Radio Culture
TV&R Course #25.3
Code #1421
Fall 2001
Monday & Wednesday 10:30 - 11:45
402 Whitehead Hall
Professor: Martin Spinelli
Office: 406 Whitehead
Email: msradio@banet.net
Office hours: Monday 11:45 - 1:45
Wednesday 11:45 - 12:45
(Also at other times by appointment. I will typically be on campus Tuesday and
can arrange to meet you then as well. Either email me or call the Department of
Television & Radio at 951-5555.)
Overview:
As we work longer hours, commute longer distances, and log-on to more and more
information/entertainment options, radio is the only traditional medium experiencing audience
growth. This course examines the past one-hundred years of radio technology and the culture it
has made possible. In different ways radio has provided a sense of identity to four generations,
created an acoustically conscious society, invented a new kind of personality politics, allowed
cultures to trade and pilfer music, and collapsed the distance of continents long before such an
idea became a chief selling point of the internet. But radio not only shapes culture, it is also
utterly shaped by it. This course endeavors to understand that somewhat circular relationship by
investigating: the different methods for conceiving of audience and how stations relate (and have
related) to listeners; how people listen and how modes of listening matter socially; how radio
voices have changed to better address or challenge dominant cultural voices; and how radio art
experiments engaged with culture and society through broadcasting.
By the end of this course students should:
- have a clear understanding of American radio history both in terms of modes of listening and
production techniques
- have undertaken a serious study of a pre-1950 radio program or series
- be able to identify the major production/aesthetic techniques from various periods in radio's
history
- be able to discuss the social role and history of international radio journalism
- be able to use radio archives (such as The Museum of Television and Radio and the
Bensman/Memphis Archive) effectively in research projects
Assignments and Grades:
Advisory #1: Assignments are due when I tell you they are due. I have no patience for
excuses involving faulty equipment, hungry dogs, dead grandmothers, delinquent siblings, acts of
natural disaster, and the like. Similarly, notes from Dr. Mom will gain you no sympathy. I do
NOT accept late work. If you feel you might be unable to meet a deadline you must discuss it
with me during a class meeting before the assignment is due. Only then will I consider granting
you an extension.
Advisory #2: As each class meeting will build on the material presented in previous sessions,
attendance is extremely important. If you miss more than three class meetings I reserve the right
to lower your final grade one-half of a letter for each subsequent absence. Showing up on time
is equally important. I will allow a five-minute grace period at the beginning of class; if you show
up later than 10:35 you will not receive attendance credit and may be locked out of class.
Your final grade will be calculated as follows:
- 30%--Quizzes on assigned reading and on previous class discussions and presentations.
Quizzes will often be unannounced. If you miss a quiz it counts as a zero. There are no
make-up quizzes.
- 20%--An oral report comparing two radio programs of the same type. These needn't be your
"favorite" radio programs, only ones you can talk about intelligently for a few minutes. (They
do not have to be of the same historical period either; it might be interesting to contrast a
contemporary BBC radio variety show with the Jack Benny Show for example). Students are
encouraged not merely to describe what can be heard on the program but to do some research
through history books, web pages, articles and reviews, and even (if possible) through direct
contact with producers. Each report must include taped excerpts from the program of no
more than twelve minutes (total). I will reward creativity and insightful connections to other
programs and topics discussed in the course; I will penalize obviousness and lack of
commitment.
- 10%--A four-page review of any pre-1950 radio program. Again, if you want to get a bad
grade on this assignment simply listen to the program once and then write down some of your
loose impressions. If you want a good grade you will provide some context for the program
you're reviewing (in what kind of radio/cultural climate was it broadcast, how did its audience
relate to it, how did the program come into being, etc.). In short, research and effort will be
rewarded.
- 10%--A two-page progress report on your final project.
- 30%--Your final project can take one of two forms:
Option #1, the creative option: a substantial radio project of almost any kind (series of
features, documentary, series of live interviews for WBCR, literary/artistic magazine, a
special program for WBCR, etc.) Given that this is not a production class, in order to
choose this option you must have some experience as a radio producer. You will
discuss your ideas for this option with me before the middle of the semester.
Option #2, the critical option: an eight- to ten-page paper addressing any aspect of
radio history, art or culture. Serious research is required for this option. It must be
more than your impressions of a given period of radio history and must demonstrate a
thoughtful engagement with a program, series, audience, law, genre, method of
broadcasting, production technique, etc.
Required Reading:
Susan Douglas, Listening In: From Amos 'n' Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack
and Howard Stern
Tim Crook, International Radio Journalism
(both available at the campus bookstore)
Plus regular handouts from Wireless Imagination, Radiotext(e), Radio Rethink, Sound States,
Radio Voices, and Sound by Artists.
Weekly Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction: Approaching radio as a critical-listener and approaching it as fan-listener;
the diversity of audiences and the diversity of services; media analysis within the larger
field of cultural studies
Week 2: Modes of listening across radio's history; "distance listening" (DXing); early radio: the
radio hobbyist in America and the radio avant-garde in Europe (Luigi Russolo and
Futurist radio experimentation)
Week 3: Radio in the 1920s: Jazz, variety, poetry and radio democracy; comparative analysis of
the rhetoric of the early days of radio and the early days of the internet
Week 4: Early radio drama; Paul Lazarsfeld and the invention of the audience; the effect of early
format on exploratory listening; the "Musak Manifesto" and the birth of acoustic-wallpaper
Week 5: Radio and World War II: Edward R. Murrow and the new journalism of war
correspondence; from commentary and personality to "objectivity"; Norman Corwin's
On a Note of Triumph and the radio-poetics of patriotism
Week 6: "The Golden Age of Radio (Drama)": studios and network productions from Orson
Welles to Himan Brown; the social role of radio dramas: an antidote to war and
depression
Week 7: Post-war radio recording and editing technology and Antonin Artaud's censored
broadcast of Having Done with the Judgement of God; the development of
sportscasting in America: from boxing to baseball
Week 8: Transistor radios and super-high power AM; "break-out" listening, rock-n-roll and
1950s youth response to radio format; the birth of the DJ
Week 9: The (re)invention of FM and the programming it makes possible; Jean Shepherd, the
radio narrative and AM's counter-counter-revolution; an American community of radio
innovation: New American Radio
Week 10: European radio experimentation of the 1970s; Peter Leonard Braun's Bells in Europe
and the zenith of the radio documentary; Kunstradio in Austria and the BBC's Third
Programme
Week 11: Talk radio in the 1980s: Rush Limbaugh and the "average guy's" radio response to the
threats of "political correctness"; talk radio's relationship to conservative American
politics
Week 12: Howard Stern, shock jocks and the efficacy of radio "transgression"; Pacifica vs. the
FCC and the establishment of "community standards" for radio decency
Week 13: International broadcasting on shortwave: news and propaganda; analyses of the BBC's
World Service, The Voice of America, Radio Marti and Radio Havana
Week 14: Webcasting and digital audio production: an invitation to discover a new radio
semantics; seamless editing vs. self-conscious editing; Japanese sampling art and high-speed listening; the resurgence of community radio