Introductions

Apple, Jacki: Art Rangers in Radioland

"Radio holds a unique place in American cultural history, and in the shaping of popular culture in particular. It is the bridge between the two halves of this century, the memory trace from one generation to the next, traversed by world leaders, sportscasters, crooners, comedians, cowboys, private eyes, and space travelers, voices imprinted into the American psyche resonating across time and space...."

Apple, Jacki: New American Radio and Radio Art

"The works created by the artists who participated in New Radio and Performing Arts' (NRPA) New American Radio series during the 1980s and 90s characterize a uniquely American sensibility, culture and landscape, and their diverse voices and visions represent a cross-section of our individual and collective histories and experiences..."

Thorington, Helen: Into the Air Junior Birdmen

"My generation grew up without television. We were a radio generation and our lives, by comparison with those who came after, were still relatively free of the images and messages of the mass media..."

Other Articles on Radio

Davies, Sheila: Inhabiting the Air

"In the beginning there is always the story to tell and the words to write it. I try to make of any story a smooth precious thing, a globose of language, like a pomegranate to be split open and privately consumed..."

Moss, David: The Beat and the Box

"Radio as a broadcast medium and the drum set as a musical instrument began their American evolution during the first decade of the twentieth century..."

Whitehead, Gregory: Out of the Dark: Notes on the Nobodies of Radio Art

"For most of the wireless age, artists have found themselves vacated (or have vacated themselves) from radiophonic space -- the history of radio art is, in this most literal sense, largely a history of nobodies..."

Perspectives on the Politics of Public Broadcasting

Barliant, Claire: Stationary Flow-Process and Politics in Audio Art On the Air and Online

"The expansion of the NAR website provides a good opportunity to examine reasons why radio has held such fascination as a medium for many artists, and how relocating to the Internet affects work designed specifically for radio. Part of the appeal of art made for radio is in the tension created when an experimental artist tries to subvert the medium's mainstream status while simultaneously leveraging its capacity to reach a wide audience..."

Barsamian, David: Media Power & the Right-Wing Takeover of Public Broadcasting

"The current assault on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its associated entities, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and National Public Radio (NPR) is part of a broad range attack to dismantle and roll back a number of the programs, some of them dating to the New Deal... "

Singer, Kevin: Transition or Downsizing

"One of my favorite Public Radio Conference moments occurred several years ago when keynote speaker Nicolas Negroponte began his address by confessing that he didn't listen to radio. His remarks outraged many in the audience. From their point of view, the speech went downhill from there..."