Listener Supported: The Culture and History of Public Radio Review

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(More customer reviews)If you're a public radio fan wanting to know what Garrison Keillor is really like, or how angry Bob Edwards actually got when he exited Morning Edition unwillingly after almost 25 years as host, this is not the book for you. It is a highly readable, highly personal perspective on the philosophies and politics that shaped NPR and made public radio a force in American media. Those most apt to appreciate it are among the thousands of people who have been employed in public radio over the last 30 years -- including career veterans who will recognize the names and remember the events that Mitchell recalls.

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Davenport's WOC AM-FM-TV (Images of America) (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing)) Review

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(More customer reviews)"Davenport's WOC AM-FM-TV (Images of America)"Davenport's WOC AM-FM-TV (Images of America)
Is a GREAT book for anyone who has lived in Eastern Iowa in the last sixty years! It is a historical look at radio and TV station WOC and TV station KWQC. A lot of history on people that have worked there and GREAT pictures of way back when! It is a marvelous trip down memory lane that I will enjoy time and again!

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Beginning in 1922, Davenport's WOC has charted an impressive list of broadcasting firsts: the first licensed commercial radio station west of the Mississippi River; first station to establish logging, the practice of recording program schedules down to the minute and second; the use of time signals at the beginning of programs; first to build and use audio mixing controls that allowed multiple microphone usage; first to broadcast from a state legislature; and first to broadcast programming meant specifically for children. WOC-TV was the first television station in Iowa on the air when it began regular programming in 1949. This volume of images presents an overview to the history, facilities, programming, and technology of the WOC stations and provides a glimpse at the stations today, as new ownership carries on an outstanding tradition in Quad City broadcasting.

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AIRWAVES OF NEW YORK: Illustrated Histories of 156 Am Stations in the Metropolitan Area, 1921-1996 Review

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(More customer reviews)There are probably a dozen or so books that I've read and re-read cover to cover in one siting. I am adding Kanze and Sulek's to that pile, making it a super baker's dozen. It's a solid, well written text, highlighted with great pictures and memorabilia about radio's AM history in metro #1. My only regret for the radio historian is that there isn't one for all the other major metro areas like Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas. I look forward to their FM version. Gotta have it. Bob Donnelly
Montclair NJ

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From its inception in New York City, radio dramatically changed the city. The five boroughs became, in some ways, more united through the medium, as common concerns were aired and given wider attention. But as radio came to be more entertainment based, the city lost the last of its small town origins, as people left the front stoop for the living room. This heavily illustrated history traces the development of AM radio in the New York metropolitan area. While technical information and program schedules are fully covered, the work also provides unique insight into radio's influence on the development of the city. The photographs reinforce the sense of change brought about by the medium.

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From Soupy to Nuts A History of Detroit Television Review

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(More customer reviews)(Full disclosure: I worked with Tim in the Arts and Entertainment section of the Detroit News while he was researching this book. I'm proud to comment on his labor of love.)
Authors who have an affinity for their subjects usually do a better job at presenting their stories. As the former TV critic for the Detroit News, author Tim Kiska is a subject-matter expert on the nuts and bolts of the Metro Detroit television market.
But Kiska's real gift is that of combining his insider knowledge of the medium with a deep love and respect for Detroit's diverse group of local personalities. The hundreds of vignettes - ranging from characters like the gravely serious Bill Kennedy to the follicle and sobriety-challenged news anchor Bill Bonds - are warm and thoughtful looks at local television before it was packaged and managed into generic dullness.
Kiska covers the prim, the profane, the pundits and the professional personalities with equal measures of flavor and detail. It's a love letter to another time while addressing the journalistic questions of "who, what, where, when and why." In short, it's a complete work with lots of heart.
Publisher Momentum Books has enhanced Kiska's work with a beautifully crafted book loaded with period pictures, a clean layout on bright, glossy paper and an eye-catching cover. A whimsical introduction by wacky weatherman Sonny Eliot as well as a sweet foreward by the author completes this book. This is a quality piece of literature and history that deserves a spot on your bookshelf.


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Back in the 1940s – before coaxial cable from the East Coast reached Detroit – television was as local as Vernors, Sanders Hot Fudge and Hudson's. There was room for clowns, bowlers, philosophers, journalists, adventurers, movie mavens, wrestlers and magicians. The people who put these shows on were drunks, geniuses, thugs, heroes, artists, craftsmen, hustlers and poets. Some were all of these things at times. A few were all these things before lunch. As the medium grew, thousands of Detroiters visited Channel 4 to see Milky the Clown, danced on Channel 62's The Scene or tuned in to watch bombastic anchorman Bill Bonds. With the evaporation of distinct local television, a piece of Detroit's character disappeared. From Soupy to Nuts! is a snapshot of Detroit TV history – from Sonny Eliot, Bozo the Clown, Bill Kennedy, Lou Gordon and Gil Maddox to Al Ackerman, Sir Graves Ghastly, Dick the Bruiser and Mr. Belvedere.

