Origins

     Perhaps ironically, the first Ph.D. dissertation on radio broadcasting was published as a book long before college or university organized studies of radio existed. Hiram Jome's Economics of the Radio Industry (1925) was based on the author's economics doctorate earned at the University of Wisconsin. Two years later, Stephen Davis' The Law of Radio Communication (1927) inaugurated yet another field of serious study, again long before most law schools offered courses on the subject. A series of lectures by radio leaders was delivered as part of a business policy course at the Harvard School of Business in 1927-28 (the lectures appeared as a book), and the first regular course about radio was organized in 1929 at the University of Southern California.

     Soon additional scholarly apparatus became evident. The first scholarly journal article concerning radio appeared on the pages of the Quarterly Journal of Speech in 1930, when Sherman Lawton discussed principles of effective radio speaking. Two years later he expanded that article into the first college­ level textbook on radio, Radio Speech. Initial courses began to appear elsewhere, usually within English or speech departments. By 1933 an early survey showed that 16 colleges and universities offered at least one radio course. In 1937 the first comprehensive radio textbook appeared, which would run through four editions over the next two decades-Waldo Abbot's Handbook of Broadcasting.

     The pace of development speeded up in the final years before World War II. By 1938 another survey showed that more than 300 institutions offered at least one course in radio. Furthermore, eight now offered a bachelor's degree and two offered a master's degree; in 1939 the Universities of Iowa and Wisconsin began offering a Ph.D. with an emphasis in the study of radio broadcasting. By 1939-40 some 360 schools offered about 1,000 courses in 14 different subject categories (including electrical engineering, which was the majority), of ​​which the most common non-technical topics included radio speech, a survey course, scriptwriting, and program planning/ production.

Postwar Expansion

     Broadcast education entered a period of substantial growth, and there was a concerted movement to develop standards, if not actual accreditation, for degree programs in radio (and soon television). In 1945 one committee published a brief set of suggested standards for radio degree programs. By 1948 a government survey reported that more than 400 schools provided at least a single radio course, with 35 offering non-engineering degrees in radio broadcasting. However, not everything was in place as television began to make its appearance.

     It is often said that a true academic field of study needs at least one national (or international) association of like-minded scholars and a research journal. In 1948 a step was taken toward the first of these with the creation of the University Association for Professional Radio Education (UAPRE), founded by about a dozen universities. The title reflected a tension evident in education for radio-were such courses and degrees designed primarily to turn out personnel for the industry, or was this media education to be more in the liberal arts tradition? UAPRE was set up specifically to accredit university and college degree programs, but it was unable to achieve that goal, though for reasons having nothing to do with radio but rather with the complex politics of establishing any national accrediting process.

     By 1950 some 420 colleges and universities offered courses, and 54 provided non-engineering degrees: 30 bachelor's, 15 master's, and 3 Ph.D. Five years later, there were at least 81 course sequences leading to radio/broadcasting degrees. In 1955 the UAPRE gave way to the Association for Professional Broadcasting Education (APBE), which a year later began publishing Journal of Broadcasting as the first dedicated scholarly journal in the developing field. A year later a national survey reported 93 bachelor's degree programs (3,000 majors), 56 master's degree programs (over 400 students), and 15 Ph.D. programs of study (122 candidates). Broadcast educators now met annually with the National Association of Broadcasters, and many academics were becoming active in the more senior speech and journalism academic organizations. More scholarships, internships, and research opportunities were becoming available every year.

     At that point, of course, all eyes were quite literally on television, and radio courses and research began to disappear. A handful of announcing courses survived, but most other broadcast programs focused very strongly on television-and given the costs of such education and the lack of student interest in radio, radio studies were fairly quickly abandoned. However, the field was now sufficiently established to move away from a focus on professional education alone. APBE became the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) in 1973, thereby better recognizing the many liberal arts broadcast programs that had developed.

Radio's Revival

     In the 1980s radio began to reappear in college and university curricula. This was due to a combination of factors, first in the industry and then in education.

     Certainly the growing number of radio stations (with their entry-level positions for college and university graduates) was a factor. So was the revival of educational and public radio beginning in the 1970s and the reappearance of radio drama documentary broadcasts. The growing complexity of radio formats added a degree of depth to the medium that it had not previously possessed: there was more to study and understand than before. As audience and market research became more widespread and important in radio, people had to be educated in these areas. The explosive popularity of talk radio in the 1980s put radio in the political limelight. Radio was increasingly in the news: with controversial disc jockeys and talk show hosts having impact on elections, its appeal to young people as a possible career option increased exponentially. At the other end of the spectrum, growing interest in the "golden age" of radio increased interest in the history and sociology of radio. As in other parts of American life, more women and minorities were being employed by radio, opening further paths to success in the medium. Technology played a growing role as well, as the radio industry became increasingly computerized and automated, made plans to begin digital operations, and became more widely available on the internet.

     Just as radio managers seemed to place more emphasis on the educational credentials of those trying to enter the field, colleges and universities seemed to rediscover radio as well. There were several indicators, including the reappearance of radio-only comprehensive and production-oriented textbooks, the new Journal of Radio Studies founded as an annual in 1992 and expanding to twice a year by 1998 (as the first academic journal focused on radio), and the (perhaps belated) formation of a broadcast and internet radio division within BEA in 2000. Radio began reappearing in course titles in university programs across the country, coming full circle seven decades after the academic discovery of the medium.