Radio

Re: Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation by Marc Fisher.

From "The Rise of Radio: How an amazingly adaptable medium broadcast new messages to America", a review of the book by Douglas Brinkley, in The Washington Post, January 28, 2007:

The birth of FM made it clear that radio, far from being a fad, had limitless possibilities for reinvention. Today, radio has become such an omnipresent backdrop to our daily lives that it's taken for granted, like electricity or tap water or convenience stores......

As Hunter S. Thompson put it,

"The radio business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

At times, the reader feels that Fisher has drawn an Alamo-like line in the sand, offering a loaded choice between radio (white hat) or television (black hat). "American radio -- like the pop culture it has helped to create, like the country it speaks to -- is ever-adapting," he insists. "As it ages, radio absorbs the new, co-opts the rebellious, and reinvents itself every step of the way." Cases in point: XM and Sirius. Even Dylan now has his own weekly XM show. As his beloved medium adapts, Fisher is out there listening, making sense of the airwaves that remain such a potent part of our lives. ·

From "Radio Days", a review of the book by Dave Marsh in The New York Times, January 28, 2007:

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, broadcasting experts predicted that the advent of television would kill off radio. Many of them didn’t especially want it to survive, since it could only hold back the acceptance of TV. In fact, the radio those experts knew didn’t survive. By the mid-1950s, the national networks that had dominated since the ’20s had all but evaporated, replaced by more than twice as many local stations. Television took over presenting broadcast drama and comedy, variety shows and in-depth news.

Yet radio itself survived. Radio outstrips television as a means of conveying intimacy and, precisely because it doesn’t show but can only tell, may stir the active imagination more deeply. It’s cheaper to operate a radio station, and in those years broadcasting equipment was much more mobile, making it perfect for local presentations. With recorded music (before the advent of TV, most radio programming consisted of live performance), stations found a cheap programming source that attracted enough listeners to generate its lifeblood — advertising revenue — even after TV took hold.

In “Something in the Air,” Marc Fisher takes the story from there, arguing that radio — those who programmed and performed on it, and the music they played — inspired his entire generation to come together

Comment: Radio interests me, as perhaps the medium that is currently most potentially transformative of the lives of the poor in developing nations. Receiver technology is already affordable. Battery operated radios work even in the many areas that don't have power lines. Packaged technology for low power transmitting stations is increasingly affordable and easy to operate, and it too can be powered by generators or solar panels in areas off the electrical grid. Thus community radio is an affordable and increasingly accessible option for developing nations.

Community radio can serve indigenous communities, broadcasting in local languages needed or simply preferred by local communities. As radio transformed life in affluent countries in the early part of the 20th century, and a reinvented radio re-transformed broadcasting and community lives in those nations in the latter part of the century, so too it can transform the lives of the poor in developing nations in the next decades.

Indeed, it might well do a better job in developing nations in the next century than it did in the affluent nations in the last, if it is used more consciously for development. We know more now. We know better how to use radio in the classroom. We know now how better to use radio for the purposes of civil society organizations. We understand how radio can be used to deliver health education. We better understand how radio can be a key link for producers in rural areas to sources of information on how to produce better and better market their products.

Radio can also entertain, and people everywhere value entertainment. But entertainment is a powerful tool in the transformation of culture. Radio can help to create a culture of peace, and to promote a culture conducive to social and economic development. JAD