Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction 1
Aniko Bodroghkozy Part I American Broadcasting in Historical Overview 25

1 Before the Broadcast Era: 1900-1910s 27
Susan J. Douglas

2 The Broadcast Radio Era: 1920s-1940s 47
Michele Hilmes

3 Television Before the Classic Network Era: 1930s-1950s 71
Michael Kackman

4 The Classic Network Era in Television: 1950s-1970s 93
Victoria E. Johnson

5 The Multi-Channel Transition Period: 1980s-1990s 111
Bambi Haggins and Julia Himberg

6 Radio in the Television Era: 1950s-2000s 135
Alexander Russo

7 The Post-Network Era: 2000s-Present 153
Amanda D. Lotz Part II American Broadcasting in Historical Focus 169

Industry/Production

8 A History of Broadcast Regulations: Principles and Perspectives 171
Jennifer Holt

9 Reviving the Technical in Television History 193
Susan Murray

10 Public Broadcasting 211
Josh Shepperd

11 Latino Broadcasting in the United States 237
Hector Amaya

12 Radio, Television, and the Military 257
Stacy Takacs Part II American Broadcasting in Historical Focus 279

Programming/Genre

13 Radio Sitcoms: History and Preservation 281
Laura LaPlaca

14 The Rise and Fall of the Soap Opera 301
Elana Levine

15 Television Music 321
Norma Coates Part II American Broadcasting in Historical Focus 347

Audiences/Reception

16 A History of the Commodity Audience 349
Eileen R. Meehan

17 Broadcast Activism 371
Allison Perlman

18 African Americans and Broadcasting 389
Robin R. Means Coleman

19 A History of Fandom in Broadcasting 413
Allison McCracken Part III Doing American Broadcasting History: Reflections on Key Texts 443

20 Erik Barnouw's Trilogy on the History of US Broadcasting 445
Gary R. Edgerton

21 Susan J. Douglas' Inventing American Broadcasting 455
Shawn VanCour

22 Lynn Spigel's Make Room for TV 465
Aniko Bodroghkozy

23 William Boddy's Fifties Television 475
Mark J. Williams

Index 485

About the Author

Aniko Bodroghkozy is a media historian and Professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. She is author of several books Equal Time: Television and the Civil Rights Movement and Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion. Her areas of expertise include television in the 1960s and social change movements and their media coverage. She is currently completing a book on television news coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Table of Contents

About the Author