The Broadcast Century and Beyond: A Biography of American Broadcasting - Softcover

The Broadcast Century and Beyond, Third Edition is a popular history of the most influential and innovative industry of this century. The story of broadcasting is told in a direct and informal style, blending personal insight and authoritative scholarship to fully capture the many facets of this dynamic industry. The book vividly depicts the events, people, programs, and companies that made television and radio dominant forms of communication.

The ability of radio and television to educate, enlighten, and stimulate the contemporary mind is perhaps the most important of all modern technological developments. The Broadcast Century and Beyond, Third Edition, places the communication revolution in a comprehensive chronological context, allowing readers to fully grasp the media's profound impact on the political, social, and economic spheres.

Numerous personal retrospectives from broadcast pioneers, including Garrison Keillor, Julia Child, Norman Corwin, and Steve Allen, add an intimate dimension to this eminently readable narrative. Also included is a current events timeline, which runs throughout the entire length of the book. Featured in the timeline are milestones in radio and television development as well as world events, allowing readers to place the progress of media in a larger historical perspective. Over two hundred illustrations and photographs are provided that reflect the changes and growth of radio and television. The third edition will include a year-by-year presentation of the important media events of the 1990s, as well as a new chapter that presents the upcoming developments for the new century and their probable impact on broadcasting.

Robert L. Hilliard, Ph.D., is Professor of Media Arts and former Dean of Graduate Studies at Emerson College. He was Chief of the Educational/Public Broadcasting Branch of the F.C.C., Chair of the Federal Interagency Media Committee, and a former broadcasting writer and producer. Among his 25 books on the media is the classic Writing for Television, Radio, and New Media, now in its 7th edition. With Michael C. Keith he coauthored Global Broadcasting Systems and Waves of Rancor, which was named by President Clinton to his 1999 yearly reading list of 12 books. Hilliard's latest book is Media, Education, and America's Counter-Culture Revolution.
Michael C. Keith, Ph.D., ranks among the most prolific authors on the subject of broadcast media, in particular radio. He is a member of the Communication Department at Boston College and is author of over twenty books, including Voices in the Purple Haze, Signals in the Air, Talking Radio, Radio Cultures, and Sounds in the Dark. With Robert Hilliard he has co-authored The Broadcast Century and Beyond, Waves of Rancor, Dirty Discourse, Global Broadcasting Systems, and The Hidden Screen. With Christopher Sterling he co-authored Sounds of Change: FM Broadcasting in America. In addition, he is the author of numerous journal articles and has served in a number of editorial positions. He is the past Chair of Education for the Museum of Broadcast Communications, the inaugural chair of the Broadcast Education Association's Radio Division, and a former broadcaster. He is the recipient of several honors, including the Distinguished Scholar Award given by the Broadcast Education Association in 2008, and the Stanton Fellow Award given by the International Radio Television Society. He is the author of a critically acclaimed memoir, The Next Better Place: A Father and Son on the Road (Algonquin Press), in 2003. Visit the author's website: www.michaelckeith.com.