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The Pattern of Programmes

Asa Briggs

in The War of Words: The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume III

This chapter examines the changes in the patterns of radio programming of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It explains that during the war, familiar old issues continued to be raised such ... More

This chapter examines the changes in the patterns of radio programming of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It explains that during the war, familiar old issues continued to be raised such as whether Happidrome should be broadcast in the Forces programme opposite the religious service. BBC continued to be judged by most of its listeners in terms of the home programmes it provided. This provides a detailed description of the reorganization of BBC's programming.Less

Program Networks

Eli M. Noam

in Media Ownership and Concentration in America

Given the relative cheapness of electronic and physical distribution, it is usually more cost effective to produce a program centrally and distribute it widely rather than for each retail outlet to ... More

Given the relative cheapness of electronic and physical distribution, it is usually more cost effective to produce a program centrally and distribute it widely rather than for each retail outlet to produce its own content. Thus, networks and syndicators emerged from which retail outlets acquired programming, or they produced the program themselves. These networks and syndicators package the content and distribute it to retail outlets such as broadcast stations, cable network operators, and satellite distribution systems. This chapter analyzes the concentration of trends in radio program networks and television broadcast networks. Because radio is often used as an example for media concentration trends, it needs to be discussed at greater length. In about one decade, from 1992 to 2001, the market share of the top four firms increased from 9% to 38%. The national level of radio concentration was less dramatic than its rapid rate of change suggests, coupled with local concentration. In the case of television stations, the concentration trend in ownership has received high visibility. Cable television has become the major delivery platform for additional video channels.Less

The Content of Programmes

Asa Briggs

in The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Volume I: The Birth of Broadcasting

This chapter describes the content of the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) radio programmes from 1923 to 1925. J.C.W. Reith believed that that to use a great invention for the purpose of ... More

This chapter describes the content of the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) radio programmes from 1923 to 1925. J.C.W. Reith believed that that to use a great invention for the purpose of entertainment alone would a prostitution of its powers and an insult to the character and intelligence of the people. However, in practice, it was difficult to draw a sharp dividing line between entertainment and education. This chapter explains that jazz bands, popular music, radio drama, and sketches by humorists figured regularly in BBC programmes during this period.Less

Questions and Institutionality in Public Participation Broadcasting

Joanna Thornborrow

in Why Do You Ask?: The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse

This chapter, written by Joanna Thornborrow, examines question‐answer sequences in TV talk shows and radio call‐in programs. While these genres tend to be more conversational than other media genres ... More

This chapter, written by Joanna Thornborrow, examines question‐answer sequences in TV talk shows and radio call‐in programs. While these genres tend to be more conversational than other media genres such as broadcast news interviews, Thornborrow argues that they are nonetheless highly structured in terms of the organization of turn taking and the distribution of turn types. Thornborrow's primary argument is that institutional roles in these contexts are constituted through the asymmetrical distribution not only of turn types (e.g., questions versus answers) but also of question types and answer types. For example, in TV talk shows, the hosts ask questions that elicit narratives and/or opinions from lay participants, all the while maintaining their neutrality vis‐à‐vis the issues discussed. By contrast, lay participants' questions express opinions in relation to the issues being discussed.Less

The “Radio-Active” Gīta-Rāmāyaṇa: Home and Abroad

Mandakranta Bose

in The Ramayana Revisited

This chapter considers one of the many performance modes in which the Rāmāyana has appeared — a musical adaptation of the Rāmāyana from Maharashtra. Created in the early 1950s for radio audiences, ... More

This chapter considers one of the many performance modes in which the Rāmāyana has appeared — a musical adaptation of the Rāmāyana from Maharashtra. Created in the early 1950s for radio audiences, the Gīta-Rāmāyana was a series of fifty-six songs in the Marathi language set to music in the classical style. Broadcast every week, the program quickly won large audiences, and more recently it has again become popular. The instant success and enduring appeal of the series is analyzed.Less

A Capitol Idea: Roxy and the Birth of Media Convergence (1922–1925)

Ross Melnick

in American Showman: Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry, 1908-1935

During the postwar period, film exhibition ushered in larger orchestras, more elaborate stage shows, and a growing acceptance of foreign, documentary, and avant-garde films. It was also a period of ... More

During the postwar period, film exhibition ushered in larger orchestras, more elaborate stage shows, and a growing acceptance of foreign, documentary, and avant-garde films. It was also a period of great technological advancement—of new synchronous sound formats developed by Lee DeForest and Western Electric, and, through the use of some of those same patents, the development of sound amplification and wireless transmission. This chapter describes how Roxy harnessed his growing political and cultural might and a host of new technologies to become not only the most famous film exhibitor in the United States but one of the most famous entertainers in North America. Roxy, for instance, integrated radio at the Capitol in November 1922 by broadcasting the musical portions of the show that preceded or accompanied the short and feature films he exhibited. These broadcasts were considered “radio's first genuine hit,” and Roxy's initial shows were heard across the United States, well into Canada and Cuba, and on ships at sea that picked up the broadcast.Less

