Symposium: Radio broadcasting in Scandinavia—Part II

Radio stations were organized in Europe during the 1920s as state‐regulated public service institutions. Contrary to the model in the U.S., radio thus was embedded in the cultural and political spheres and accordingly kept outside of the market forces, although some countries allowed limited advertising. Radio's role as a national service faced increasing legitimation problems, and in most Western European countries, local radio was introduced as a divergence measure to balance political and cultural convergence of national radio. Generally, local radio activities were initially an attempt to revitalize a vivid public sphere. This article describes the development in the Scandinavian countries, where local radio developed in different ways with a rather strong commercial component that filled the “commercial deficit”; resulting from public service policies and a rather fragile component of noncommercial community stations. Although the structural development in many ways showed a different pattern than expected and wanted, local radio will have an ever greater role to play in a globalized media and information society.     

Keys to the Failure of DAB in Spain

It does not seem too risky or bold—at the start of the new century—to assert that digital radio has an uncertain future. The present article analyzes the causes of the failure of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) in Spain using particular current and historical features of the Spanish radio industry to do so (note that Spanish radio falls halfway between the North American commercial model and the European public service model). The opinions of different telecommunications experts, comparisons with other European countries, as well as the defining characteristics of the standard chosen, Eureka 147, better known as DAB, are presented.     

The Scullery of the Broadcasting House: Female Writers and the Literary Features of the Dutch Broadcasting Organization KRO (1928–1940)

Departing from the claim that media actively co-construct gender relations in a society, this article focuses on the interwar literary features of the Dutch Catholic radio broadcaster KRO. Similar to all broadcasting organizations in the Dutch Interbellum, the KRO aired these literary features in order to contribute to the cultural elevation of its listeners. Remarkable about the KRO, however, is that it created a division between an official literary feature, which was aired on Sunday afternoons, and a series composed of literary contributions aimed specifically at women, which was broadcast on Tuesday afternoons. Specifically focusing on their repertoires, this article primarily aimed to analyze the differences between these two features. It appears that the books of female writers were underrepresented in the official feature and overrepresented in the women’s feature, which indicates that Dutch radio reflected the hegemonic gender relations in the interwar literary field.     

Nesta Pain

The ‘cultural translator’ is an individual who expresses the essence of entanglement in their career choices, moving between genres, media, or nations. This article suggests that the BBC producer and writer, Nesta Pain, was such an individual. Over the course of her career, Pain not only wrote and produced radio features and radio dramas but was also a successful journalist and author. She translated her experience in radio production onto the stage and on television by exploiting the different possibilities offered by these visual media—all evidence of her transmedial cultural translation. Further adding to the transgressive nature of her career, was her place as a woman in male-dominated radio production arenas.     

An introduction

The future of radio is now much less obvious and clear than it appeared 10 years ago. Instead of a transition from analog to digital audio broadcasting (DAB), there is a selection of alternative technological options for digital audio delivery.

This article studies how 43 people in key positions related to the radio industry in four European countries and Canada view the future of radio and which delivery technologies they consider will be most successful. In addition, it analyzes the motives and reasons why certain technologies are seen as more promising. Finally, it presents different future scenarios for radio media.     

Radio in Estonia: Meager but Enduring

Historically radio has held an important place in the lives of Estonians that shaped radio's character during the years of the Soviet Union and after Estonian independence. Radio developed an intimate relationship with Estonian audiences and was important during the drive for independence. After independence state broadcasting moved toward a public service model while commercial radio developed under the control of a small number of corporations. While public service radio and commercial radio compete in ways similar to other European and Nordic countries, radio in Estonia remains strong.     

Historical Constitution of Public Radio Stations in Brazil

Educational, state, cultural, and university radio stations have already developed over more than 70 years of history in Brazilian radio broadcasting. Currently, there are hundreds of stations transmitting across the country, from the North to the South. Some of them—that in the 1990s included 100 broadcasting stations and among these, the oldest and nationally referenced—up to this decade operated and were referenced as a component of the educational radio system. Mainly from this period on, most of these stations began to call themselves public. And, especially due to their programming, they have been attempting to define themselves within the profile of public radio stations. The purpose of this article is to uncover the historical construction of this group of radio broadcasting stations, by means of a timeframe, from the advent of the non-commercial segment in the 1930s until today. It reconstructs referential models and presents main threads and features of the programming of these stations throughout these seven decades. In this way, it will also evince how Brazil is constructing its model of public radio.     

Every Window of Opportunity Needs a Frame to Support It. DAB in Spain: Analog Matters

Radio broadcasting in Spain is still analog and DAB is awaiting its opportunity. Without an audience or receivers, Spanish free-to-air digital radio is inconsequential, merely anecdotal, although the European context is changing and some countries have been investing more in this distribution platform in recent years. This article aims to answer the question why DAB in Spain does not have anyone willing to bring it back to the forefront. To do so, we use the idea of the “window of opportunity” and, along with path-dependence, we place it in the theoretical framework of the main constructivist approaches.     

The Israeli radio play: Toward a sociothematic analysis

This article offers an outline for a sociothematic analysis of 40 years of radio plays in Hebrew. The examined corpus comprises 1,850 works, both originally radiophonic and adaptations from other media, broadcast by the Israeli Radio‐drama department from 1954 to 1992. