Radio History

Walt Disney always loved to entertain people. Often it got him into trouble. Once he painted pictures with tar on the side of his family's white house. His family was poor, and the happiest time of his childhood was spent living on a farm in Missouri. His affection for small-town life is reflected in Disneyland Main Streets around the world. This biography reveals the man behind the magic.

This book is a unique inquiry into the history and the ongoing moral significance of mass communication as an idea and social form. Organized around narrative accounts of individuals and their communicative worlds, it strives to refigure mass communication as a concept, illuminate significant but overlooked rhetorical episodes in its history, and call listeners to reconsider their own engagements with it today.

General U.S. Grant and General Sherman are caught off guard by the entire Confederate Army, with their backs to the Tennessee River! Confederate General Johnston's plan was to attack Grant's left and separate the Union army from its gunboat support (and avenue of retreat) on the Tennessee River, driving it west into the swamps of Snake and Owl Creeks, where it could be destroyed.

The new nonfiction from number-one best-selling author and popular radio and television host Glenn Beck.

While not dead, radio's familiarity has made it seem a bit mundane, but people shouldn’t think of it that way. In fact, the airwaves have always been a place of mystery, a battleground of competing ideologies, and a source of anonymous voices. Radio has been used to support war efforts, topple governments, communicate secretly, and even attempt to communicate with the dead. These strange stories will make this familiar medium seem a bit less familiar and far more interesting.

The Wireless World sets out a new research agenda for the history of international broadcasting, and for radio history more generally. It examines global and transnational histories of long-distance wireless broadcasting, combining perspectives from international history, media and cultural history, the history of technology, and sound studies. Bringing together their knowledge of a wide range of different countries, languages, and archives, the coauthors show how broadcasters and states deployed international broadcasting as a tool of international communication and persuasion.

Our understanding of the human mind has been shaped by 200 years of accidents, inquiries, tests and observations. Here are the stories behind 33 of psychology's most famous and influential experiments, and their creators. Award-winning broadcaster and psychology lecturer Claudia Hammond uncovers the often surprising and sometimes dark histories behind landmark studies such as The Stanford Prison Experiment, Harlow's Monkeys, Little Albert and the Marshmallow Test.

Friendships, for many of us, are at the very centre of our daily existence and identity. Yet it hasn't always been this way. Our modern view of what makes a friend is shaped by centuries of political and social upheaval. In this landmark study, Dr Thomas Dixon considers both the differences and similarities between friendships in history and those we experience today.

Scripting Empire recovers the literary and cultural history of West Indian and West African writing at the BBC in order to rethink the critical mid-century decades of shrinking British sovereignty, late modernism, and mass migration to the metropole. Scripting Empire works comparatively across dozens of different programs spanning the General Overseas Service, Home Service, Light Program, and Third Program.

Crack of the Bat takes listeners from the 1920s to the present, examining the role of baseball in the development of the radio industry and the complex coevolution of their relationship. Despite cable television’s ubiquity, live video streaming, and social media, radio remains an important medium through which fans engage with their teams.

Cold War Radio is a fascinating look at how the United States waged the Cold War through the international broadcasting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Mark G. Pomar takes listeners inside the two radio stations to show how the broadcasts were conceived and the impact they had on international broadcasting, United States-Soviet relations, Russian history, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Turn Your Radio On tells the fascinating stories behind gospel music's most unforgettable songs, including "Amazing Grace", "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", "He Touched Me", "I'll Fly Away", "Were You There?" and many more.

14 November, 2012 marks the 90th anniversary of the BBC's first-ever broadcast and the beginning of the British love affair with radio. This fascinating book takes as its starting point those early, tentative programmes broadcast from Marconi House on the Strand, and follows the story of those magical radio voices through the years of economic depression, war and austerity, to the swinging 60s and up to the digital era. Above all, it celebrates the great, the forgotten and the notorious voices of radio from the last nine decades, and the programmes they made famous.

Even though he's best known for his successful PBS series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Fred Rogers never dreamed of working in television. In fact, he hated the very first program that he ever watched! Join author Diane Bailey as she takes listeners through the journey that brought Mister Rogers into our living rooms. From his childhood interest in puppet-making and music, to his courageous visit to Russia during the Cold War, this audiobook details Mister Rogers' quest for kindness and his gentle appeal to be more neighborly.

Put on your blue suede shoes and get ready for another addition to the Who Was…? series! The King could not have come from humbler origins: Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, during the Depression, he grew up with the blues music of the rural South, the gospel music of local churches, and the country-western classics. But he forged a sound all his own - and a look that was all his own, too. With curled lip, swiveling hips, and greased pompadour, Elvis changed popular music forever, ushering in the age of rock and roll.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British institution, and its story during the Second World War is also our story. This was a period of remarkable voices: Churchill’s speeches, de Gaulle’s broadcasts from exile, Richard Dimbleby and Vera Lynn. Radio offered an incomparable tool for propaganda while at the same time eyewitness testimonies gave a voice to everyone, securing the BBC’s reputation as a purveyor of truth.

The arduous, often unpredictable journey to the US presidency has attracted some of the most unique characters in history. With "unusual" presidential candidates grabbing headlines for the foreseeable future, Contenders shines a welcome spotlight on individuals who felt inspired to offer their uncommon perspectives and special talents to lead the nation.

In The Pied Pipers of Rock 'n' Roll, Wes Smith examines the phenomenon of the AM deejays who captivated a generation and helped define the counterculture that has forever changed the landscape of American youth. Smith takes a close look at nine of the men who made this happen and explores the reasons for their influence and its lasting effects on the generation whose lives still unfold to the soundtrack laid down by these platter-spinners of their youth.

Bei einer Familienfeier versteckt sich Emilia mit ihrem besten Freund Joschi unter der Festtafel. Von dort unten aus gesehen ist die Welt eine lange schmale Höhle, die von Tisch- und Menschenbeinen begrenzt wird. Die Gespräche klingen dumpfer, aber Emilia und Joschi hören genau, worüber die Erwachsenen sich unterhalten: über die Mauer. Für die Kinder ist vieles unerklärlich. Es fängt schon bei Begriffen an, die sie merkwürdig oder sogar gruselig finden und im Spiel, für sich, zu begreifen versuchen.

This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.