For over half a century, Henry Blofeld has conveyed his unfailing enthusiasm for the game of cricket as a much loved broadcaster and journalist. His characteristically patrician tones, overlaid with those of the bon viveur, have delighted listeners to the BBC's Test Match Special where the personality of the broadcaster comes second only to a deep knowledge of the game and its players. With his engaging conversational tone it is easy to see why listeners feel as if they are actually at the Test match watching in Henry's friendly company. Now that 'Blowers' has decided to declare his TMS innings closed, his book reveals the secrets of life in the commentary box and of the rich cast of characters with whom he shared it, from the early days of John Arlott and Brian Johnson to Aggers and new boys Boycott, Swann, Vaughan and Tuffers. Henry is equally revealing of his own performances and self-deprecatingly recalls his several verbal misfortunes while live broadcasting. Like the greatest commentators and writers on the game Blofeld has always understood that there is a world beyond the cricket field. Not forgetting pigeons passing, red buses and much loved cricket grounds, Henry Blofeld writes of his favourite countries, and experiences while travelling, and meeting and interviewing many cricket-loving celebrities. His passionate and entertaining book will become one of the classics of cricket's literature.

When Breeze FM Radio, in the provincial Zambian town of Chipata, hired an elderly retired school teacher in 2003, no one anticipated the skyrocketing success that would follow. A self-styled grandfather on air, Gogo Breeze seeks intimacy over the airwaves and dispenses advice on a wide variety of grievances and transgressions. Multiple voices are broadcast and juxtaposed through call-ins and dialogue, but free speech finds its ally in the radio elder who, by allowing people to be heard and supporting their claims, reminds authorities of their obligations toward the disaffected. Harri Englund provides a masterfully detailed study of this popular radio personality that addresses broad questions of free speech in Zambia and beyond. By drawing on ethnographic insights into political communication, Englund presents multivocal morality as an alternative to dominant Euro-American perspectives, displacing the simplistic notion of voice as individual personal property an idea common in both policy and activist rhetoric. Instead, Englund focuses on the creativity and polyphony of Zambian radio while raising important questions about hierarchy, elderhood, and ethics in the public sphere. A lively, engaging portrait of an extraordinary personality, Gogo Breeze will interest Africanists, scholars of radio and mass media, and anyone interested in the history and future of free speech.

Despite the growth of digital media, traditional FM radio airplay still remains the essential way for musicians to achieve commercial success. "Climbing the Charts" examines how songs rise, or fail to rise, up the radio airplay charts. Looking at the relationships between record labels, tastemakers, and the public, Gabriel Rossman develops a clear picture of the roles of key players and the gatekeeping mechanisms in the commercial music industry. Along the way, he explores its massive inequalities, debunks many popular misconceptions about radio stations' abilities to dictate hits, and shows how a song diffuses throughout the nation to become a massive success.

Contrary to the common belief that Clear Channel sees every sparrow that falls, Rossman demonstrates that corporate radio chains neither micromanage the routine decision of when to start playing a new single nor make top-down decisions to blacklist such politically inconvenient artists as the Dixie Chicks. Neither do stations imitate either ordinary peers or the so-called kingmaker radio stations who are wrongly believed to be able to make or break a single. Instead, Rossman shows that hits spread rapidly across radio because they clearly conform to an identifiable style or genre. Radio stations respond to these songs, and major labels put their money behind them through extensive marketing and promotion efforts, including the illegal yet time-honored practice of payoffs known within the industry as payola.

"Climbing the Charts" provides a fresh take on the music industry and a model for understanding the diffusion of innovation.

From Archibald MacLeish to David Sedaris, radio storytelling has long borrowed from the world of literature, yet the narrative radio work of well-known writers and others is a story that has not been told before. And when the literary aspects of specific programs such as The War of the Worlds or Sorry, Wrong Number were considered, scrutiny was superficial. In Lost Sound, Jeff Porter examines the vital interplay between acoustic techniques and modernist practices in the growth of radio. Concentrating on the 1930s through the 1970s, but also speaking to the rising popularity of today's narrative broadcasts such as This American Life,Radiolab, Serial, and The Organicist, Porter's close readings of key radio programs show how writers adapted literary techniques to an acoustic medium with great effect. Addressing avant-garde sound poetry and experimental literature on the air, alongside industry policy and network economics, Porter identifies the ways radio challenged the conventional distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow cultural content to produce a dynamic popular culture.

