Excerpts from full paperback, at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Only the tip of an iceberg of the full book at amazon.com/dp/B0141JRPN0
ISBN: ISBN-9798218504243 by Robin Miller ©2015,2024
Cover: From microphone to speaker, our first LIVE mass medium broadcast one-tomany over-the-air.
Morse-Coded beamed in sparks across the Atlantic, called “wireless,” then electromagnetic radiation shortened to “radio.” Soon the vacuum valve (tube) attracted small town hobbyists, who transmitted music and spoken information, and the first live (instantaneous) mass medium of Radio was born. Radio ignited in the 1920s, but exploded after World War II, soon with 600 stations across the US. In 1934 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was formed to license and regulate the burgeoning new businesses, trading station’s free use of publicly-owned radio spectrum for its promise to serve the local “City of Service” in the “public interest,” and its “Fairness” (also called Equal Time) to protect the public by airing of differing points of view on controversial matters →
Today totaling 34,000 stations, spectrum was allocated to avoid interference, killing the medium by ruining listener experience. Soon station chains lobbied to end ‘Public Interest’ & ‘Fairness’ rules, allowing them and local influencer-owners to engage in heavy-handed politicizing & proselytizing for power & profit.
Buying out station after station, conglomerates often rotate only a few hundred songs, ‘interrupting’ 22 minutes per hour of ads. Cookie-cutter-programming from afar means laying off most local employees. No longer needing to practice ‘localism,’ they drain money from local economies.
This book relives Radio in its Golden Age 1930 to 1962, when it was more entertaining & informative for its “Service Area” and fun to do for hundreds of thousands in America. The unseen pranks behind the scenes. The hard manual work before automation. The live music & sports, from right across town. Local personalities who went on to big cities, and Television – Radio with pictures.
American Radio Then & Now is both US history and the author’s memoir of his first job, leading to a 30yr career as a radio, television, & documentary film producer. It relives his experiences at the proverbial 250-watt station in his hometown as an example in thousands of towns across the US, as well as in countries around the world. This book’s 1st edition garnered glowing reviews and 4+star ratings for its laugh-out-loud antics and descriptions of vintage operations.1
Now in paperback American Radio Then & Now: Stories of Local Radio from The Golden Age at amazon.com/dp/B0141JRPN0
Dissemination of any of its content beyond a brief attributed quotation or review is prohibited without prior permission in writing. Inadvertent use of any IP of others is protected by Fair Use as educational and historical material.
1 Amazon does not port over reviews & ratings to this expanded 2nd edition in print, with 200+ illustrations.
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Stories of Local Radio from The Golden Age” excerpts from the book