a boom in tourism, and southern listeners began to immerse themselves in a new national popular culture. In Lum and Abner: Rural America and the Golden Age of Radio, historian Randal L. Hall explains the history and importance of the program, its creators, and its national audience. He also presents a treasure trove of twenty-nine previously unavailable scripts from the show's earliest period, scripts that reveal much about the Great Depression, rural life, hillbilly stereotypes, and a seminal period of American radio.
Radio Nation: Communication, Popular Culture, and Nationalism in Mexico, 1920-1950 by
The role of mass communication in nation building has often been underestimated, particularly in the case of Mexico. Following the Revolution, the Mexican government used the new medium of radio to promote national identity and build support for the new regime. Joy Hayes now tells how an emerging country became a radio nation. This groundbreaking book investigates the intersection of radio broadcasting and nation building. Hayes tells how both government-controlled and private radio stations produced programs of distinctly Mexican folk and popular music as a means of drawing the country's regions together and countering the influence of U.S. broadcasts. Hayes describes how, both during and after the period of cultural revolution, Mexican radio broadcasting was shaped by the clash and collaboration of different social forces--including U.S. interests, Mexican media entrepreneurs, state institutions, and radio audiences. She traces the evolution of Mexican radio in case studies that focus on such subjects as early government broadcasting activities, the role of Mexico City media elites, the "paternal voice" of presidential addresses, and U.S. propaganda during World War II. More than narrative history, Hayes's study provides an analytical framework for understanding the role of radio in building Mexican nationalism at a critical time in that nation's history. Radio Nation expands our appreciation of an overlooked medium that changed the course of an entire country.
The Radio Right by
In the past few years, trust in traditional media has reached new lows. Many Americans disbelieve what they hear from the "mainstream media," and have turned to getting information from media echo chambers which are reflective of a single party or ideology. In this book, Paul Matzko reveals that this is not the first such moment in modern American history. The Radio Right tells the story of the 1960s far Right, who were frustrated by what they perceived to be liberal bias in the national media, particularly the media's sycophantic relationship with the John F. Kennedy administration. These people turned for news and commentary to a resurgent form of ultra-conservative mass media: radio. As networks shifted their resources to television, radio increasingly became the preserve of cash-strapped, independent station owners who were willing to air the hundreds of new right-wing programs that sprang up in the late 1950s and 1960s. By the early 1960s, millions of Americans listened each week to conservative broadcasters, the most prominent of which were clergy or lay broadcasters from across the religious spectrum, including Carl McIntire, Billy James Hargis, and Clarence Manion. Though divided by theology, these speakers were united by their distrust of political and theological liberalism and their antipathy towards JFK. The political influence of the new Radio Right quickly became apparent as the broadcasters attacked the Kennedy administration's policies and encouraged grassroots conservative activism on a massive scale. Matzko relates how, by 1963, Kennedy was so alarmed by the rise of the Radio Right that he ordered the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Communications Commission to target conservative broadcasters with tax audits and enhanced regulatory scrutiny via the Fairness Doctrine. Right-wing broadcasters lost hundreds of stations and millions of listeners. Not until the deregulation of the airwaves under the Carter and Reagan administrations would right-wing radio regain its former prominence. The Radio Right provides the essential pre-history for the last four decades of conservative activism, as well as the historical context for current issues of political bias and censorship in the media.
Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio by
In Voice Over, a celebration and history, William Barlow explores the entire landscape of black radio from the early days - when the white public accepted the black-face buffoonery of "The Amos and Andy Show" and "Beulah" as a fair depiction of African American Life - to the rise of personality jocks and the contemporary scene of corporate buyouts and uncertain fate. Barlow, whose voice has been heard on WPFW (Washington, D.C.) for many years, brings an insider's knowledge to this account of black radio as a predominantly local and still powerful medium. Many of the broadcasters he profiles -- Jack Cooper, Paul Robeson, Richard Durham, Cathy Hughes, Al Benson, Georgie Woods, Peggy Mitchell, Hal Jackson, Jocko Henderson, Mary Mason, Wesley South, Martha Jean "the Queen" Steinberg, to name a few -- became not only celebrities but also respected members of their communities. Atlanta's Jack "the Rapper" Gibson, for instance, tells how he literally shared his microphone with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to announce meetings and rally listeners around a key issue. By showing the extent to which so many black broadcasters achieved the status of trusted and influential community leaders, Barlow acknowledges that their grassroots activism was an indispensable and often overlooked part of the ongoing African American civil rights movement. Voice Over also addresses black radio's broadly significant role in entertainment and shifting race relations. Until the rock and roll revolution, audiences had largely been segregated. The African American personality jocks who introduced white teens to rhythm and blues were a revelation; their wild style and personas and the music they played changed broadcasting while it enthralled a multiracial audience. Although the stations that introduced the enormously popular music were identified as black, virtually none was black-owned or managed. The broadcasters who distanced themselves from music industry perks and payoffs proposed an ambitious agenda for change. This little-known story sets the stage for how the proliferation of black-owned stations and networks occurred and for Barlow's assessment of the instability of today's black radio scene. Written for a broad spectrum of readers -- from nostalgic fans of Jocko and Georgie Woods to loyal listeners of surviving stations and media watchers committed to diversity in broadcasting -- Voice Over tells the whole story of the making of black radio.
