History Of Broadcasting In Uni »

Douglas Gomery is Resident Scholar at the Library of American Broadcasting, University of Maryland. His credits include 19 books and more than a thousand articles. He won national book awards for his Shared Pleasures and Who Owns the Media? and he has recently been declared the winner of the distinguished scholar award from the Broadcast Education Association.

This powerful history of broadcasting in the United States goes beyond traditional accounts to explore the field’s important social, political, and cultural ramifications. It examines how broadcasting has been organized as a business throughout much of the twentieth century, and focuses on the aesthetics of programming over the years.

The book surveys four key broadcasting periods from 1921 to 1996, and includes coverage of the recent impact of cable TV and home video. It presents new data from collections at the Library of Congress and the Library of American Broadcasting. Eschewing traditional coverage of FCC decisions and the physical nature of broadcasting, the book considers issues of race, class, and gender while situating the industry firmly within the context of politics, society, and culture.

Ideal for anyone seeking a readable history of the field, the book provides the most current coverage available.

List of Illustrations     vi
Preface: Why a History of Broadcasting in the USA?     ix
Acknowledgments     xvii
Introduction: Broadcasting's Beginning: The Big Bang     1
The Network Radio Era, 1921-1950     11
Industrial Innovation and Diffusion: The Radio Networks     13
Radio's Social, Cultural, and Political Impact: The First Mass Medium     38
The Development of a New Aesthetic: Sounds     71
Transition, 1945-1957     105
TV Replaces Radio in the living Room     107
Radio Reinvents Itself: Top 40 and Beyond     142
Network Television Dominates, 1958-1982     165
CBS, NBC, and ABC Covering the USA     167
Network TV's Social, Cultural, and Political Impact     197
The Genre Machine: From Maverick to M*A*S*H     231
Contemporary History, 1982-1996     279
Radio: The FM Era     281
Television: Remote Control Paradise     299
Epilogue: Still a Broadcasting Nation: 1996 and Into the Future     338
Sorry, Wrong Number     346
Index     353