Now firmly established as one of the leading textbooks in the increasingly popular field of radio studies, Radio in Context provides students with a practical, critical and comprehensive understanding of the main principles and techniques used in radio programming. Organized around the most commonly studied radio genres and setting production within a range of different contexts - professional, institutional and historical - the text offers an ideal blend of theory and practical guidance. Readers of this fully updated new edition will continue to benefit from this core text, as it reflects important technological, regulatory and institutional changes since its initial publication in 2004 and expands on key areas such as digital radio, broadcasting over the internet, and the interplay between radio and social media. Supported by a full glossary, tips on getting into radio and exercises to develop practical and critical skills, Radio in Context is the ideal companion for anyone studying radio, the media, communications and/or journalism, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as short courses in radio or audio production techniques. Now firmly established as one of the leading textbooks in the increasingly popular field of radio studies, Radio in Context provides students with a practical, critical and comprehensive understanding of the main principles and techniques used in radio programming. Organized around the most commonly studied radio genres and setting production within a range of different contexts - professional, institutional and historical - the text offers an ideal blend of theory and practical guidance. Readers of this fully updated new edition will continue to benefit from this core text, as it reflects important technological, regulatory and institutional changes since its initial publication in 2004 and expands on key areas such as digital radio, broadcasting over the internet, and the interplay between radio and social media. Supported by a full glossary, tips on getting into radio and exercises to develop practical and critical skills, Radio in Context is the ideal companion for anyone studying radio, the media, communications and/or journalism, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as short courses in radio or audio production techniques.

What became of radio after its Golden Age ended about 1960? Not long ago Arbitron found that almost 93 percent of Americans age 12 and older are regular radio listeners, a higher percentage than for those turning to television, magazines, newspapers, or the Internet. But the sounds they hear now don't resemble those of radio's heyday when it had little competition as a mass entertainment and information source. Much has transpired in the intervening epoch including a proliferation of disc jockeys, narrowcasting, the FM band, satellites, automation, talk, ethnicity, media empires, Internet streaming, and gadgets galore. Deregulation, payola, HD radio, pirate radio, the fall of transcontinental networks, the rise of local stations, conglomerate ownership, and radio's future landscape are examined in detail. Radio has lost some influence yet it continues to inspire new and stunning innovations.

The long-awaited autobiography of entertainment icon Jerry Blavat, You Only Rock Once is the wildly entertaining and unfiltered story of the man whose career began at the age of 13 on the TV dance show Bandstand and became a music legend. Lifelong friendships with the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, a controversial relationship with Philadelphia Mafia boss Angelo Bruno that resulted in a decade-long FBI investigation, and much more colours this amazing journey from the early 60s through today. Now, some 50 years after his first radio gig, Blavat puts it all in perspective in this uniquely American tale of a little cockroach kid" borne out of the immigrant experience who lived the American Dream.

X Games skateboarder, pro mixed martial arts fighter, and outspoken SiriusXM satellite radio host Jason Ellis shares his jaw-dropping and inspirational life story, from the depths of addiction to the glory of victory to the joys and ordeals of fatherhood. Fans of The Jason Ellis Show and the MMA-meets-music festival "Ellismania" know Ellis as a fearless daredevil-and as the new voice of action sports in America. Now, fans can learn how he got to be the man he is: the struggles, the setbacks, and the fight he put up to make it through to something better. Fans of Griffin Forrest's Got Fight and Tony Hawk's Hawk won't want to miss this unbelievable tell-all from a larger-than-life icon, and a fighter through and through.

This unique anthology assembles primary documents chronicling the development of the phonograph, film sound, and the radio. These three sound technologies shaped Americans' relation to music from the late nineteenth century until the end of the Second World War, by which time the technologies were thoroughly integrated into everyday life. There are more than 120 selections between the collection's first piece, an article on the phonograph written by Thomas Edison in 1878, and its last, a column advising listeners "desirous of gaining more from music as presented by the radio." Among the selections are articles from popular and trade publications, advertisements, fan letters, corporate records, fiction, and sheet music. Taken together, the selections capture how the new sound technologies were shaped by developments such as urbanization, the increasing value placed on leisure time, and the rise of the advertising industry. Most importantly, they depict the ways that the new sound technologies were received by real people in particular places and moments in time.

A collection of Sherlock Holmes radio scripts with detailed notes on Canonical references, rewrites, influences and the challenges of adapting Conan Doyles original tales for a 21st Century audience.

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.

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.

We can't do without radio. However many new forms of mass communication are invented, the grandmother of them all remains indispensable. From Peru to Jordan, it's radio journalists who are often the first, and the last, to defy censorship and push the boundaries. As modern technology multiplies radio's reach, Index examines the medium and its messengers. Alexei Venediktov gives an exclusive interview on the secret of radio station Ekho Moskvy's survival - one of the last bastions of free speech in Russia; Joe Queenan reveals why he has no time for talk radio in the US and Shirazuddin Siddiqi on the programme the Taliban couldn't ban. PLUS Richard Norton-Taylor on the pursuit of secrecy; Marge Berer on a full-frontal cover-up; an exclusive extract from Javad Mahzadeh's acclaimed novel set during the Iran-Iraq war and Martin Rowson's Stripsearch. Index on Censorship is an award-winning magazine, devoted to protecting and promoting free expression. International in outlook, outspoken in comment, Index on Censorship reports on free expression violations around the world, publishes banned writing and shines a light on vital free expression issues through original, challenging and intelligent commentary and analysis, publishing some of the world's finest writers. Forthcoming September 2010: Issue 39/3, Free Speech and Music For subscription options visit: http:/ioc.sagepub.com www.indexoncensorship.org: the place to turn for free up-to-the-minute free expression news and comment Winner 2008 Amnesty International Consumer Magazine of the Year

