Radio With Pictures: Iconic Cover Art from Books About Radio

As I said before in a previous post about the best radio books, it's sometimes more fun to read about radio (history and contemporary issues) than it is to actually listen to radio. For me, this is because much like radio, the words of a good book about radio get inside your head and make their own pictures.

Thus, as part of my ongoing campaign to raise the profile of books about radio, I STILL LOVE RADIO is proud to present the online exhibit Radio With Pictures: Iconic Cover Art from Books About Radio.

Over the past nearly 90 years, hundreds of books about radio have been produced highlighting various aspects of the industry, from gushing biographies for fans to technical manuals for aspiring broadcasters. While you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, publishers have rarely deigned to neglect the power of the cover to help tell the story inside, to make a book pretty, and (hopefully, for them) attract more readers and buyers. Publishing, after all, is a business (like radio!).

The illustrators, photographers, graphic designers and layout artists responsible for the cover art presented in Radio With Pictures: Iconic Cover Art from Books About Radio are largely anonymous. Each drew on a vocabulary of images that now seems cliche, but that during the period these books were published (mostly 1920s-1940s) were likely fresh and exciting. We see microphones (American carbon mics, RCA 77s, RCA 44s; and BBC-flagged models), studios, sky-scraping transmitter towers and brave broadcasters doing their jobs no-matter-what. It's hard to think of another industry that provides this range of icons, from the tiny and inanimate, to the human, to the gargantuan and electric.

Radio With Pictures: Iconic Cover Art from Books About Radio

Prepared by Feliks Banel for I STILL LOVE RADIO

EARLY HISTORY
Radio emerged a mass phenomena in the early 1920s, and writers and publishers leapt on the ethereal bandwagon.


Radio Drama and How To Write It (1926)

by Gordon Lea
The art for this British book from the 1920s is positively spiritual, as a single person stands atop the earth, broadcasting to the Universe and all its life forms (or those smart enough to build receivers, anyway). A hauntingly simple, hand-drawn pen and ink.



The Electric Word: The Rise of Radio (1928)

by Paul Schubert
This art nouveau-inspired cover entangles rectilinear man-made towers with stars and roiling, fluffy clouds. A great visual representation of how radio was sometimes talked about in this era, as an unseen force harnessed and put in service to man. Illustration by Constance Garland.


THE DRAMA OF RADIO
Throughout broadcast radio's first three decades, drama was a fixture on the daily schedule. While popular comedies and mystery programs of the "Golden Age" are most remembered nowadays, great playwrights and poets also found a home on radio and many published their works as books.

We Stand United and other Radio Scripts (1945)

by Stephen Vincent Benet
The transmitter and towers seen here on Benet's collection are a beacon of freedom for a world at war, a Statue of Liberty of free speech and a free press. The rocky outcroppings look as if they might be the northern coast of Maine, as close geographically to the conflict in Europe as any piece of American soil.



They fly through the air with the greatest of ease (1939)

by Norman Corwin
Unofficial poet laureate and bard of American radio is Norman Corwin, and this book of one of his earliest plays (inspired by the Spanish Civil War) is hauntingly illustrated by Laszlo Matulay.


RADIO AT WAR
World War II was radio's finest hour, and it also inspired some of the most articulate accounts of radio's potential (for good and for harm).


Radio In Wartime (1942)

by Sherman H. Dryer
Sherman H. Dryer's collection of critical essays about American radio during World War II puts a ribbon mic atop a stand in martial formation with flag standards, capped with big and bold letters and all bathed in an eerie red glow. Radio has been inducted, and is marching to battle.



Voices in the Darkness: The European Radio War (1943)

by Tangye Lean
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, refugees from European countries overrun by the Nazis are broadcasting back to their native lands with the help of the BBC. We see as much in the brightly lit control room and darkened studio, as the title curves across and bridges the divide.



The Axis on the Air (1943)

by Harold Ettlinger
Swastikas (at least two of them) figure prominently on this frightening cover from the midst of World War II. That the otherwise black and white images are soaked in blood red makes it all the more menacing.

The Complete Biography of Lord Haw-Haw of Zeesen (1940)

by Jonah Barrington and Fenwick
What was menacing in black, white and red photographs, is, in a mostly yellow cartoon, absurd. Jonah Barrington's tongue-in-cheek "biography" of the Nazi broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw (aka William Joyce) shows the resilience of wartime Brits through comic illustrations by Fenwick.

Voices From Britain (1947)

by Henning Krabbe
The drama is gone from this collection of wartime scripts, collected after the war was won. We look skyward, following the towering transmitter tower as it points into the heavens.


