Radio Active
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€38.99
1930s
1940s
A01=Kathleen M. Newman
activism
advertisers
anti commercial activism
Author_Kathleen M. Newman
boake carter
broadcasters
Category=ATL
Category=JB
Category=JBFS
Category=KJSA
Category=NHK
club women
commercial radio
commodity
consumer boycotts
consumer movement
consumers
consumption
cultural history
donald montgomery
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
female consumers
housewives
mass media
media
media studies
nbc
nonfiction
philco radio
politics
popular culture
radio
radio advertising
radio age
radio audience
radio commercials
radio history
radio listeners
radio stations
soap operas
sponsors
the hucksters
Product details
- ISBN 9780520235908
- Weight: 363g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 17 May 2004
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Radio Active tells the story of how radio listeners at the American mid-century were active in their listening practices. While cultural historians have seen this period as one of failed reform--focusing on the failure of activists to win significant changes for commercial radio--Kathy M. Newman argues that the 1930s witnessed the emergence of a symbiotic relationship between advertising and activism. Advertising helped to kindle the consumer activism of union members affiliated with the CIO, middle-class club women, and working-class housewives. Once provoked, these activists became determined to influence--and in some cases eliminate--radio advertising. As one example of how radio consumption was an active rather than a passive process, Newman cites The Hucksters, Frederick Wakeman's 1946 radio spoof that skewered eccentric sponsors, neurotic account executives, and grating radio jingles. The book sold over 700,000 copies in its first six months and convinced broadcast executives that Americans were unhappy with radio advertising. The Hucksters left its mark on the radio age, showing that radio could inspire collective action and not just passive conformity.
Kathy M. Newman is Associate Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University.
