Radio Survivor

In light of the 70th anniversary of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System’s (IBS) annual conference last weekend, it’s a good time to reflect on the college radio pioneers who rarely get mentioned in radio history discussions.

My fascination with the early days of college radio began when I started diving into the history of the radio station at my alma mater, Haverford College. Although Haverford’s first radio station, WABQ, drew much press and attention during its short run from 1923 to 1927; few people outside of the college are aware of the triumphs of this student-built station that was for a time the most powerful college radio station in the United States.

So, it was with great interest that I sought out Hugh Richard Slotten’s 2009 book Radio’s Hidden Voice: The Origins of Public Broadcasting in the United States.

In the book he points out that,

“Radio stations at universities were particularly important because they pioneered some of the earliest experiments with radio in the United States and they played a key role in the establishment of an alternative, noncommercial, public service model for broadcasting.”

Also of interest to me is Slotten’s acknowledgment that college radio faced competition from commercial stations way back in the 1920s. He writes,

“As early as 1922, President Jardine at Kansas State College wrote to a colleague about his fears that commercial interests were actively ‘trying to eliminate’ college radio stations.”

It’s not surprising, considering the huge growth of radio in the United States in 1922. According to Slotten, on January 1, 1922 there were only 28 licensed broadcast stations in the U.S. This number soared to 570 by December 1, 1922.

In the book, there’s a big emphasis on the importance of stations at land-grant universities, many of which offered extension courses and home study courses over the radio airwaves (particularly in the 1920s) for residents in rural areas. Slotten points out that by the late 1920s there was even more competition for space on the radio dial and that many stations were forced to share frequencies and commercial stations seemed to be favored in the Federal Radio Commission’s decisions surrounding assignments.

In order to gain more insight into his research into the early days of educational radio in the United States, I spoke with Hugh Slotten over email. In our conversation he talks about how he became interested in college radio, explains why much of college radio’s early history has been unwritten, and offers up his take on why pinpointing the “first college radio station” is such a challenge. (more…)

It has been two weeks since National Public Radio more or less apologized for its controversial All Things Considered obituary of the historian Howard Zinn, and the bitter listener comments are still coming in.

“I have read your post on the Zinn Obit and find it to be wordy gobbledeegook,” a listener responded several days ago to NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard’s blog commentary. “Your explanation at the end was sufficient! . . . Wordiness is no substitute for the simple conclusion you reached!”

The conclusion that Shepard finally reached in the last paragraph of her essay was that quoting former leftist and now decidedly right wing ideologue David Horowitz in the piece was inappropriate. “There is absolutely nothing in Howard Zinn’s intellectual output that is worthy of any kind of respect,” NPR quoted Horowitz as saying. “Zinn represents a fringe mentality which has unfortunately seduced millions of people at this point in time. So he did certainly alter the consciousness of millions of younger people for the worse.”

The Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting group jumped on that quote in a hot second. “NPR Finds Right-Wing Crank to Spit on Zinn’s Grave,” ran FAIR’s headline, “David Horowitz in ATC obituary with substance-free attack.” A gazillion furious e-mails later, Shepard replied, noting that the story had included words of praise from Noam Chomsky. But in the end she had this to say about the Horowitz quote: “Critics are right that NPR was not respectful of Zinn. It would have been better to wait a day and find a more nuanced critic—as the Washington Post did two days after Zinn died—than rushing a flawed obituary on air.”

But it’s also clear from the many subsequent responses to Shepard’s  post that NPR listeners are still bitter about the story. (more…)

Prominent historian and activist Howard Zinn passed away last week on January 27, 2010, at the age of 87 years old. Best known for his book A People’s History of the United States, which has sold almost two million copies to date, Zinn wrote history from the “bottom-up.”  I had the pleasure of seeing Zinn in person in San Francisco last year during his Voices of A People’s History event, a tour that recruited actors and actresses to read excerpts from Zinn’s book, such as Tecumsah’s Speech of the Osages, Mary Ellen Lease’s Wall Street Owns the Country, and Vito Russo’s Why We Fight. In honor of Zinn’s memory, in this article I will be listing some audio files of Zinn speaking, some of my favorite Zinn books, and some biographical information to anyone that might be interested in learning more about such an amazing individual.