BROADCASTING LOOKS AHEAD AND LOOKS BACK
From the 1920s to the 1940s, books about radio were a little bit about the present and a lot about the future. By the 1950s and 1960s, they were mostly about the past.


Modern Radio (1944)

by Kingdon S. Tyler
Radio is darn near (pre-Hiroshima and Nagasaki) atomic in this futuristic take on the broadcasting industry published toward the end of World War II.

This Fascinating Radio Business (1946)

by Robert J. Landry
According to the muscular cover art, this post-war look at the radio industry by Variety radio editor Robert J. Landry is all about bright, victorious colors and looking optimistically skyward.

I Looked and I Listened (1954)

by Ben Gross
The whimsical sketches on this book of columnist Ben Gross' reminiscences were created by Paul Galdone, who would not surprisingly go on to illustrate dozens of children's books.

Radio, Television and Society (1950)

by Charles A. Siepman
Radio, television and society were in upheaval in 1950 when this book was published, as the cubist-inspired cover illustration, replete with giant vacuum tube, circuitry and other unidentifiable elements, clearly shows.

On The Spot Reporting: Radio Records History (1967)

by George N. Gordon and Irving A. Falk
Published in 1967, this book romantically looks back to radio journalism's glory days. The cover seems to combine Pearl Harbor and the Hindenburg Disaster and one well-positioned, brave broadcaster.


THE FACE BEHIND THE MIC: RADIO PERSONALITIES
Broadcasting has always been about personalities, and radio produced more than its fair share going back to its earliest days of the 1920s.

Ten Years Before the Mike (1935)

by Ted Husing
We see legendary broadcaster Ted Husing's profile superimposed on a carbon mic, since the man and the tool that lets us all hear him are useless without the other.



I Live On Air (1941)

by A.A. Schechter with Edward Anthony
Early NBC Radio news director A.A. Schechter's tell-all finds a ribbon mic planted like a flag on basketball-like planet.



Hello America! (1938)

by Cesar Saerchinger
The big worldwide carbon mic of CBS was pointed by Cesar Saerchinger (who preceded Edward R. Murrow as European Director of Talks) at all kinds of big heads, including the Duke of Windsor, Benito Mussolini, George Bernard Shaw, Hitler and others.



The Power Behind the Microphone (1941)

by P.P. Eckersley
The BBC's famous ship-like Broadcasting House glows in the background, while a giant BBC microphone in the foreground emits its own peculiar radiation.

RADIO FICTION
It didn't take long for radio stations to become settings and radio people to become characters in novels and films. These are but a few of the many titles produced in the glory years.

Ginny Gordon and the Broadcast Mystery (1956)

by Julie Campbell
Radio was in its awkward phase when this book was published in 1956, that is, all but abandoned by the networks, and not yet an outlet for selling rock and roll records. The painting here shows a stiff, buttoned-down formality.

Go Ahead, Garrison! (1940)

by A.A. Schechter

War rages (albeit without Americans yet) and waters rise (and a football game ensues) as our heroic radio newsman looks on and brings it all to us live from the scene.

By Feliks Banel

Radiography: Best Books About Radio

For my first post for I Still Love Radio, I thought I'd put together a list of my favorite books about radio. Sure, I like listening to the radio just as much as the next guy, but what I really like is reading about radio. Thus, the following books range from general audience to academic and are listed in chronological order, with the newest title listed first. My criteria for putting them on a list like this are that they were enjoyable and informative to read the first time around, and that they’re worth returning to every now and then for reference or pleasure. Most of these titles are too old to be still circulating in public libraries, but many can be purchased affordably secondhand. My favorite places to start are any good local used bookstore or www.bookfinder.com.

Are there other titles that should be listed here? Are there any that shouldn’t? Please let me know . . .

Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation (2007) by Marc Fisher

Highly readable, thoroughly researched look at the rise of radio in the television era by Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher.

Manipulating the Ether (1998) by Robert J. Brown

This is a fairly academic study of radio in the 1930s and early 1940s, with particular attention paid to FDR and to the October 30, 1938 broadcast and aftermath of the War of the Worlds. It’s readable and a good reference to an important era in radio history.

On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (1998) by John Dunning

As encyclopedic as its title suggests, this is a terrific reference work as well as a fascinating read. Many entries are multi-page essays that bring in additional contextual references and paint thorough, accurate pictures of particular shows, personalities, stations and networks.

Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952 (1997) by Michele Hilmes

A refreshing modern interpretation of radio’s golden era, from one of the most interesting radio scholars and authors working today. Michele Hilmes is also the author of a fascinating book about the relationship between Hollywood and broadcasting called, not surprisingly, Hollywood and Broadcasting.

On A Note of Triumph: Norman Corwin and the Golden Years of Radio (1986) (originally published as Norman Corwin and Radio: The Golden Years) by R. LeRoy Bannerman

Radio god Norman Corwin’s life story, with a focus on his most productive radio years. (Note: could be confused with Corwin’s own slim volume, On A Note of Triumph (1945) which is the script of his VE-Day radio broadcast.) Several books of Corwin’s radio scripts were published in the 1940s, and all are worth reading not so much for the individual works, but for Corwin’s wry production notes and other observations that accompany each. See This Is War!, 13 By Corwin, More By Corwin, and Untitled and Other Radio Dramas.

Radio In The Television Age (1980) by Peter Fortanale & Joshua E. Mills

So many of the best radio books focus on the glory years—the 1920s to the late 1940s. Thus, this refreshing title looks specifically at how radio stumbled and then adapted to the rise of television.

Don’t Touch That Dial: Radio Programming in American Life from 1920 to 1960 (1979) by J. Fred MacDonald

This is one of the first books about radio to go back and look critically (and not simply nostalgically or sentimentally) at the output of the major networks from the 1920s to the 1960s, and to look at the social impact of the medium and the programming. MacDonald has written a number of books about media, but this is his best.

The War of Words (1970) by Asa Briggs

Of the five volumes in Briggs’ monumental series on the history of the BBC, this is my favorite. Briggs’ mined the BBC Written Archives, and the series often feels like a procedural drama with more characters and acronyms than I can track—nonetheless, he is to be commended for taking on and completing a mammoth project. This is a must-read for anyone interested in WWII radio.

On The Spot Reporting: Radio Records History (1967) by George N. Gordon & Irving A. Falk

An entertaining look at the feats that only radio could perform, bringing live (and, in the oft incorrectly recalled case of the Hindenburg disaster, recorded) accounts of war, destruction, political conventions and other major events into the livingroom. In my favorite part, Gordon and Falk trace the origin of Ed Murrow’s signature “Good night and good luck” sign-off to his 1940 Christmas broadcast from war-torn London—something I’d done independently myself (though Gordon and Falk beat me to it by nearly 40 years).

It Sounds Impossible (1963) by Sam J. Slate & Joe Cook

An entertaining account of radio’s first four decades by two men who witnessed most of it. It’s short on citations, but the stories ring true with other accounts of the same period. This is the radio book for people who don’t like radio books!

Star Spangled Radio: Radio’s Part in WWII (1948) by Edward M. Kirby & Jack W. Harris

A mildly jingoistic account of all the great things that American radio networks and personalities did in support of the war effort. The much-underreported story of radio in the Pacific is given its fair share, along with an interesting tale of the American battle with the BBC to launch and then control a radio service for Allied troops headed into France in 1944 (several books penned by BBC types tell the British side of this little-known radio rift among otherwise allied forces—including Maurice Gorham’s Sound and Fury). Also includes the story of the creation of Command Performance, the radio program for the troops that begat the Armed Forces Radio (and, eventually, Television) Service.

News On The Air (1947) by Paul W. White

This is more of a text book, but it’s smartly written by Paul White, the production mastermind behind CBS’ rise to dominate radio journalism. While Edward R. Murrow, with whom White often battled for CBS founder William Paley’s praise and attention, was risking his neck atop a blitzed London rooftop, it was often White or a member of his staff back at CBS in New York making sure the American public could hear the live report over the Columbia network.

From D-Day Through Victory In Europe (1945) and From Pearl Harbor Into Tokyo (1945) by the Columbia Broadcasting System

These are pocket-sized paperbacks published by CBS within days of VE Day and VJ Day respectively. Each features transcripts of notable broadcasts made by CBS personnel during the war, including the oft-neglected corps of radio journalists working in the Pacific. (Note: WWII radio in the Pacific is covered by Kirby and Harris’ Star Spangled Radio (see above) as well as William Dunn’s Pacific Microphone and Cecil Brown’s From Suez to Singapore.)

The Stuff of Radio (1934) by Lance Sieveking

Sieveking was a BBC producer and radio playwright, and his book examines the early years of radio drama broadcasting in England. It is one of the rare early works to analyze and critique radio’s output and look to the future dramatic possibilities for radio (and for television, which began in London in 1936).