Newspapers

As one read a typical 1920-21 newspaper, it was often difficult to tell that radio existed. Because the new medium was capable of taking a person to an event as it was happening, newspapers saw radio as competition, and most decided to ignore it. A few newspapers offered an amateur radio column once or twice a week, because ham radio had become a popular hobby, but these columns were mainly about technical matters (such as how to build the latest equipment) or news from local ham radio clubs. Events that today might seem worthy of a bold headline (such as KDKA's first broadcast) were either mentioned in a paid advertisement or relegated to a short article somewhere inside the newspaper.

Among the first big-city newspapers to have a regular radio column was the Boston Traveler; the column's author was Guy Entwistle, an executive with the American Radio Relay League, an important ham radio organization. As a student at Tufts College, he had earlier worked at pioneer station 1XE. His column appeared three times a week beginning in February 1921. But the Traveler was the exception, and none of the other Boston newspapers covered radio with any degree of thoroughness until early 1922, by which time most of Amer­ ica's newspapers finally accepted that radio was more than a mere fad. Newspapers realized that the public was interested not just in how to build a radio (because various brands were now sold retail) but in ]earning more about the voices they heard on the air.

The Detroit News was probably the first newspaper to own a radio station (WWJ), and the newspaper clearly saw radio's promotional value. Owning the station was a fine reason to mention radio, because it was not competition in this case. Other newspapers soon followed suit, accepting the fact that radio was here to stay. Some began offering a full page of radio news by 1922, although at first it was mainly news of their own stations' programming. But even newspapers lacking a license began to offer radio coverage. For example, the New York Tribune's radio page was edited by ham radio expert (and maritime disaster hero) Jack Binns. The Boston Globe's radio editor, Lloyd Greene, also came from ham radio. Some of the first radio columns at the Los Angeles Times were written by John S. Daggett, who would soon become station manager of KHJ and who, as "Uncle John," would host a popular children's show. For those papers unable to afford a dedicated radio editor, several nationally known radio experts offered syndicated columns, usually of a technical nature-the best­ known of these writers was Sidney Gems back.

About this time, some newspapers decided to do more than operate and publicize their own stations. They began to allow their best columnists to read news (or to read from their own columns) on those stations. The famous editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, H.V. Kaltenborn, was among the first journalists to not only read the news but also provide editorial commentary when he broadcast on the Signal Corps' New York station WVP (and later on WJZ) beginning in early April 1922.

As radio's popularity increased, the job of reporting about it became more essential. The development of radio networks certainly contributed to this increased interest: when the National Broadcasting Company (NBC; 1926) and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS; 1927) came along, they enabled hit songs and hit performers to be enjoyed across the entire country and even into Canada (before the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [CBC] was created, Canadian stations often affiliated with U.S. networks). Wherever there was a station, the public was eager to learn about the celebrities and the announcers, some of whom had begun their careers in local markets before passing the audition for the network. Fans sent letters and telegrams to their favorite shows, and they also contacted radio reporters, asking for more in-depth information about the most popular stars. Even those newspapers that had been hesitant to have a radio page jumped in enthusiastically by the mid- to late 192os-and readers welcomed the thorough radio coverage of such prestigious newspapers as the New York Times (where radio editor Orrin E. Dunlap, Jr., kept readers up on the latest trends from 1922 through 1940).

The job of newspaper radio editor became a very stable one, as well as one with some excellent "perks"-the radio editor not only attended many live performances but could conduct interviews with the stars and take part in the annual vote for the best programs and personalities of the year. A number of the radio editors who began writing their columns in the r92os were still doing so several decades later: Alton Cook of the New York World-Telegram, Larry Wolters of the Chicago Tribune, and Howard Fitzpatrick of the Boston Post, just to name a few. In fact, during the late 1920s and early 1930s, some newspapers had two radio columnists, one specializing in musicians and the other writing mainly about air personalities and special events. A few key announcers wrote newspaper columns in the 1920s and later, usually promoting the relationship between the newspaper and their station: Boston's "Big Brother" Bob Emery and Kansas City's "Merry Old Chief" Leo Fitzpatrick were only two of the celebrity columnists. Bertha Brainard, who began her media career as a theater critic and then was hired by WJZ in New York to do theater reviews on radio, moved back and forth between radio and print, writing guest articles for both newspapers and magazines.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to acknowledge most radio columnists through the 1930s, because it was then customary to provide bylines to only a select few reporters, and these seldom included the radio columnist. There were exceptions, of course-some large newspapers, such as the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe, did give credit co those who wrote about radio: at the Post, for example, we know that Elizabeth Poe (who also wrote about music and did some announcing on the Post's program on WRC) did some radio columns in the mid-r92os, and that the column known as "Dial Flashes" was written by Robert D. Heinl into the early 1930s. The Los Angeles Times gave a byline to its succession of radio reporters, from 1920s writers such as John Daggett and Dr. Ralph Power to William Hamilton Cline, Doug Douglas, and Carroll Nye in the 1930s. At the Boston Globe, Lloyd Greene gave way to Willard De Lue in the late r92os, and then to Elizabeth Sullivan in the 19 30s. But more often than not, newspapers that had radio listings and even some commentary about radio shows did not identify who wrote the articles.