Listening to history

Zinn’s Artists in a Time of War is an overview of the history of the United States and features Zinn discussing a number of important themes and events, such as patriotism in modern times and the Spanish-American War. LearnOutLoud.com also hosts a sizable amount of Zinn audio files, which can be found here. Another possible method that I feel doesn’t get enough attention is looking into audio CDs and/or tapes of some of Zinn’s books, such as A Peoples History of the United States, on CD. (more…)

Conservative commentators may be cackling about the failure of Air America radio, trying to make it into an indicator for both the inherent weakness of liberal-leaning radio and liberal politics. But any reasoned analysis of the radio industry demonstrates that neither is the case. Rush Limbaugh, in particular, and the rest of the nation’s most popular conservative hosts owe much of their success to first-mover advantages taken before and after the Telecom Act of 1996 completely changed the business of radio. The fact that they are politically conservative is less important than the cleverness, deviousness and luck of the companies that made it happen.

Fundamentally, Air America was a mediocre idea, poorly executed. Make that, disasterously executed. As former Crossfire co-host and current talk radio host Bill Press notes, Air America was insufficiently funded from the very beginning and

Even before its launch, it was taken over by a con artist who was later convicted on un-related charges of business fraud. Managers spent money lavishly on talent and studios, while generating little advertising income….

Except for Jon Sinton, few of their executives had ever worked in talk radio. In many ways, it was amateur hour from the beginning.

Putting aside even that inauspicious start, any new radio network started in 2004 would have faced an uphill battle, regardless of its political leanings. Simply put, timing was not on Air America’s side.

By comparison, let’s examine Premiere Radio Networks, which is the largest radio syndicate in the country. And while not explicitly conservative in the same way that Air America espoused itself as liberal, Premiere is home to the nation’s most highly-rated conservative hosts, including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck (along with liberal Randi Rhodes). There are many commentators who would argue that the success of Premiere and its roster of talent springs primarily from the sheer popularity of conservative views, especially on AM talk radio.

That may be how it looks today, but let’s turn back the clock to a time before AM talk equaled all-conservative, all the time. 1988 was the year when Rush Limbaugh’s program first went national with the support of former ABC Radio executive Edward McLaughlin’s newly founded EFM Media Management. While the radio business was stable, at the time AM radio was having a tougher go of it, relative to FM, which offered higher fidelity for music, the mainstay of radio programming for the last quarter century.

It’s a simple fact that Limbaugh’s program grew quickly, reaching a nationwide listenership of two million in 1990. But the question that doesn’t get asked so often is, how did he get there?

Bill Mann, a former contributor to Inside Radio, reminded us just last year:

[a] little-known practice in broadcast syndication called a “barter deal.” (Barter deals were briefly mentioned in Michael Wolff’s first-rate recent piece on Rush in Vanity Fair).

Here’s how a barter deal works: To launch the show, Limbaugh’s syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks [then EFM] — the same folks who syndicate wingnut du jour Glen Beck — gave Limbaugh’s three hours away — that’s right, no cash — to local radio stations, mostly in medium and smaller markets, back in the early 1990’s.

So, a local talk station got Rush’s show for zilch. In exchange, Premiere took for itself much of the local station’s available advertising time (roughly 15 minutes an hour) and packed the show with national ads it had already pre-sold.

(more…)

It’s hard for me to resist the lure of vintage books and I was pleased to see that our friend Feliks Banel posted a online exhibit called Radio with Pictures: Iconic Cover Art from Books about Radio on his I STILL Love Radio blog.