As World War II drew to a close and radio news was popularized through overseas broadcasting, journalists and dramatists began to build upon the unprecedented success of war reporting on the radio by creating audio documentaries. Focusing particularly on the work of radio luminaries such as Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly, Norman Corwin, and Erik Barnouw, "Radio Utopia: Postwar Audio Documentary in the Public Interest" traces this crucial phase in American radio history, significant not only for its timing immediately before television, but also because it bridges the gap between the end of the World Wars and the beginning of the Cold War. Matthew C. Ehrlich closely examines the production of audio documentaries disseminated by major American commercial broadcast networks CBS, NBC, and ABC from 1945 to 1951. Audio documentary programs educated Americans about juvenile delinquency, slums, race relations, venereal disease, atomic energy, arms control, and other issues of public interest, but they typically stopped short of calling for radical change. Drawing on rare recordings and scripts, Ehrlich traces a crucial phase in the evolution of news documentary, as docudramas featuring actors were supplanted by reality-based programs that took advantage of new recording technology. Paralleling that shift from drama to realism was a shift in liberal thought from dreams of world peace to uneasy adjustments to a cold war mentality. Influenced by corporate competition and government regulations, radio programming reflected shifts in a range of political thought that included pacifism, liberalism, and McCarthyism. In showing how programming highlighted contradictions within journalism and documentary, "Radio Utopia" reveals radio's response to the political, economic, and cultural upheaval of the post-war era.

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.

During the first half of the 20th century, when radio reigned supreme in the living rooms of America, the medium's hunger for captivating characters and stories could not be sated. Three national networks and dozens of independent stations created a vast expanse of air time that had to be filled with comedy, adventure, mystery, drama and music, night after night. It's no surprise that radio's producers and writers looked to outside sources for inspiration, drawing some of old-time radio's most beloved characters (e.g., Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Hopalong Cassidy, and Buck Rogers) directly from the pages of literature and popular fiction.This book examines individual characters that jumped from prose to radio, and also looks at a number of anthology programs that specialized in dramatizing short stories or novels. It begins with an exploration of mystery and detective shows, followed by evaluations of adventure stories, westerns, and science fiction. Later chapters focus on anthology shows, such as Orson Welles' ""Mercury Theater on the Air,"" that adapted classic novels by Twain, Steinbeck, Dickens and other great authors. Each chapter explores how the writers and producers approached the source material - what they changed, what they kept and what they left behind. The results of their efforts were almost always highly entertaining radio, examples of a form of storytelling much more engaging and satisfying than much of that with which it has been replaced.

A 60th anniversary celebration of the much-loved nautical comedy, featuring six classic episodes plus bonus material On 29 March 1959, The Navy Lark sailed the airwaves for the very first time. Starring Leslie Phillips, Jon Pertwee and Stephen Murray, with regular appearances from Ronnie Barker and Heather Chasen, it soon became a radio favourite and ran for 18 years - one of the longest-running BBC sitcoms. This anniversary collection comprises six of the best episodes from the iconic series - Operation Fag End (5 April 1959), The Hank of Heather (17 May 1959), The Lighthouse Lark (29 January 1960), A Deliberate Bashing (19 April 1963), When Sub Lt Phillips Was at Dartmouth (29 October 1967) and The Jubilee Navy Lark (16 July 1977). Bonus items include a mini-episode from The Light Entertainment Show; two crossover episodes from spin-off series The Embassy Lark: National Grumpschnog Week (12 April 1966) and Sub-Lt Phillips Drops In (16 April 1968), and a discussion from Bob Holness Presents: Farewell to the Paris, which sees Leslie Phillips and Jon Pertwee reminiscing about the making of The Navy Lark. So step aboard HMS Troutbridge for laughs ahoy! PLEASE NOTE: The CD inlay makes reference to the programme Left Hand Down a Bit. This programme is not included in the collection.