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Nashville Broadcasting, TN (IMG) (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing)) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a pictoral history of the golden years of broadcasting in Nashville and the local on-air celebrities who left their mark on the industry. The norm was in-house production (most times live), no teleprompters, and striving for the truth in news coverage. For those who remember those times, this is a walk down memory lane. Younger readers will get a glimpse of who brought the broadcast industry out of its infancy. A "must have" for Nashville history buffs!

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Built by a 16-year-old high school student named Jack DeWitt, the first radio station in Nashville went on the air in 1922. Three years later, DeWitt helped start WSM, arguably one of the nationÂ's greatest radio stations, and in 1950, he and WSM put NashvilleÂ's first television station on the air. Over the years, Nashville has had its share of local radio personalities, such as Noel Ball, Coyote McCloud, and Gerry House, as well as television personalities like Jud Collins, Bill Jay, and Larry Munson. Nationally recognized stars such as Dinah Shore, Oprah Winfrey, Pat Sajak, and Pat Boone started their careers in Nashville as well. Here are the stories and images of the people heard on transistor radios and the programs—including Five OÂ'Clock Hop, RuffinÂ' Reddy, and The Mickey Mouse Club—watched by children while they did their homework.

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The Hits Just Keep on Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio Review

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(More customer reviews)Ben Fong Torres' love and admiration for the early days of Top 40 radio shows through in this book. He has crafted a wonderful history of how Top 40 began, features on numerous radio personalities (among them Tom Donahue, B Mitch Reed, Robert W Morgan, The Real Don Steele, Alan Freed, Dick Biondi, the list goes on and on). And the CD included with the book featuring airchecks of some of these amazing personalities is wild. Hearing DJ's like Gary Owens, B Mitch Reed, Casey Kasem or Tom Donahue in their early days is a hoot.
If the book has a West Coast slant on personalities, perhaps that's only because Torres grew up in the Bay Area. However, he does not give short shrift to anyone. He also goes into great detail about the people who helped create this format: Chuck Blore of "Color Radio" fame, Bill Drake and Ron Jacobs of "Boss Radio" fame, Gordon McLendon and Tod Storz, among others. It's ironic in a way that Torres' claim to fame came later as first a journalist for Rolling Stone and as a DJ on KSAN in San Francisco (one of those "underground" FM stations that loved to poke fun at the Top 40 stations).
The book traces the beginnings, development, and "growing pains" of this format. How at one time it was hip, then became "square" when the underground FM stations hit the airwaves, and how it now seems to have emerged again. And funny how the underground stations developed as a kind of "antidote" to very restrictive Top 40 formats, just as the Top 40 stations developed as something different to the standard fare of that time.
Amazing stories abound in this book, and being an ex DJ myself I could relate to them. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I agree with another reviewer that this book is must reading for any past or present DJ, or any student of the media.

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This lively blast from the past peels back the many layers of the Top 40 phenomenon: the DJs, fans, singles, jingles, dedications, contests, requests and more. The book features interviews with such renowned radio personalities and programmers as Casey Kasem, Dick Clark, Wolfman Jack, "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, Gary Owens and many others, and includes an exclusive CD with "airchecks" - rare recordings from 16 legendary DJs on actual Top 40 broadcasts - so that readers can hear the crazed, creative and compelling voices that made Top 40 so memorable. Also includes lots of fantastic black-and-white photos to help readers put faces to the voices they know so well, a bibliography and index, and a special Top of the Pops section featuring the Number One records of Top 40 radio from 1957 through 1997 as calculated by the staff of Gavin.

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Black Radio ... Winner Takes All: America's 1st Black DJs Review

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(More customer reviews)I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I have it on my coffee table for everyone to see. The book tells you all about the first black Disc Jockey in Chicago all the way up to the mid 60's. I enjoyed the pictures which also told their own story as well.

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Black-oriented radio emerged after World War II. Full time programming from sun-up to sun-down; blues, spirituals, rhythm and blues replaced jazz as the primary form of music. These improvising "street rapping" Disc Jockeys dominated the airwaves. Welcome to Black Radio...Winner Takes All!


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