A history of broadcasting in the United States

This powerful history of broadcasting in the United States goes beyond traditional accounts to explore the field's important social, political, and cultural ramifications.

It examines how broadcasting has been organized as a business throughout much of the 20th century, and focuses on the aesthetics of programming over the years

Surveys four key broadcasting periods from 1921 to 1996, drawing on a range of new sources to examine recent changes in the field, including coverage of the recent impact of cable TV and home video Includes new data from collections at the Library of Congress and the Library of American Broadcasting Ideal for anyone seeking a readable history of the field, offering the most current coverage available

• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Preface: Why a History of Broadcasting in the USA?
• Introduction: Broadcasting's Beginning: The Big Bang!
• Part I The Network Radio Era 1921a??1950
• 1 Industrial Innovation & Diffusion: The Radio Networks
• 2 Radio's Social, Cultural & Political Impact: The First Mass Medium
• 3 The Development of a New Aesthetic: Sounds
• Part II Transition 1945-1957
• 4 TV Replaces Radio in the Living Room
• 5 Radio Re-invents Itself: Top-40 and Beyond
• Part III Network Television Dominates 1958a??1982
• 6 CBS, NBC & ABC Covering the USA
• 7 Network TV's Social, Cultural & Political Impact
• 8 The Genre Machine: From Maverick to M*A*S*H
• Part IV Contemporary History 1982-1996
• 9 Radio: The FM Era
• 10 Television: Remote Control Paradise
• Epilogue: Still a Broadcasting Nation: 1996 and into the Future
• Endnotes
• Index