Feliks is a radio historian, so he’s managed to curate a lovely collection of images, ranging from radio history books from the 1920s, to collections of vintage radio scripts, to tomes about the use of radio during wartime, to first-person accounts from radio announcers, to some campy pulp novels with radio themes.

On a somewhat-related note, I recently ran across the highly addictive Vintage Ad Browser search engine. If you’re into retro radio imagery, try out the radio search and you’ll find some real gems. On their companion site, Cover Browser, there’s also a collection of 600+ book, magazine, and comic cover images related to radio.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, I’ve compiled some different ways to access some of MLK’s influential speeches.

If you’re interested in reading some of King’s speeches online, the King Center, which hosts the King Papers, has many of King’s speeches sorted chronologically, providing mp3 and written versions. Plain written copies of some of King’s more important speeches can also be found here. If you’re particularly interested in audio files, the Pacifica Radio Archives has a collection of speeches written by King along with a number of related recordings of related rallies, speeches, and readings available to order.

And, of course, Amazon.com has an assortment of CD and DVD versions of King audio.

For those interested in reading the speeches (as opposed to listening or viewing) I strongly recommend picking up a copy of A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., which gives you both actual text and background information (and happens to be on sale). If you’re interested in developing a solid background on the Civil Rights Movement as a whole (1950s-1960s), I also suggest the Civil Rights Chronicle (The African-American Struggle For Freedom). John Lewis’ Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement is another great source (also on sale) and offers a slightly different perspective of the movement.

Although MLK’s I Have A Dream speech is easily his most recognized work, I also suggest looking into his Letter From Birmingham Jail, which is arguably as influential. Both of these should be available on each of the provided websites in one form or another.

Editor’s addendum: My favorite King Speech is Why I Am Against the War in Vietnam—Matthew Lasar

One fine day in March of 1999, the Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation’s five license network fired the general manager of its flagship listener supported radio station: KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California. When staff and subscribers revolted against the move, Pacifica shut the station down, triggering a march of 10,000 furious supporters through the city. Powered by the Internet and tired of top down decision making in public broadcasting, listener subscribers at Pacifica’s non-commercial outlets in New York, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Houston, and Washington, D.C. demanded the right to elect their local station boards.

Almost four years of lawsuits, demonstrations, sit-ins, shut-downs, and walk-outs later, they won, creating the most small-d democratic radio network in the United States. Every year thousands of KPFA, WBAI, KPFK, WPFW, and KPFT subscribers receive ballots in the mail for listener board delegates. Some of them even vote.

What was striking about the conflict was the extent to which it spread far beyond the frog pond atmosphere of community radio. The New York City Council and California’s state assembly held hearings on the battle. California’s Attorney General even endorsed a class action lawsuit against the Pacifica board, which was chaired by Mary Frances Berry, then head of the United States Civil Rights Commission. Hundreds of prominent activists, intellectuals, politicians, and artists signed statements on behalf of the rebellion, including Danny Glover, Ed Asner, Ralph Nader, Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, and Joan Baez. And dozens of newspapers covered the conflict, among them the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times.

Not everybody is crazy about the results of this democratic revolution, which has done nothing to alleviate Pacifica’s famously contentious internal atmosphere. But it has redefined the possibilities for how to structure broadcasting in the U.S., and so it deserves a place in our list of significant radio trends of the decade.

Further reading: Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio’s Civil War

Myself, I can hardly believe that another decade is coming to a close. It seems like just yesterday we were stockpiling canned goods, bottled water and batteries in anticipation of the Y2K global computer meltdown. Of course, on every millennial survivalists’ compound shopping list was a good battery-operated radio.

Now, ten years on, radio has undergone many changes. Many–like the rise of internet radio–were certainly predictable, even if the particular forms were not. While those of us critical of the consolidation fever that gripped the industry in the late 90s certainly believed that trend would lead to no good, I’m not certain that any of us knew just how badly Clear Channel and its brethren would gut commercial radio, and how many bankruptcies would arise by the end of the decade.

