When Waseem Mahmood's brother broke a confidence and filed a story in the world's highest circulating tabloid, the News of the World, Mahmood feared he'd never work in broadcast media again. History intervened with the events of 9/11, the attack on Afghanistan, and the Taliban's fall. Headed by Mahmood, a group of journalists responded by producing a Kabul-based radio program to disseminate much-needed and, for the first time, uncensored information. What they end up providing is hope for a devastated land and a voice for a people long smothered by oppression. Told with searing honesty, this is a story of struggle, cruelty, and courage populated by ordinary people who risk their lives for freedom.

In a wide-ranging, cross-cultural, and transhistorical assessment, John Mowitt examines radio's central place in the history of twentieth-century critical theory. A communication apparatus that was a founding technology of twentieth-century mass culture, radio drew the attention of theoretical and philosophical writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Lacan, and Frantz Fanon, who used it as a means to disseminate their ideas. For others, such as Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, and Raymond Williams, radio served as an object of urgent reflection. Mowitt considers how the radio came to matter, especially politically, to phenomenology, existentialism, Hegelian Marxism, anticolonialism, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies. The first systematic examination of the relationship between philosophy and radio, this provocative work also offers a fresh perspective on the role this technology plays today.

The only book on the market to specifically address its audience, Recording Voiceover is the comprehensive guide for engineers looking to understand the aspects of capturing the spoken word. Discussing all phases of the recording session, Recording Voiceover addresses everything from microphone recommendations for voice recording to pre-production considerations, including setting up the studio, working with and directing the voice talent, and strategies for reducing or eliminating distracting noise elements found in human speech. Recording Voiceover features in-depth, specific recommendations for recording radio and television commercials, corporate communications, documentaries, tracks for gaming and animation, radio drama, interviews and roundtable discussions. A discussion of the voice in film and television is also included. Special attention is paid to the final release format and its impact on recording strategies. Exploration of using telephone interfaces - including both analogue and digital ISDN, as well as recording across the internet - is included.

The only book on the market to specifically address its audience, Recording Voiceover is the comprehensive guide for engineers looking to understand the aspects of capturing the spoken word. Discussing all phases of the recording session, Recording Voiceover addresses everything from microphone recommendations for voice recording to pre-production considerations, including setting up the studio, working with and directing the voice talent, and strategies for reducing or eliminating distracting noise elements found in human speech. Recording Voiceover features in-depth, specific recommendations for recording radio and television commercials, corporate communications, documentaries, tracks for gaming and animation, radio drama, interviews and roundtable discussions. A discussion of the voice in film and television is also included. Special attention is paid to the final release format and its impact on recording strategies. Exploration of using telephone interfaces - including both analogue and digital ISDN, as well as recording across the internet - is included.

"soundBAIT" is a formula for radio-marketing success that has been developed for 1) radio station account executives who want to attract new advertisers, 2) radio advertisers who want their hard earned marketing dollars to produce dramatically better results and 3) radio listeners who demand that you at least entertain them while you interrupt the flow of music or talk on their favorite station. "soundBAIT" examines what radio stations should be looking for in an advertiser, what an advertiser should be looking for in a radio station and most importantly, what listeners expect advertisers to use as "bait" in their messages before they will "bite" at the products and services advertisers offer them.

Radio Four has been described as "the greatest broadcasting channel in the world," the "heartbeat of the BBC," a cultural icon of Britishness, and the voice of Middle England. Defined by its rich mix, encompassing everything from journalism and drama to comedy, quizzes, and short-stories. Many of its programs- such as Today, The Archers, Woman's Hour, The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy, Gardeners' Question Time, and The Shipping Forecast--have been part of British life for decades. Others, less successful, have caused offence and prompted derision. Born as it was in the Swinging Sixties, Radio Four's central challenge has been to change with the times, while trying not to lose faith with those who see it as a standard-bearer for quality, authoritativeness, or simply "old-fashioned" BBC values.
In this first major behind-the-scenes account of the station's history, David Hendy--a former producer for Radio Four--draws on privileged access to the BBC's own archives and new interviews with key personnel to illuminate the arguments and controversies behind the creation of some of its most popular programmes. He reveals the station's struggle to justify itself in a television age, favouring clear branding and tightly-targeted audiences, with bitter disputes between the BBC and its fiercely loyal listeners. The story of these struggles is about more than the survival of one radio network: Radio Four has been a lightning rod for all sorts of wider social anxieties over the past forty years. A kaleidoscopic view of the changing nature of the BBC, this book provides a gripping insight into the very nature of British life and culture in the last decades of the twentieth century.