Regarded as the best radio and TV comic of his era, Tony Hancock was a man whose star burned brightly in the eyes and ears of millions before his untimely death in 1968. Now, forty years on, critically acclaimed biographer John Fisher brings the first fully authorised account of his life. Tony Hancock was one of post-war Britain's most popular comedians - his radio show 'Hancock's Half Hour' would clear the streets as whole families tuned in to listen. His peerless timing and subtle changes in intonation marked Hancock out as a comic genius. His character 'Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock' was an amplification of his own persona, a pompous prat whose dreams of success are constantly thwarted. The original British loser that we recognise in Victor Meldrew and Alan Partridge. Wonderfully supported by a cast including Sid James, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams, and working with scripts from Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, Hancock became a huge star. The show was commisioned for TV, showcasing his talent for hilarious facial expression, and he became the first British comedian to earn a thousand pounds a week. Behind Tony Hancock's success however hid the self-destructive behaviour that plagued him all his life. Prone to self-doubt, and wanting to be the star of his own show, he got rid of James, and finally dismissed Galton and Simpson who had created the platform for his success. His private life was wracked by his ever increasing alcoholism and bouts of depression, and his relationships shattered by his capacity for violence. His ratings fell and, feeling washed up and alone after divorcing his second wife, he committed suicide in an Australian hotel room in 1968. Now, forty years after his death John Fisher explores the turbulent life of a man regarded by his peers as one of the greatest British comics to have ever lived.

This book covers personalities, policies, and programming.When it first appeared in the 1930s, FM radio was a technological marvel, providing better sound and nearly eliminating the static that plagued AM stations. It took another forty years, however, for FM's popularity to surpass that of AM. In ""Sounds of Change"", Christopher Sterling and Michael Keith detail the history of FM, from its inception to its dominance (for now, at least) of the airwaves.Initially, FM's identity as a separate service was stifled, since most FM outlets were AM-owned and simply simulcast AM programming and advertising. A wartime hiatus followed by the rise of television precipitated the failure of hundreds of FM stations. As Sterling and Keith explain, the 1960s brought FCC regulations allowing stereo transmission and requiring FM programs to differ from those broadcast on co-owned AM stations. Forced nonduplication led some FM stations to branch out into experimental programming, which attracted the counterculture movement, minority groups, and noncommercial public and college radio.By 1979, mainstream commercial FM was finally reaching larger audiences than AM. The story of FM since 1980, the authors say, is the story of radio, especially in its many musical formats. But trouble looms. Sterling and Keith conclude by looking ahead to the age of digital radio - which includes satellite and internet stations as well as terrestrial stations - suggesting that FM's decline will be partly a result of self-inflicted wounds - bland programming, excessive advertising, and little variety.

Few inventions evoke such nostalgia, such deeply personal and vivid memories as radio. Ask anyone born before World War II about radio, and you'll see that person time-travel to the lost world of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Arturo Toscanini; to the jokes of Jack Benny and Burns and Allen; to the sobering commentary of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Edward R. Murrow. Those born after World War II grew up tuned to Jean Shepherd in the darkness of their bedrooms; cruising with Sam Cooke, the Beatles, or the Doors; talking back to Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, and Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Listening In is the first in-depth history of how radio culture and content have kneaded and expanded the American psyche.
But Listening In is more than a history. It is also a reconsideration of what listening to radio has done to American culture in the twentieth century and how it has brought a completely new auditory dimension to our lives. Susan Douglas explores how listening has altered our day-to-day experiences and our own generational identities, cultivating different modes of listening in different eras; how radio has shaped our views of race, gender roles, ethic barriers, family dynamics, leadership, and the generation gap.
How we listened, where we listened, who we listened to and why: With her trademark wit and erudition, Susan Douglas has created an eminently readable cultural history of radio that fixes its place in our lives as shaper and reflector of our passions and obsessions.

This fascinating book explores the tensions behind the greatest era in BBC radio broadcasting ? the Home Service. Despite evacuation, air-raids and the closure of the fledgling TV service, the BBC rose magnificently to the challenge of informing, entertaining and inspiring a nation at war.

The war years were to transform religious broadcasting beyond recognition. Under the persistent and innovative James Welch, the BBC began to invent new formats and take large risks in trying to communicate Christian truth to a generation whose faith was on the rack of war. Out of this came the broadcast talks of CS Lewis and the first ever dramatic portrayal of Christ in Dorothy L Sayers? Man Born to be King.

The response to C S Lewis? first broadcast was so overwhelming that a second programme had to be arranged to answer listeners? questions. Lewis? hugely popular BBC talks were published as Mere Christianity and have been a classic ever since, selling over 11 million copies worldwide.

As a layman, Lewis? critics initially claimed that he was not qualified to talk on Christian matters. For Lewis this was all part of the challenge of reaching a new audience. But his initial enthusiasm for broadcasting waned as it began to interfere with his work at Oxford, and he turned down many of the BBC?s invitations to appear on the radio, including a chance to be on The Brains Trust, the Any Questions of its day.

This is a chapter in Lewis? life which has received very little attention from biographers and commentators, who have focussed on his achievements as a writer and academic. Yet C S Lewis? work on the radio made him a household name.