Radio active
Subtitle: advertising and consumer activism, 1935-1947
By: Kathy M. Newman.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 237
Subjects: Radio advertising -- United States -- History; Consumer behavior -- United States -- History; Boycotts -- United States -- History; Consumer protection -- United States -- History
Description: Radio Active tells the story of how radio listeners at the American mid-century were active in their listening practices. While cultural historians have seen this period as one of failed reform{u2014}focusing on the failure of activists to win significant changes for commercial radio{u2014}Kathy M. Newman argues that the 1930s witnessed the emergence of a symbiotic relationship between advertising and activism. Advertising helped to kindle the consumer activism of union members affiliated with the CIO, middle-class club women, and working-class housewives. Once provoked, these activists became determined to influence{u2014}and in some cases eliminate{u2014}radio advertising.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-227) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: the dialectic between advertising and activism; title: Cultural critics in the age of radio; title: The psychology of radio advertising: audience intellectuals and the resentment of radio commercials; title: "Poisons, potions and profits": radio activists and the origins of the consumer movement; title: Consumers on the march: CIO boycotts, active listeners, and 'consumer time'; title: The consumer revolt of "Mr. Average Man": Boake Carter and the CIO boycott of Philco Radio; title: Washboard weepers: women writers, women listeners, and the debate over soap operas; title: "I won't buy you anything but love, baby": NBC, Donald Montgomery, and the postwar consumer revolt; title: Conclusion: high-class hucksters: the rise and fall of a radio republic.