Broadcast Announcing Worktext, now in its fifth edition, remains one of the best resources for those looking to gain the skills, techniques, and procedures necessary to enter the competitive field of broadcast performance. Written accessibly, with easy-to-digest modules and practice projects, this book encourages active participation from readers to help develop their talent on air. In addition to the principles of good performance, the book addresses the importance of the audience and how to communicate effectively to diverse groups. The book combines traditional teaching with practical experience, and includes sample scripts and self-study exercises to allow for a practical, hands-on application of key concepts. The fifth edition, expanded throughout, features updates about performance on the Internet and social media, as well as content about podcasting and audio performance. A new chapter on international media offers readers a look at media performance and career possibilities around the world. This book is an invaluable resource for any student of journalism, communication, or public relations looking to enhance their media performance skills. A detailed accompanying website features audio-clips, sample test questions, and a Professionals' Comment Bank setting out experience and advice from working pros.

The first hilarious volume of comedy writer, journalist, radio DJ and screenwriter Danny Baker's memoir, and now the inspiration for the major BBC series CRADLE TO GRAVE, starring Peter Kay. 'And what was our life like in this noisy, dangerous and polluted industrial pock-mark wedged into one of the capital's toughest neighbourhoods? It was, of course, utterly magnificent and I'd give anything to climb inside it again for just one day.' In the first volume of his memoirs, Danny Baker brings his early years to life as only he knows how. With his trademark humour and eye for a killer anecdote, he takes us all the way from the council house in south-east London that he shared with his mum Betty and dad 'Spud' (played by Peter Kay) to the music-biz excesses of Los Angeles, where he famously interviewed Michael Jackson for the NME. Laugh-out-loud funny, it is also an affectionate but unsentimental hymn to a bygone era.

'Full of glorious examples of caller wisdom [with] laugh-out-loud anecdotes' Allison Pearson, Sunday Telegraph Jeremy Vine has been presenting his BBC Radio 2 show since 2003 - it now attracts more than seven million listeners. He calculates he has taken more than 25,000 calls from his listeners on issues big and small: life, love, lollipop ladies and poisonous plants. But what have the callers told him? If you listen to Radio 4, Brexit was a shock. If you are on Radio 2 it would not have surprised you at all. Where Jeremy's callers once expressed a kind of resignation ('But what can you do?') or a gloomy rejoinder ('You have to laugh'), now they give him their views expecting to be heeded. Listener wisdom is far more valuable than most of what we hear from appointed spokespeople. What was the response when Jeremy asked: 'Have you ever been pecked in the eye by a gannet?' Which subjects are most likely to start pitched warfare between different sections of the audience? (Answer: old people using buses, old people NOT using buses, cellophane, or Tony Blair saying anything.) In a book punctuated by his own vivid stories and laugh-out-loud moments, Jeremy Vine explains what it's like to hit a button and hear - totally unvarnished and unspun - the voice of the so-called 'ordinary' person. And why we should take notice.

Radio history is currently much talked about. Radio was the medium which 'defined and defied' American culture in the early 20th century, setting patterns for all media that followed. Topics include 1940s radio suspense drama, quiz shows, American propogandists for Axis Powers, The Green Hornet and race, black liberation radio, NPR, and Christian right and radio.

