WCFL, Chicago's voice of labor, 1926-78
By: Nathan Godfried.
Series: The history of communication
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 390
Subjects: WCFL (Radio station : Chicago, Ill.) -- History.; Labor radio stations -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History.; Labor movement -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History.
Description: Chicago radio station WCFL was the first and longest surviving labor radio station in the nation, beginning in 1926 as a listener-supported station owned and operated by the Chicago Federation of Labor and lasting more than fifty years. The station emphasized popular entertainment and labor and public affairs programming, seeking during its early decades to help organize workers, increase public awareness and support for the union movement, and enhance working-class consciousness and culture.

Nathan Godfried analyzes labor's challenge to the dominant media by examining the station's history and its dialectical relationship with the organized labor movement, the corporate radio world, and the federal government from 1926 to 1978. The station's story will be of interest to both labor and broadcast historians, showing how WCFL's development paralleled important changes in the organized labor movement and in the movement's interaction with business and government.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [375]-380) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : labor and the mass media to 1925; title: The creation of WCFL, 1925-26; title: The promise of labor radio, 1927-28; title: Clear channel and other battles, 1929-32; title: "Something different into our lives" : programming, 1929-32; title: Tangled web, 1932-37; title: Labor radio and working-class culture, 1932-37; title: Labor radio without Nockels, 1937-46; title: "Showmanship," 1937-46; title: William Lee and commercial success, 1946-66; title: The fall of labor radio, 1967-78; title: Conclusion : the mixed legacy of labor radio.