Early Radio Magazines

  Magazines reacted to the growing radio craze in a way similar to newspapers: some saw radio as a threat and ignored it, and others were quick to embrace it. When Time first appeared in 1923, it lacked a radio page and only reported on trends in print journalism. Only 15 years later would this policy-change when in late 1938 a radio page was finally added. On the other hand, in spring 1922, Literary Digest expanded its science and technology section by adding a radio page, with stories about the owners, announcers, and performers on the air in various cities.

Variety was one of the periodicals that was initially very negative about radio. This is understandable because Variety was known for its coverage of-and identification with-movies and vaudeville, both of which feared radio's competition. Yet even by Variety's admission, an increasing number of famous singers were already appearing on radio; one-Vaughn DeLeath, known as the "Original Radio Girl"-even became program manager of New York's WOT in 1923. By the mid­ I 920s, it was impossible to ignore the obvious fact that vaudeville was dying, but radio was not. At the decade's end, Variety, too, would have a radio page, with columnists who mainly covered New York, but by the early 1930s, Variety began gathering reports about radio in other major cities. Music reviewer Abel Green was one of the first writers at Variety to include radio coverage in his columns.

Initially, the most authoritative place to read about radio was in magazines dedicated exclusively to the new medium. One of the earliest and best-known was QST, the ham magazine that is still published. In 1919 Radio Amateur News first appeared, and although it mainly covered the technology and people of amateur radio, by 1921 it had expanded to include the latest happenings in commercial broadcasting. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback, an immigrant from Luxembourg who became a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and publisher of numerous radio and science fiction magazines. As commercial radio's popularity grew, the magazine changed its name to Radio News; among those who wrote articles for it were Lee de Forest and Reginald Fessenden. In 1925, Gernsback put New York radio station WRNY on the air, and he often wrote about the station in his magazine.

1922 was a big year for radio magazines-Popular Radio, Radio Digest, Radio Broadcast, Radio (formerly Pacific Radio News), Radio in the Home, and Radio World were all available, and other magazines that previously had a technology focus (such as Science and Invention and Wireless Age) added radio pages. Most had pictures of announcers and performers, as well as interviews. Another new element of radio magazines was that a few had women columnists. Jennie Irene Mix, a published author and music critic, wrote for Radio Broadcast in 1924-25; former publicist and actress Nellie Revell not only wrote a column for Variety in the late 1920s but also wrote for Radio Digest in the early 1930s.

Billboard was available, but it was not a music industry magazine yet; back then, it was known as The Billboard and was devoted to coverage of county fairs, circuses, and expositions. It had little reason to mention radio and seldom did. But in the early 1920s, Billboard did have a unique column about black actors, actresses, and musicians that mentioned certain black performers who appeared on radio, such as Eubie Blake and Noble Sissie. However, The Billboard would not pay much attention to radio until the late 1930s, when the magazine gradually changed its focus toward more music industry reporting. By the early 1 940s, radio coverage and articles about popular music occupied more of a place in the magazine.

A second wave of radio magazines appeared in the 193os­ most in the "fan" genre with a focus on programs and stars­ with Song Hits, Radio Stars, Radio/and, Radio Guide, and Radio Mirror, to name a few. Also, some local radio magazines began to appear, such as Radiolog, which mainly covered New England, and Microphone, which began in Boston but had regional editions in other parts of the country. National magazines such as Radio Guide also produced locally written columns for each of the major regions they covered; some of these were written by the program directors of local stations whose personalities were being featured that month. (On the other hand, some magazines offered articles ostensibly written by the radio stars themselves; many of these were ghostwritten by publicists.)

Other Radio Publications

  As radio stations began to achieve success and stability in radio's golden age, some began to put out their own publications. This enabled stations to reach out to their audience, offering photos of the announcers, columns written by various staff members, and even some contests; in cities where radio coverage in the newspaper was minimal, such magazines were especially welcome, but even in cities with thorough radio coverage, such as Chicago, stations used their magazines as vehicles for increased publicity. Beginning in the mid-1930s, for example, WLS radio published a weekly magazine called Stand By. Editor Julian Bentley interviewed station performers as well as national celebrities who had come to Chicago to perform. Station magazines were usually written by someone in the program department, with help from the networks, which provided photos and biographies of nationally known stars. Well into the 1940s, many stations put out their own "year­ books," with pictures of the biggest station events of the previous year, stories about what the station had done in news and public service, and friendly messages from the station's performers and announcers. And beginning in 1938, there was a reference book that covered all of broadcasting: Radio Annual (later Radio Annual Television Yearbook), edited by Jack Ali­ coate and Don Carle Gillette. Published by the staff of Radio Daily, it offered not only profiles of every station but afforded radio executives (the first edition featured columns by NBC's David Sarnoff, Professor of Education and CBS Adult Education Board member Lyman Bryson, and respected engineer Alfred N. Goldsmith, among others) to give their assessments of the state of the industry.