Bringing together an international and diverse group of scholars, Tuning in to the neo-avant-garde offers the first in-depth study of the radio medium's significance as a site of artistic experimentation for the literary neo-avant-garde in the postwar period. Covering radio works from the 1950s until the 2010s, the collection charts how artists across the UK, Europe and North America continued as well as reacted to the legacies of the historical avant-garde and modernism, operating within different national broadcasting contexts, by placing radio in an intermedial dialogue with prose, poetry, theatre, music and film. In doing so, the volume explores a wide variety of acoustic genres - radio play, feature, electroacoustic music, radiophonic poem, radio opera - to show that the medium deserves to occupy a more central place than it currently does in studies of literature, (inter)media(lity) and the (neo-)avant-garde. -- .

The Radio Act of August 13, 1912, provided for the licensing of radio operators and transmitting stations for nearly 15 years until Congress passed the Radio Act of 1927. From 1921 to 1927, there were continual revisions and developments and these still serve as the basis for current broadcast regulation. This book chronicles that crucial six-year period using primary documents. The administrative structure of the Department of Commerce and the personnel involved in the regulation of broadcasting are detailed. The book is arranged chronologically in three sections: Broadcast Regulation and Policy from 1921 to 1925; Congestion and the Beginning of Regulatory Breakdown in 1924 and 1925; and Regulatory Breakdown and the Passage of the Act of 1927. There is also discussion of the Department of Commerce divisions and their involvement until they were absorbed by the Federal Communication Commission. A bibliography and an index conclude the work.

Why exactly would a nationally successful stand up comedian chuck in the exhilaration and freedom of life on the road for endless Coldplay singles, arguments with BBC management, incredibly expensive coffee, and an alarm clock set to 4:30am, five days a week? When the BBC decided to launch a brand new digital radio station that would play alternative music for truly passionate music fans, their first port of call was to elicit the services of Phill Jupitus. With a record collection that ran the gamut from calypso to techno, and a love of radio inspired by his childhood hero John Peel, Phill seemed the perfect choice to launch 6 Music. Phill readily accepted, determined to do something different with such an unexpected yet brilliant opportunity. Little did he know what lay ahead. With the weighty advice of such broadcasting behemoths as Terry Wogan, Steve Wright and Tony Blackburn ringing in his ears, Jupitus tried to shake up the world of breakfast radio for the better one tune at a time. Were the public ready for something new? But more importantly, did they even want it? In "Good Morning Nantwich," Phill Jupitus not only discovers the answer but finds out what really makes the listening nation tick first thing in the morning.

The story of how one council estate lad made good, really very good, and survived - just about - to tell the tale... Chris Evans's extraordinary career has seen him become one of the country's most successful broadcasters and producers. From The Big Breakfast to Don't Forget Your Toothbrush and TFI Friday, Chris changed the TV landscape during the '90s; and on Manchester's Piccadilly Radio, BBC Radio 1's Breakfast show and as owner of Virgin Radio he ushered in the age of the celebrity DJ. But this is only part of the Chris Evans story. In this witty and energetically written autobiography, Chris describes the experiences that shaped the boy and created the man who would go on to carve out such a dazzlingly brilliant career. Born on a dreary council estate in Warrington and determined to escape, Chris started out as the best newspaper boy on the block, armed with no more than a little silver Binatone radio that he would take to the newsagents each day and through which he would develop a life-long and passionate love affair with the music and voices that emerged. From paperboy to media mogul, It's Not What You Think isn't what you think - it's the real story beyond the glare of the media spotlight from one of this country's brightest and boldest personalities.

This book explores how community radio contributes to social change. Community radio remains a unique communication platform under digital capitalism, arguably capable of expanding the project of media democratisation. Yet there is a lack of in-depth analysis of community radio experience, and a dearth of understanding of its functionality as an actively transformative tool for greater equity in society. This project combines the theoretical positions of the political economy of communication with a citizen's media perspective in order to interrogate community radio's democratic potential. By presenting case studies of two radio stations in Melbourne and Lospalos, and applying multiple research methods, the book reveals community radio's amplification of media participation, communication rights, counter-hegemony and media power - in effect, its distinct regenerative voice.

