This book explores how academia seeks to systematize the changes taking place in radio in its adaptation to the digital era. The individual chapters here investigate the most important issues currently under study by researchers in the medium of radio, tackling such key questions as the future of the radio spectrum, the new commercial radio business models, the function of community radio stations, and the development of university radio stations, amongst others. As such, this volume is integral to an understanding of the compound dimensions of the sound and radio media research currently being carried out in countries as varied as the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Finland, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina.

Winner of the 2022 Broadcast Education Association Book Award One of the first books to examine the status of broadcasting on its one hundredth anniversary, Radio’s Second Century investigates both vanguard and perennial topics relevant to radio’s past, present, and future. As the radio industry enters its second century of existence, it continues to be a dominant mass medium with almost total listenership saturation despite rapid technological advancements that provide alternatives for consumers. Lasting influences such as on-air personalities, audience behavior, fan relationships, and localism are analyzed as well as contemporary issues including social and digital media. Other essays examine the regulatory concerns that continue to exist for public radio, commercial radio, and community radio, and discuss the hindrances and challenges posed by government regulation with an emphasis on both American and international perspectives. Radio’s impact on cultural hegemony through creative programming content in the areas of religion, ethnic inclusivity, and gender parity is also explored. Taken together, this volume compromises a meaningful insight into the broadcast industry’s continuing power to inform and entertain listeners around the world via its oldest mass medium--radio.

With an emphasis on the needs of less developed media markets, this practical & user-friendly handbook examines how radio & television audience research is carried out & used, its purposes & how to interpret its findings. The Handbook provides examples of audience-research questionnaires, up-to-date audience & media data from around the world & training exercises to help the student learn through practice & investigation.

Fundamental beliefs is what the reader will be exploring here -- a common understanding of what the radio enterprise should be about: entertainment and information. A major thrust of this book is to arrive at a set of fundamental beliefs about the values and realities of the radio business in regard to entertainment programming -- a set of beliefs that may or may not be right, true, or forever, but that might at least provide a basis for developing programming strategies. This second edition of Future Radio Programming Strategies seeks to answer the question: "What do listeners really want from radio?" Some of the answers are derived from "users-and-gratifications" research in the mass media. Instead of focusing on what mass media do to people, the users-and-gratifications perspective seeks to discover what people do with mass media. The functionalist viewpoint of such research basically says that a medium is best defined by how people use it. Having looked at some of the audience research that comes from sources other than the standard ratings companies, the book then goes on to demonstrate new ways that formats, production procedures, and announcing styles can meet audience needs and desires. Although the volume concludes with several original methods for selecting and presenting airplay music based on the audience's moods and emotional needs, it does not insist upon a singular, formulaic approach for constructing or modifying a music format. Instead, it attempts to involve the reader in thinking through the process of format development. Two audio tapes are also available for use with the book. The tapes contain nearly 3 hours of important, detailed information and provocative points from the book. Exclusive audio examples include: * the sense of acoustic space in music; * hi-fi versus lo-fi listening environments; * subjective perception of the announcer's distance from the listener; * audio editing rates; * comparison of luxury versus inexpensive car listening experiences; and * the components of emotions that are expressed vocally. The tapes also include new sections about the threats to traditional radio from specialized digital audio services, competition for the listener's attention from computer-based media, and additional proof of how music can be chosen on the basis of listeners' emotional reactions and mood needs.

Radio’s New Wave explores the evolution of audio media and sound scholarship in the digital age. Extending and updating the focus of their widely acclaimed 2001 book The Radio Reader, Hilmes and Loviglio gather together innovative work by both established and rising scholars to explore the ways that radio has transformed in the digital environment. Contributors explore what sound looks like on screens, how digital listening moves us, new forms of sonic expression, radio’s convergence with mobile media, and the creative activities of old and new audiences. Even radio’s history has been altered by research made possible by digital and global convergence. Together, these twelve concise chapters chart the dissolution of radio’s boundaries and its expansion to include a wide-ranging universe of sound, visuals, tactile interfaces, and cultural roles, as radio rides the digital wave into its second century.