Facts and Fictionalizations

in Science on the Air: Popularizers and Personalities on Radio and Early Television

Radio programs whose titles promised “new horizons,” “adventures,” “explorations,” and “science on the march” harmonized well with 1930s political rhetoric and the New Deal ethos. Science ... More

Radio programs whose titles promised “new horizons,” “adventures,” “explorations,” and “science on the march” harmonized well with 1930s political rhetoric and the New Deal ethos. Science popularization too was infected by this spirit of social optimism. Eager to seem dynamic and forward-thinking, many of the creators of science series began to adopt dramatizations and similar entertainment techniques in the service of what Smithsonian secretary C. G. Abbot dubbed “ultra-popularization.” Corporate and government radio initiatives began adding dialogue and fictionalization to accounts of great experiments, employing professional actors to read the words of revered scientists, and using orchestral accompaniment and sound effects to evoke dramatic moods. The most notable projects—DuPont's Cavalcade of America and the Smithsonian Institution's The World Is Yours—relied on substantial corporate and government underwriting. Others, such as the American Museum of Natural History's New Horizons, combined private initiative with network production. The more listeners were drawn to such series, the more other programs imitated their approaches.Less

Radio

in Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels

This chapter describes the history of radio broadcasting in Los Angeles. Radio broadcasts are as popular in Los Angeles as elsewhere, perhaps more so. Most homes have radio sets, and the proportion ... More

This chapter describes the history of radio broadcasting in Los Angeles. Radio broadcasts are as popular in Los Angeles as elsewhere, perhaps more so. Most homes have radio sets, and the proportion of automobiles equipped with radios is also high. Radio's early history in Los Angeles was one of hit-and-miss, of trial and error—the identical experience of radio throughout the United States in the days of crystal sets and earphones. Radio broadcasting began in Los Angeles in 1922, when four stations were established. Three of them—KNX, KFI, and KHJ—dominated local broadcasting from the beginning and continue to do so today, each representing a major national chain.Less

Tuxedos and Microphones

in Science on the Air: Popularizers and Personalities on Radio and Early Television

In 1923 Austin Hobart Clark, a middle-aged curator in the Smithsonian's U.S. National Museum, began appearing in the program “Smithsonian Radio Talks,” which invited speakers from within his ... More

In 1923 Austin Hobart Clark, a middle-aged curator in the Smithsonian's U.S. National Museum, began appearing in the program “Smithsonian Radio Talks,” which invited speakers from within his institution's various bureaus. Clark's broadcasts represent one of the first sustained efforts in the United States to use radio to reach the public with science, the first wave in steadily expanding popularization efforts. The circumstances surrounding these pioneering broadcasts illuminate an important moment in the history of science and of American life. From the 1920s through the 1940s, the scientific community became more concerned about scripting its public image for the sake of increased funding and political support, and therefore became more engaged in popularization. The extent to which prestigious researchers in the United States cooperated in and supported ventures involving radio—a medium they regarded as intrinsically sensationalistic—demonstrated begrudging acceptance of the need for popularization.Less

The Lonely Listener in the Bush: BBC Empire Service Programmes and Audiences

Simon J. Potter

in Wireless Internationalism and Distant Listening: Britain, Propaganda, and the Invention of Global Radio, 1920-1939

The BBC Empire Service was established in 1932 and primarily sought to serve white expatriates scattered across British colonies in Africa and Asia. It provided a selection of programmes taken from ... More

The BBC Empire Service was established in 1932 and primarily sought to serve white expatriates scattered across British colonies in Africa and Asia. It provided a selection of programmes taken from its home services, augmented with specially produced and recorded material, and based decisions on what to broadcast largely on feedback provided by its listeners. This chapter challenges the assumption that the interwar BBC was largely uninterested in what its audience thought, and that it gave listeners what it thought they should have rather than what they wanted. It also questions the belief that the BBC was intent on the ‘uplift’ of audiences and thus focused on providing high culture. For the Empire Service concentrated on offering light music, light talks, and light entertainment. Listeners were thought to be tired after a day spent working in hot climates, and lonely and thus requiring something that reminded them of ‘home’. The BBC knew it also had to compete with other international broadcasters for the attention of overseas audiences. Special production techniques were developed in an attempt to overcome the problems associated with short-wave reception and ensure that programmes were comprehensible and enjoyable. Big Ben became the aural signature of the Empire Service. However, by the late 1930s many critics were questioning whether it was wise to devote so much of the BBC’s resources to this tiny audience, and whether BBC international broadcasts should instead be seeking to project Britain to larger and more important audiences across the world.Less

Gang Busting: Criminals and Citizens in a Professional World

Kathleen Battles

in Calling All Cars: Radio Dragnets and the Technology of Policing

This chapter focuses on how the public glamorized crimes and criminal figures, as evident in the increasing consumption of gangster-headlined newspapers and motion pictures. The most prominent ... More