Why have radio and television never been granted the same First Amendment freedoms that we have always accorded the printed word? In this fascinating work, Lucas A. Powe, Jr., examines the strange paradox governing our treatment of the two types of media. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.

Bryan Gallagher's reminiscences of the Ireland of his youth, first heard on Radio 4's 'Home Truths', transport you to a world of boyhood pranks, playground politics and the confusion of growing up in a land that is every bit as magical and captivating as the stories he has to tell. Barefoot in Mullyneeny is Bryan Gallagher's evocative tale of a childhood remembered through the people and landscape of Fermanagh, near the beautiful shores of Lough Erne in Ireland. Bryan chronicles a time when all the big boys went to school in bare feet and secretly watched the Saturday night bands and dances in halls lit by Tilley lamps; where it was known to be nothing less than the biblical truth that if you put a horse-hair across the palm of your hand when you were about to be punished at school, the cane would split in two. Gallagher's writing will touch the hearts of those who long for the innocence of childhood and the simplicity of an era long past. Whether relating tales of murderous bicycle chases through the darkened streets of Cavan, of ghosts and fairy forts or the anguish of emigration, this remarkable memoir vividly recreates life in rural Ireland in the 1940s and 50s. For those who thought that life in Ireland was one of poverty and misery, Barefoot in Mullyneeny offers a view of the Ireland of yesteryear that combines the touching, homely nostalgia of Nigel Slater's Toast and Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie with a humorous optimism that is unmistakably Ireland at its best.

This book is the first full-length history of the BBC World Service: from its interwar launch as short-wave radio broadcasts for the British Empire, to its twenty-first-century incarnation as the multi-media global platform of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The book provides insights into the BBC's working relationship with the Foreign Office, the early years of the Empire Service, and the role of the BBC during the Second World War. In following the voice of the BBC through the Cold War and the contraction of the British empire, the book argues that debates about the work and purposes of the World Service have always involved deliberations about the future of the UK and its place in the world. In current times, these debates have been shaped by the British government's commitment to leave the European Union and the centrifugal currents in British politics which in the longer term threaten the integrity of the United Kingdom. Through a detailed exploration of its past, the book poses questions about the World Service's possible future and argues that, for the BBC, the question is not only what it means to be a global broadcaster as we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, but what it means to be a national broadcaster in a divided kingdom.

In the early twentieth century, the magic of radio was new, revolutionary, and poorly understood. A powerful symbol of modernity, radio was a site where individuals wrestled and came to terms with an often frightening wave of new mass technologies. Radio was the object of scientific investigation, but more importantly, it was the domain of tinkerers, "hackers," citizen scientists, and hobbyists. This book shows how this wild and mysterious technology was appropriated by ordinary individuals in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century as a leisure activity. Clubs and hobby organizations became the locus of this process, providing many of the social structures within which individuals could come to grips with radio, apart from any media institution or government framework. In so doing, this book uncovers the vital but often overlooked social context in which technological revolutions unfold.

Eddie Mair is, by his own account, one of Britain's most beloved broadcasters. Born in Dundee, Scotland, he has worked in radio all his adult life. From the foothills of commercial radio in his hometown, through the sunlit uplands of the BBC in Scotland, he has reached the peaks of his profession, with BBC network radio in London. And he's never afraid to work a metaphor beyond endurance. In addition he's appeared on most of the BBC's TV channels, including ones that are no longer on TV. He witnessed the handover of Hong Kong and once asked Arnold Schwarzenegger a question - though he takes no responsibility for either. For nearly twenty years he has been at the helm of Radio 4's PM: a nightly news round up that means Eddie works for just one hour a day, giving him plenty time to knock together these diaries. Whether he's interviewing politicians, getting people to share their personal experiences, or just imparting his favourite zesty chicken recipes, Eddie is never happier than when he is at the microphone. Except when he is at the microphone with a large martini. In truth, his neediness is an irritation to everyone who knows him and if you buy this book he might get out of their hair. Eddie's other work, as a humanitarian and tireless, secret worker for charity is not mentioned in these pages.