Between now and New Year’s Day my fellow co-bloggers and I will set about enumerating the fourteen most important trends in radio during the 2000s. These trends are in no particular order. Why fourteen? Well, ten was too few, and, uh, we ran out of steam at fourteen.

So, tune back in tomorrow when Matthew and Jennifer will school you about numbers 14 and 13.

The radio-trends-of-the-decade series

• #1: The birth and troubled childhood of satellite radio
• #2: The growth of Internet radio
• #3: I-tunes lures listeners away from terrestrial radio
• #4: Podcasting
• #5: The Age of Pandora
• #6: HD Radio launches, but who listens?
• #7: Internet Radio’s Day of Silence
• #8: The Great Fairness Doctrine Panic
• #9: The FCC authorizes Low Power FM
• #10: Clear Channel goes private equity
• #11: Cash strapped schools turn their backs on college radio
• #12: National Public Radio keeps growing
• #13: College radio tightens its playlist
• #14: Pacifica radio democratizes itself

RIA Novosti reports that the grandson of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is suing a Russian radio station for broadcasting “offensive disrespect” against his infamous ancestor. Yevgeny Dzhugashvili is demanding the equivalent of $326,500USD from station Ekho Moskvy. Of late one of the frequency’s hosts, Matvei Ganapolsky, quoted a line from a book titled Staliniada:

“Stalin signed an order that children may be shot from the age of 12,” Ganapolsky read. Then he opined the following: “What kind of bastard would be brave enough to say one word in his [the dictator's] defense?”

This was no doubt intended as a rhetorical question. But there appear to be a lot of bastards in post-Soviet Russia, among them Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Mr. Putin recently called for a more “balanced assessment” of Stalin, according to Associated Press. Putin conceded Stalin’s “unacceptable” crimes, but:

“If you say you are positive (about Stalin’s rule), some will be discontented. If you say you are negative, others will grumble,” AP quotes him as saying. “It is impossible to make a general judgment. It is evident that, from 1924 to 1953, the country that Stalin ruled changed from an agrarian to an industrial society.”

Plus Stalin defended the Soviet Union from Hitler, Putin noted (after signing a peace treaty with Hitler that allowed the former USSR to gobble up half of Poland. Putin didn’t mention that part). (more…)

Radio passion takes a variety of forms. Some people love the artifacts and become avid collectors of vintage equipment, promotional materials, and publications. Some are scholars, meticulously curating radio’s history. And others seek out present-day radio gems in order to remind people that radio is still relevant.

Seattle Radio Theatre founder Feliks Banel’s enthusiasm for radio spans across several of these categories.

While he was the deputy director of the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle (MOHAI) he started a tradition of live holiday radio plays. Over the years these radio dramas have included performances of both original and vintage scripts. Last week the 2009 production featured a live performance of It’s a Wonderful Life (you can listen to the podcast here or take a look at a video of that performance here).

It’s exciting to see that Seattle Radio Theatre is keeping live radio drama alive. According to the program notes for this year’s production,

“As far as Seattle Radio Theatre producers can tell, we are the only regularly-scheduled live radio drama in the United States (if you consider once a year ‘regular’). While there are many groups recording radio programs in-studio and ‘live to tape’ before a live audience, Seattle Radio Theatre is the only one that has done it every year live on the radio before a live audience for what will be a eighth year in 2009.”

In addition to his work with Seattle Radio Theatre, Feliks also writes about radio for his blog I Still Love Radio and for the website Crosscut.com. In his email interview with me he talks not only about radio drama and his own radio past; but also shares with me his insights about the role that radio has played in Christmas traditions in America, with “shared holiday moments” facilitated over the airwaves. I love this idea and it reminds me of the fun I had last Christmas Eve watching the WGN Yule Log while listening to their accompanying soundtrack of classic radio dramas.

Thanks to Feliks Banel for taking the time to chat with me by email about his love for radio. Although he was a bit nervous about the “Radio Obsessive” label, I hope that he embraces this honor, as he’s doing important work to help keep radio alive. (more…)