There were also many nonfiction (and nontechnical) books written by media critics or columnists of the 1930s and 1940s, offering their own view of radio's achievements and problems. These included Ruth Brindze's controversial Not to Be Broadcast: The Truth about the Radio ( 1937); Robert J. Landry's Who, What, Why Is Radio (1942); and Albert N. Williams' book of essays Listening: A Collection of Critical Articles on Radio ( 1948). In addition to his book, Variety's radio editor, Robert J. Landry, also wrote several critical essays about radio for Public Opinion Quarterly in the early 1940s.

The 1933 college debate topic, "Resolved: That the United States should adopt the essential features of the British system of radio control and operation," gave rise to a host of critical (and supportive) columns about American radio. Several serious journals, such as the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, devoted issues to the medium or featured regular columns and commentary. And writers especially concerned about radio's role in education produced a host of booklets, talks, columns, and articles, which usually lamented the relative lack of serious programming, too much advertising, or other complaints. These were often reprinted and widely disseminated by various interest groups-including the radio industry itself.

Changes in Radio Reporting

  With television's arrival in the late 1940s, many critics predicted the rapid demise of radio. Radio coverage in newspapers had definitely diminished during World War II, with coverage of movie stars getting most of the attention; some radio magazines changed their name to "Radio/Movie" magazines to reflect the public's strong interest in Hollywood. But writing about radio never disappeared: it could even be found in such top-drawer periodicals as Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and the Saturday Review of Literature, among others, and some newspapers continued to focus attention on local radio stars. In the early 1950s, as television became more available, major newspapers from Los Angeles to Boston began putting out a weekly TV/Radio magazine, which included at least one page about local stations and the people who worked there.

In the 1950s and 1960s, a new group of columnists appeared. Now columnists were not just responsible for writing about radio, of course, but were expected to cover television and also popular culture. Some of the veteran radio columnists were still writing in the 1950s, and as music changed, it was quite a problem for many of them to objectively cover the new Top 40 radio stations, because they did not understand or like rock music. The Boston Record's highly respected Bill Buchanan, who much preferred jazz and big bands, interviewed Dick Clark and pronounced American Bandstand a total waste of time. In the 1950s radio columnists were of two camps-the veterans, who still recalled the golden age and lamented what sounded like noise to them, and the new columnists, who thought the changes were exciting and appreciated the high energy of Top 40 announcers. If nothing else, the arrival of Top 40 got radio back into the newspaper again, even if it was only so that certain columnists could criti­ cize it. Younger writers, such as Gary Deeb (who wrote the radio and television column for the Chicago Tribune during the 1970s and early 1980s) had a much easier time writing about Top 40. And Jane Scott, who began her radio writing in the mid-196os after first being the "Teen Editor" at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, would go on to write about radio and music in Cleveland well into the 1990s. As other formats, such as progressive rock, emerged in the late 1960s and into the 1970s, some new newspapers emerged too, so-called "alternative" weeklies, which adopted album rock as the music of rebellion and wrote about the stations that played it. Radio columns were not as easy to find as they had once been, but in cities where there was a dominant radio station (such as Cleveland, with first WIXY in the Top 40 days and then WMMS­ FM in the album rock period), there was always a newspaper or magazine writing about it. And for some radio fans, especially those who hoped to go into the industry, the 1970s were the time when radio editor Claude Hall's column in Billboard magazine was eagerly read.

Today

  By 2000 few magazines are writing about disc jockeys, and those newspapers that have a radio/television editor also send him or her out to cover concerts and write about the club scene. The internet has taken up the slack, and many radio stations have developed their own webpages, where disc jockeys can write their own columns. Some stations still put out their own newsletters or publications, and popular industry publications such as Billboard and Radio and Records have columnists who write exclusively about radio; weekly newspapers such as Boston's Phoenix or New York's Village Voice have occasional articles about what's on the air these days. Media critics still write magazine articles about such issues as radio consolidation, and controversial personalities such as Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern have been the subject of numerous essays. And although it is more difficult to find radio columns in the newspaper (many newspapers have even stopped publishing radio listings, a trend that started in the late 1980s), certain stations still know how to get publicity, as do certain personalities, and certain reporters still enjoy writing about the achievements of local broadcasters. As the industry continues to change, it is safe to assume radio will keep being discussed and analyzed in the print media.