|
Austin’s KUT radio station is a public radio station that lives up to it is mission “to be the most trusted radio source for news and music in Central Texas.” Owned and operated by the University of Texas at Austin, KUT focuses on broadcasting largely locally-produced music programming and news, as well as a heap of NPR, PRI, and BBC broadcasts.
From the call-letters alone, you may tell the station has a long history. Three-letter call numbers started falling out of use in the 20′s, when four-letter call numbers were introduced to aid accommodate the growing number of radio stations. Originally, radio call signs were used by telegraph stations so that the telegraph operators could distinguish themselves without having to spell out their full name or location. Regulations passed by the federal government in the early teens ensured that these three-letter call signs were assigned formally, to prevent overlap. International agreements were made to allot basi letters to respective nations. The United States was given the letters N, W, and KDA to KZZ (KAA-KCZ were initially given to Germany and were not assigned to the US until 1929).
KUT was given it is call letters in 1925, under the control of the Physics Department at the University of Texas. Under the management and direction of Professor Simpson L. Brown, programs went on the air amid 8 to 10 pm three nights a week, with programming ranging from University Symphony concerts, to discussions and lectures by faculty. But by 1927, the station expenditures exceeded the available funding, and it was dismantled not to reappear for another 30 years.
In 1958, the station was given an air license through the University of Texas, this time through the School of Journalism. And it has been operating ever since, celebrating it is 45th anniversary in 2003. In 2002, KUT News was conventional and has since become a recognized leader in new reporting for Central Texas, winning 12 Edward R. Murrow awards for journalistic excellence.
Each week, almost 500,000 people tune in to KUT broadcasts or visit their online productions. And like other public radio stations, it is taking the lead on HD radio, with the inclusion of two HD radio channels. HD radio is considered by a good deal of to be them most substantial advance in radio broadcasting since the introduction of FM stereo. This engineering science enables broadcasters to deliver further and added channels within a single frequency. KUT 90.5-2 provides public radio programming from NPR, Public Radio International, American Public Media, and the BBC news. HD channel 80.5-3 is KUT’s all-jazz frequency. In addition to providing further and added content not available on established frequencies, HD Radio provides CD-quality sound.
Some of the usual local music shows include Larry Monroe (with Blue Monday, Phil Music, and other programs), Eklektikos with John Aielli, Music with Jay Trachtenberg, Folkways, Left of the Dial with Jeff McCord, and Texas Music Matters, with David Brown, covering the developments within the Texas music industry. KUT features various locally-produced news shows, including Latino USA with Maria Hinojosa and In Black America with John Hanson.
KUT depends upon listener funding, and so like other radio stations of it is ilk, holds on-air pledge drive to fill the coffers with listener contributions. These contributions account for 80% of the station’s overall budget. So if you tune in and like what you hear, do think when it comes to contributing to keep this Austin tradition on the airwaves for another 50 years.
Listening American Imagination Edward Murrow
Few inventions arouse such nostalgia, such deeply personal and bright memories as radio—from Amos ’n’ Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern. Listening In is the primary in-depth history of how radio culture and content have kneaded and expanded the American psyche. But Listening In is more than a history. It is likewise a reconsideration of what listening to radio has done to American culture in the twentieth century and how it has brought a exclusively new auditory dimension to our lives. Susan Douglas explores how listening has modified our day-to-day experiences and our own generational identities, cultivating dissimilar modes of listening in dissimilar eras; how radio has shaped our views of race, gender roles, ethnic barriers, family dynamics, leadership, and the generation gap. With her trademark wit, Douglas has invented an eminently readable cultural history of radio. “Douglas’s terrifi book offers a sophisticated history of radio listening.” —Journal of American History
From Publishers WeeklyTracing radio’s development from the early days of wireless to the shock jocks and NPR commentators of the ’90s, Douglas (Where the Girls Are) delivers a conservatively researched and well-documented look at the medium and the humans who listened. Although Douglas’s prose may be sluggish, now and again mired in statistics, her subject matter is always engaging. She finds that each new technical innovation in radio was initiated by amateurs, resisted by the mainstream media, made frequent by a daring few and in the long run watered down and exploited by mercantile interests. Douglas’s main interest is not in the inventions themselves, however, but in how they affected the Americans who were listening to shows from Victor Lopez’s jazz band broadcasts in the ’20s to Eddie Cantor’s Chase and Sanborn Hour in the ’30s; Alan Reed’s mixed-race rock ‘n’ roll broadcasts in the ’50s; “White Rabbit” on KSAN in San Francisco in the late ’60s; Larry King in the ’80s; and Dr. Laura and Rush Limbaugh in the ’90s. She shows us how radio has opened up new worlds, and how it is persistent presence (in the kitchen, in the car, at work) proceeds to influence the nation in spite of being taken for granted.