This chapter focuses on how the public glamorized crimes and criminal figures, as evident in the increasing consumption of gangster-headlined newspapers and motion pictures. The most prominent criminal personalities include Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, as well as John Dillinger. Bonnie and Clyde were American outlaws and robbers, responsible for killing nine police officers and several civilians; while Dillinger is a gangster and bank robber who escaped from jail twice. The chapter also describes four ways in which radio programs attempted to shift the blame for the crime problem from the police to criminals, strongly criticizing vigilantism and arguing that citizens can help prevent crime by yielding to the expertise and authority of the police.Less

Intimate and Kaleidosonic Styles

in Theater of the Mind: Imagination, Aesthetics, and American Radio Drama

The radio play “The Fall of the City,” with its bustling traffic of unruly mobs and untrustworthy ministers, reflects the political friction lying beneath the audioposition choices made in many ... More

The radio play “The Fall of the City,” with its bustling traffic of unruly mobs and untrustworthy ministers, reflects the political friction lying beneath the audioposition choices made in many scripts and studios during the 1930s. The conventionalization of the style of a radio play can have a greater reach than a single broadcast because it implies a normativity among the aesthetic instincts of the listeners. This chapter examines the normative use of perspective in such radio programs as The Columbia Workshop, The Shadow, The Mercury Theater on the Air, and The March of Time. It argues that late-1930s directors developed two audioposition formulas that account for the overall sound of the period—the intimate style and the kaleidosonic style—each of which embodied an aspect of the political rhetoric of the period and enabled prominent broadcasters to solve representational and narrative problems. When these styles became imbalanced, radio aesthetics ended its connection with space and time, and dramatists turned to stronger models.Less

In Trials

in Theater of the Mind: Imagination, Aesthetics, and American Radio Drama

In the summer of 1950, a series entitled “I Posed as a Communist for the FBI” was published in the Saturday Evening Post. It told the story of Matt Cvetic, a Pittsburgh clerk who was asked by the ... More

In the summer of 1950, a series entitled “I Posed as a Communist for the FBI” was published in the Saturday Evening Post. It told the story of Matt Cvetic, a Pittsburgh clerk who was asked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to join the Communist Party of the United States as an informant in the 1940s. Cvetic's experiences were also fictionalized in the radio show I Was a Communist for the FBI. With so many radio programs dealing with disguise and undercover work by both authorities and civilians, the overmeaning of I Was a Communist seems to reside in a romance with the undercover life that underlies its efforts to model civic duty. This chapter looks at stories about undercover men, tests of conscience, and self-repression and argues that each of these narratives reveals new models of the mind emerging out of wartime patterns. It also examines how “psychological tests” became dominant in postwar radio.Less

The BBC’s Caribbean Voices and Its “Critics’ Circle”: Radio Criticism and the Development of Anglophone Caribbean Literature

Glyne A. Griffith

in Beyond Windrush: Rethinking Postwar Anglophone Caribbean Literature

This chapter examines the BBC Program Caribbean Voices, one of the most important influences on the development of literature in the Anglophone Caribbean focusing on the role of Henry Swanzy, the ... More

This chapter examines the BBC Program Caribbean Voices, one of the most important influences on the development of literature in the Anglophone Caribbean focusing on the role of Henry Swanzy, the program’s editor (1946-1954) and of the “Critics’ Circle,” a group of Caribbean writers (John Figueroa, Gordon Bell, and Ulric Cross) and English writers (Roy Fuller, and Arthur Calder-Marshall) who evaluated works the program broadcast. It argues that Caribbean Voices wielded significant power in shaping postwar literary aesthetics and politics by promoting social realist literature that focused on “local color” and by limiting literary criticism to formal concerns. The program thus dissuaded writers from submitting more obviously ideological writingand highlighted specific national cultures rather than a shared notion of Caribbeanness. As a result, the program fostered an aesthetics and politics that undermined British policy: Independence for the region in the form of the West Indian Federation rather than individual nationalisms.Less

. The Higher Ideals of Democracy Race and Recruiting through 1964

H. Michael Gelfand

in Sea Change at Annapolis: The United States Naval Academy, 1949-2000

When the Naval Academy football team won the Sugar Bowl in 1955, USNA administrators realized the benefits of television exposure to the American public. This chapter examines the origin and ... More

When the Naval Academy football team won the Sugar Bowl in 1955, USNA administrators realized the benefits of television exposure to the American public. This chapter examines the origin and development of Naval Academy recruiting, including specialized recruiting activities involving radio programs, the television series Men of Annapolis, films, and the creation of the Blue and Gold program, a system of admission advisers responsible for spreading information about the Academy and searching prospective candidates. It also examines midshipmen who were members of a variety of minority groups who experienced discrimination at USNA before 1965.Less

Building a Legacy

William A. Everett

in Sigmund Romberg

This chapter examines the efforts of Sigmund Romberg to build a legacy. It explains that when Romberg realized that his style of operetta was becoming outmoded, he searched for the audience that ... More

This chapter examines the efforts of Sigmund Romberg to build a legacy. It explains that when Romberg realized that his style of operetta was becoming outmoded, he searched for the audience that would appreciate his old-fashioned melodies through radio programs and annual tours from 1943 through 1949. It also discusses other factors that contributed to the popularity of Romberg and his music, including the success of the film adaptations of his operettas.Less