Radio Collector's Afficionado's Resource

Long before the invasion of television and computer, radio was one of the stars among home appliances. There were non-stop music, news, and dramas. But the most thrilling and stimulating item was sports commentary. The commentators employed to let loose their imagination and hunt down words in a matter of seconds to describe the high voltage action sporting fields. But with the advent of television, everything has changed. Radio set had become one of the most neglected entities in a home. With the arrival of computers, not a single soul appeared to listen even the music in radio. Sports commentaries in radios closely became one of the endangered species in live media communication. But thanks to the progression made in storage widgets and electronic recording and restoring facilities, the famous old radio commentaries are still available in CDs.

Live radio broadcasts (or running commentaries as it is known) of sports events have a history of assorted decades. The primary live radio broadcast of a sporting event in United States was on August 5, 1921. It was the running commentary of the baseball game amidst Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies. Pat Wheelz was the history-making commentator of that match, which was broadcasted from Washington station KDKA. From then onwards, there were a great deal of matches in a great deal of sports, baseball, basketball, American football, football, hockey and boxing, which were broadcasted live on radio. Also, the running commentaries of most of the matches were followed keenly. Some of the commentaries are still available on CDs and in Internet. These commentaries have great nostalgic and historic value, in particular for the older generation who had enthusiastically listened to the commentaries live.

The oldest surviving radio broadcast item is said to be the commentary of a major baseball league game amid Yankees and Tigers, held on September 20, 1934 in Detroit. Ty Tyson and Walter Johnson were the commentators of that broadcast. Several books have been published regarding the history of sports broadcasting. Some of the best-selling books in the category are And the Fans Roared, written by Joe Garner, Bob Costas, and George Foreman and And the Crowd Goes Wild, written by Joe Garner and Bob Costas. CDs provided along with these books incorporate initial commentaries of famous sporting events in history.

There is another kind of sports broadcasting CDs available in the market. Such CDs are intended for the children who are avid sports buff. Those CDs incorporate real time commentaries of any game, be it baseball, basketball, football, hockey or car racing, for simulated match situation. Such CDs may be personalized. That means the user may select a queer team of his liking and even select a match situation. In short, the user may listen the commentary of the match in which his or her bestloved team wins the match from the jaws of defeat.

Invisible Stars American Broadcasting Communication Picture

Invisible Stars American Broadcasting Communication Image

Invisible Stars American Broadcasting Communication Image

Invisible Stars American Broadcasting Communication Photo

Most helpful client reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
What a Book!
By Lawrence J. Epstein
Donna Halper in truth knows her stuff, and she knows how to tell it in an interesting way. Everyone mesmerized in how media affects us and society will be thankful for reading this. The struggles women had (and have) provide a significant glimpse into a world that is critical for us to understand. Highly recommended.

0 of 0 humans found the following review helpful.
Relative of an “Invisible” star
By Sally
Fascinating. My mother was Jane Tiffany Wagner……one of the “stars”. She continued on after the war years with NBC as producer of the radio show called “Home Is What You Make It”.
The members of our family were guests galore Sundays on the Mary Margaret McBride morning radio shows. Footnote: My mother was not a fan of Kate Smith. Found her to be a “diva”.
My mother never shared, never discussed, the world of men around her and their reaction to her leading roles in broadcasting. Too bad.
Read pages online. Gripping content. My sons and their families read with gusto. I just purchased the book

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Women in broadcasting
By Ted Kneebone
If I had been a shaker and a mover in numerous area of broadcasting, it might have beem hard for me to read Donna Halper’s new book, “Invisible Stars”–without sentiment numerous embarrassment. Her story is the story of women who succeeded in American broadcasting, galore of whom succeed in spite of the fact of their gender. It seems that back in the 1920s when radio was considered a toy, women were rather welcome to announce, sing or play an instrument, become program directors, and even in rare cases, own a radio station. But when radio started out to be commercially profitable, when more and more people had radios, when networks came into being, then women were not so welcome, peculiarly in the ranks of management. By the decades, Halper takes us through the history of how women made their mark, or were refused even the probability of attempting to do that. The struggle of women for acknowledgement and equality in radio and television reads something like the struggle for the same things by black people and other minorities. One of the mysteries that Halper brings to our attention is the developments before, during, and after World War II. Before the War, women’s place was in the home, being the dutiful wife, keeping house, cooking the meals, taking care of the kids. During the War, women were encouraged to take jobs in war manufacturing plants, AND to do all the established stuff. When, after the War, the men came back and wanted their jobs back, women were expected to go back to the kitchen and nursery. And the same thing happened in broadcasting. The sad thing is that even though a lot of women in radio and television have made important gains, much of the picture of broadcasting in the 2000s is not much dissimilar from what it was in the 1950s. Halper has done an magnificent occupation of research, witness her extensive bibliography, in this well-written account of women in American broadcasting. Let Halper have the last word: “Perhaps one day soon, the pioneering women of radio and television will be given the same respect for their accomplishments that society has accorded their male counterparts. I hope this book will bestow to the routine and keep women of broadcasting from remaining invisible stars.”

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