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library JournalIt’s not just video that killed the radio star but images in standard (e.g., TV, the Internet), says Douglas (media and American studies, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor). Douglas argues that through radio Americans may still revive their imaginations. Her thesis will seem apparent to older generationsAthat listening to the radio shaped the American psyche socially, politically, and economicallyAbut the generations raised on MTV, CNN, ESPN, and personal computers must still be convinced. It may be difficult to draw their attention to a book with only eight photos, but Douglas re-creates the wonder of having an invisible friend (or enemy) in forgotten and fading stars like Jack Benny, Edward R. Murrow, Harry Caray, and Alan Freed. Unfortunately, today radio belongs to overstuffed “suits,” overplayed singles, and pinched formats, which may musically and geographically “resegregate” people. Douglas points out that listeners are partly to blame for radio’s dismal state. Owners are plainly attempting to air what their audiences want, but listeners are sending mixed messages: they want potpourri but lack the imagination to receive it on one station. A persuasive study of the power that radio has had and may still have; necessary for all communications collections.AHeather McCormack, “Library Journal”
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From BooklistDouglas makes “the introductory try at an overview of radio’s closely hundred-year history since” Eric Barnouw’s three-volume History of Broadcasting in the United States (1966^-70). She is mainly occupied with the history of radio programming and it is audience. Today listeners are stratified not only by narrowly specified program formats but likewise by technology: music fans gravitate to FM, while news and talk fanciers go for the crackling immediacy of the AM band. Chapters like “The FM Revolution” and “Talk Talk” flesh out specific components in this bifurcation. The rise of FM sprang from “a finish audio revolution” in the late 1960s and early 1970s that captured listeners all of a sudden mesmerized in hearing “music in a richer, clearer, more complex fashion.” The cultural and political effects of talk radio have been much commented on. Douglas takes a comprehensive view of that phenomenon, which fleshes out her “archaeology of radio listening from the 1920s to the present” in fine fashion. Notable for depth of demonstration and readability, this is one radio book that goes beyond nostalgia. Mike Tribby
Listening American Imagination Edward Murrow Image
Listening American Imagination Edward Murrow Image
Listening American Imagination Edward Murrow Photo
Listening American Imagination Edward Murrow Pic
Most helpful client reviews
20 of 21 persons found the following review helpful.
 Not just a history, not just a textbook
By F. Behrens
Please take note that Susan J. Douglas’ (Times Books, 1999) is no mere history of radio. It was triggered by a request from the Sloan Foundation that was preparing a series of books on engineering and American culture; and the special importance and significance is not on the details but on the frequent effect radio has on us from it is beginnings. And take another note. This is too gratifying a read to be considered a textbook.
My bestloved chapter was the one called “Radio Comedy and Linguistic Slapstick.” Here only a few comics are employed as examples to support her various theses, one of which is the emasculation of the American male by the use of such high-pitched speakers as Jack Benny and Joe Penner. Of course there is lots of room for argument, but she does let the facts speak for themselves (pun intended).
The other chapters are “The Zen of Listening,” “The Ethereal World,” “Exploratory Listening in the 1920s,” “Tuning In to Jazz” “The Invention of the Audience,” “World War II and the Invention of Broadcast Journalism,” “Playing Fields of the Mind,” “The Kids Take Over: Transistors, DJs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “The FM Revolution,” “Talk Talk,” “Why Ham Radio Matters,” and “Conclusion: Is Listening Dead?”
Which of us has not been affected in a good deal of of the ways Ms. Douglas points out in this book? Therefore, which of us may afford to miss being shown how radio has helped make us what we are? And I do hope she formulates a similar book in regards to television.
18 of 19 persons found the following review helpful.
Superb social and cultural history of the medium
By A
Radio has become such a background share of our lives, we forget just how astounding an affect it has had on our culture and psyche. Susan Douglas brings it all back to the foreground in her book “Listening In.” This is not just a chronicle of the development of the media, this book takes us deep into the social impacts of radio, and how it changed how we react and interact with each other. Douglas has utterly captured the feel and “tone” of dissimilar periods of radio listening, and explores a lot of the psychological distinct features of how radio let us sample and explore dissimilar parts of our American cultue in a safe and nonthreatening way.
As a present-day radio fanatic, the book gave me hope: hope that the medium hasn’t been corporatized into finish blandness. Radio will proceed to evolve, just like our American culture.
Whether your’re a radio engineering type, an old time radio fan, or just a student of American history, you’ll find something to love in this book.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
A great read! “Radio is a sound salvation…”
By A
I’ve got Douglas’ book today for her take on ham radio (I’m percentage of the Amateur Radio community) and I was very impressed with the rest of the book. Though I wrinkled my nose at the over-emphasis on the gender conflict in radio, Listening In reminded me of a time when humans participate in a mutual culture rather of idly sitting by listening to the umpteenth Top 40 hit made by over-commercialized “plastic” bands.
The ham radio chapter was merely outstanding and I give Dr. Douglas her due for mentioning the American Radio Relay League as the national association for hams. From this chapter, I may see why hams have a fostering touch in their approach to life! The division on radio comedy is well done (the comedy bits are good for a chuckle or two). I commend it to those who have a deep affinity for radio and communications.
See all 5 client reviews…
|