Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation
by Marc Fisher
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marc FisherEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-01-09
ISBN: 0375509070
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Random House
Book Reviews of Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation
Book Review: +1/2 -- Broadcast radio from the challenge of TV to the invention of podcasts
Summary: 3 Stars
Fisher's history of radio stretches from the medium's shove from the living room (by TV) in the late `40s to its shove aside by the internet and iPod. In between he chronicles the social, political and business forces that led to radio broadcasting's multiple re-inventions. The breadth of Fisher's focus is both a blessing and a curse: by taking in 60 years he's able to show common patterns and the relentless force of commerce, but by telling the story in vignettes of personalities, there's ten times as much omitted as included. What comes across by book's end is that Fisher is a better analyst than he is a storyteller. His descriptions of seminal radio people never quite reach the level of excitement or magnetism of their subjects, and his New Yorker styled interwoven narratives are often more frustrating than compelling. Fisher's bias to the East Coast, and to New York radio in particular, is obvious, and his lengthy discourses on Jean Shepherd and Bob Fass will be interminable to many. Better are his profiles of those who were behind-the-mic forces, such as consultant Lee Abrams. His analysis of radio as a numbers game, and the confluence of surveys, statistics and deregulation make the second half of the book a winner. His description of how the fragmentation of radio formats in the 1970s has come back to haunt oldies radio is particularly enlightening. Over and over he describes how the inexorable march of commerce rules radio, and how research-oriented programming drove radio into a dead-end. This is worthwhile reading, but more for the analysis than the profiles. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]
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