Books about Airwaves from Amazon.com

"This book adds immeasurably to our appreciation and understanding of the power the aural medium possesses to mirror and shape culture "

—Communication Booknotes Quarterly

From reviews of the first edition:

"The magic of [a] wildly colorful chapter in broadcast history lives on in this entertainingly informative look at the forces and the people who contributed to the rise of the medium."

—Chicago Tribune

"Characters like Wolfman Jack, Reverend Ike, Norman Baker, "Dr." J. R. Brinkley, Pappy O'Daniel and others were master showmen and tremendously successful salesmen. Secret-formula medicines, magic prayer cloths, Crazy Water Crystals, and goat-gland rejuvenations are just part of this often hilarious telling of this outrageous period in broadcast history."

—Variety

"If you're wondering where Herbalife, Home Shopping Network, No-Money-Down Seminars, and Jim and Tammy Bakker found their inspiration and techniques, look no further than this superb book."

—Dallas Morning News

Before the Internet brought the world together, there was border radio. These mega-watt "border blaster" stations, set up just across the Mexican border to evade U.S. regulations, beamed programming across the United States and as far away as South America, Japan, and Western Europe.

This book traces the eventful history of border radio from its founding in the 1930s by "goat-gland doctor" J. R. Brinkley to the glory days of Wolfman Jack in the 1960s. Along the way, it shows how border broadcasters pioneered direct sales advertising, helped prove the power of electronic media as a political tool, aided in spreading the popularity of country music, rhythm and blues, and rock, and laid the foundations for today's electronic church. The authors have revised the text to include even more first-hand information and a larger selection of photographs.

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The first book to document and emphasize the myriad voices of the free radio movement, from Black Liberation Radio in Springfield, Illinois, to Free Radio Berkeley in Berkeley, California The first section, "Media Monopoly And The Rise Of The Free Radio Movement" includes contributions from Robert McChesney on the political economy of radio in North America and a history and analysis of the burgeoning pirate radio movement. The second section, "On The Air," includes interviews with and commentary by some of the key grassroots participants in micropower broadcasting worldwide—from Canada, Holland, Haiti, and Mexico, as well as America. The final section of the book consists of a comprehensive technical guide and how-to manual for going on the air, complete with schematics and "sound" advice..
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From its inception in New York City, radio dramatically changed the city. The five boroughs became, in some ways, more united through the medium, as common concerns were aired and given wider attention But as radio came to be more entertainment based, the city lost the last of its small town origins, as people left the front stoop for the living room. This heavily illustrated history traces the development of AM radio in the New York metropolitan area. While technical information and program schedules are fully covered, the work also provides unique insight into radio's influence on the development of the city. The photographs reinforce the sense of change brought about by the medium..
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Milo Hamilton has called 11 no-hitters and a World Series, often in tandem with such broadcast legends as Jack Buck, Jack Brickhouse, Bob Elson, and Harry Caray. His work was so well-received that he was enshrined into the broadcasters? wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992. He received an even more unexpected honor eight years later ? election to the exclusive Radio Hall of Fame, of which only seven other baseball broadcasters belong. He has truly managed to work his way up from humble origins. The story he tells in Making Airwaves: 60 Years at Milo's Microphone is a profile in courage, a tale of talent and determination, and a behind-the-scenes look at seven decades of baseball history..
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During the first half of the 20th century, radio's hunger for captivating characters and stories could not be sated. Three national networks and dozens of independent stations had to fill a vast expanse of air time with comedy, adventure, mystery, drama and music, night after night. It's no surprise that producers and writers looked to outside sources, drawing some of old-time radio's most beloved characters (Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Hopalong Cassidy, Buck Rogers) directly from books.

This work examines individual characters that jumped from prose to radio and a number of programs that specialized in dramatizing literature. It covers mystery and detective shows, adventure stories, westerns, and science fiction, and anthology shows that adapted novels by such greats as Twain, Steinbeck and Dickens. The text explores how the writers and producers approached the source material--what they changed, what they kept and what they left out..
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This volume gathers some of the most important new work in American political advertising and communication The contributors include several of the foremost experts in this increasingly visible field. They provide an objective and balanced analysis of political advertising: its causes, its growth, and its consequences on U.S. elections. The merits of negative advertising are debated by Richard R. Lau and Lee Sigelman, Kathleen Hall Jamieson and her colleagues, and Kim Fridkin Kahn and Patrick J. Kenney. Paul Herrnson and Kelly D. Patterson, and Shanto Iyengar and John Petrocik grapple with the role of campaign advertising in deciding electoral outcomes. Darrell West describes the ascendance of issue advertising in modern elections and offers ideas about how to deal with its continuing proliferation. Crowded Airwaves will appeal to readers who are interested in political campaigns and communication. It will be of special importance to those concerned with the tone and content of electoral campaigns and political discourse: negative advertisements, interest-group issue advocacy, and their impact on voting decisions. .
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This book tells the remarkable story of Germany`s World War II English language propaganda broadcasting operation and the swing band it used to send subversive American jazz and swing music over the airwaves to Allied listeners around the world. Bergmeier and Lotz provide the definitive account of the range and ingenuity of Nazi radio public relations, along with a full-length CD featuring rare tracks of the jazz propaganda classics..
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