Radio—The Forgotten Medium

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Introduction
RADIO—The Forgotten Medium

At a time when the eyes of many in the world who care about media are fixed on the information superhighway—an enterprise that potentially connects all available information, entertainment and messaging to a global audience of billions—radio may seem like a technology whose time has come and gone. At best, many may view radio affectionately, like a lingering great aunt, now pushed to the periphery. Surely, such observers argue, radio was outdistanced decades ago by television, later by cable and now by new interactive media, data streams and so much more.

Like the air, radio is just there, part of the media and social landscape but rarely acknowledged or much remarked. At least, that is one image of radio, once a dominant force in the world’s media life but now “the forgotten medium,” no longer as glamorous or important as it shinier successors.

In response to such talk comes author and humorist Garrison Keillor, perhaps radio’s staunchest champion: “Radio isn’t forgotten by its legions of listeners, only by people who don’t listen and who cares about them?” he retorts. “I am always being asked by newspaper editors if I think that radio has a future or can make a comeback—some idiot questions like that—and it’s tiresome to try to respond, as if one were asked to defend the existence of trees.” In his 30s, Keillor rediscovered radio, a favorite companion of his youth, and created the popular program “Prairie Home Companion,” distributed weekly by American Public Radio, that serves as a kind of metaphor for radio’s resilience and vitality.

Radio, of course, is not forgotten at all by the billions around the globe who depend on it daily. In some places, such as China and Indonesia, it is the most pervasive of all media. Elsewhere, as in the United States, it may be a secondary medium but remains truly ubiquitous. As the first broadcast medium, radio created formats and structures that television later adopted. But it did much more by demonstrating its versatility, moving from one format to another and reversing the role of entertainment and information while still holding onto advertising dollars and revving up anew its capacity as opinion maker.

To those who those radio was on a downhill slope just a few years ago, the runaway success of talk show hosts like Larry King, Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh and others is proof positive that the decline was short-lived. Drawing massive audiences and luring advertisers, these talkmeisters have considerable impact on public opinion. Indeed, during the 1992 presidential campaign, when people spoke of the new “electronic democracy” they were referring largely to radio talk shows, as well as to TV talk and variety shows and MTV. Just because critics and media scholars don’t attend much to radio (and they don’t) does not mean that the medium is unimportant. When the president of the United States, whether Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton, does a weekly radio broadcast, you can be sure it isn’t just to mark time. There’s good evidence, in fact, that people who may not generally pay much attention to announcements on television or in the press do catch them on the radio while driving to and from work, while working or relaxing.

While this volume mostly emphasizes the state of radio in the United States, it also includes four essays touching on the medium’s massive global impact as well. Surely no one—entrepreneurs, politicians or least of all the public—is counting radio out. Radio is, as they say, here to stay, more vital than ever even while conceding center stage to its flashier cousin, television, and their even hipper new interactive relatives sprouting up along the information highway. Despite these new arrivals, radio remains the most pervasive medium worldwide. Television is hot on its heels even in developing countries, but that does not mean that radio won’t continue to prosper much as it continues to do in the United States and in other information societies where its role is constantly refined and fragmented, but remains vitally important. The old radio networks may be largely gone, but the cumulative effect of radio as carrier of music, news and disaster information is immense.

Neither is radio to be counted out on the information highway. Delano Lewis, president of National Public Radio who came to his post in 1993 from the field of telecommunications, vows that radio will have an important place in the new, linked electronic world. And it already does, in fact, using satellites to extend its signal reach far beyond local stations, with storage capacity that permits rebroadcast later. When all the tools and vehicles available for the information superhighway are seriously considered, radio will still have its special place, recognized as a forceful, cost-effective member of the media family.

This volume originally was issues as the Summer 1993 issue of the Media Studies Journal, published by The Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University in New York City. It has since been modified, reedited and augmented by the editors for a larger audience. It is our hope that this book will be of value to students of media, communication, politics and society, as well as to anyone who cares about effective communication in this increasingly global society. To many, radio may be too familiar to be much noticed—“electronic wallpaper”—but it certainly is too widespread to be a forgotten medium.

Everette E. Dennis, Executive Director
Edward C. Pease, Associated Director/Publications
The Freedom Forum Media Studies Center
Columbia University
New York City
February 1994

Everette E. Dennis and Edward C. Pease, Eds. “Radio—The Forgotten Medium,” Media Studies Journal. Vol. 7, No. 3. (Summer 1993) 224 pp.