The soap opera is a major form of media art and popular culture. Revered and reviled by fans and critics, its history spans and reflects social change and plays a vital role in the development of broadcasting. This book traces the genre from its beginnings on American radio in the 1930s to the international television genre it has become today. While concentrating on British soap operas, it also discusses the influence of their American and Australian counterparts.

This is the first book to consider the soap opera within the economy of broadcasting; it includes a chapter based on interviews with leading broadcasting executives who give their analysis of the importance of the soap opera to their industry. The perspective of television producers as well as the views of audiences are also taken into account.

Accessibly written, "Soap Opera" links the genre to both its media and its literary heritage, and argues that soap operas cross international boundaries through the universal appeal of their characters and their stories. It will be of particular interest to students of media and cultural studies, literary studies, sociology and television production courses, as well as to professionals in the television industry.

'Melvyn not only makes you think ... he makes it enjoyable too. He's brilliant.' - John Humphrys, the Today Programme. 'In a troubled world where many sneer at experts, In Our Time is always a treat. Those who know what they're talking about, talk about it, and they do it under the benevolent if occasionally testy guidance of one who knows how to bring out the best in them. Listen, read, mark, and inwardly digest; agreeable glass of accompanying refreshment optional.' - Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch 'This beautifully produced and expertly edited book is a wonderfully rich and varied sample of 50 In Our Time programmes, from ancient Greek philosophy to dark matter via the gin craze. It will whet your appetite to visit or revisit the many hundreds of other programmes in this remarkable series.' - Professor Angela Hobbs 'Bragg gives short shrift to pretension of any kind, while remaining stalwart in his search for knowledge. His methodology in In Our Time is... not unlike that of a man throwing a stick at a dog: he chucks his questions ahead, and if the chosen academic fails to bring it right back, he chides them. He retains enough of his bluff Cumbrian origins not to be taken in by gambolling and tweedy high spirits.' - Will Self, from a February 2010 issue of London Review of Books In Our Time has been the cornerstone of broadcasting every Thursday morning on BBC Radio 4 for the past twenty years, with over 800 episodes since its launch in October 1998. Presented by one of Britain's greatest champions of the arts, Melvyn Bragg, the show explores ideas across history, religion, philosophy, science and culture. With a vast array of contributors from the world of academia, such as Mary Beard, Angie Hobbs and Diarmaid MacCulloch, it is one of Radio 4's most successful programmes, attracting a weekly live audience exceeding 2 million listeners, and, per episode, it is one of the world's most downloaded podcasts. To honour this major anniversary of BBC broadcasting, this beautifully illustrated book provides a lively and colourful guide to fifty of the most captivating discussions from the past two decades of In Our Time, as chosen by Melvyn and the producer Simon Tillotson, and, influenced by listeners who have recommended their favourite programmes from those years. Highlights include 'Romulus and Remus', 'The Death of Elizabeth I', 'Ada Lovelace', 'The Gin Craze', the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' and 'The Salem Witch Trials', and there are additional behind-the-scenes insights, peppered with Melvyn Bragg's remarks both on and off air. This is a captivating gift for all fans and a celebration of this iconic series.

This collection examines the work of Norman Corwin - one of the most important, yet understudied, media authors of all time - as a critical lens to view the history of multimedia authorship and sound production. Known as the "poet laureate" of radio, Corwin is most famous for his radio dramas, which reached millions of listeners around the world and contributed to radio's success as a mass media form in the 1930s and 1940s. But Corwin was also a pioneer in other fields, including cinema, theater, TV, and journalism. In each of these areas, he had a distinctive approach to "soundwork," relying on inventive prerecorded and live-in-real-time atmospheric effects in the studio, among other aesthetic techniques. Exploring the range of Corwin's work-from his World War II-era poetry and his special projects for the United Nations to his path-breaking writing for film and television - and its influence on media today, these essays underscore the political and social impact of Corwin's oeuvre and cement his reputation as a key writer in the history of many sound media.