The reader comments following the article — particularly those from someone identified as "FMEng" — provided much valuable additional information, and I received a number of interesting emails from people with similar interests and/or stories to share. Also, readers of a Portland, OR radio blog were equally helpful in correcting errors in the piece and further illuminating the subject. Lastly, a bit at Blatherwatch put up a flattering link and used a title that was so good, I simply had to steal it for the title of this post.
Broadcast of the human voice first took place more than 100 years ago. Other media and fancier appliances have come along in the meantime, and many are pretty cool. However, none has eclipsed radio for practicality, immediacy and overall ability to connect a mass audience with information, ideas and feelings. In spite of this, contemporary radio and radio history are all but ignored by most of the media. Thus, I Still Love Radio . . .
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Geography of Early Seattle Radio
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer last week published a piece I put together about the early history of Seattle's network-affiliated radio stations that included speculation about why the studios were all clustered around the telephone company building downtown. I've been kicking around the theory since I put together a walking tour of old Seattle radio studio locations back in 2003 for MOHAI.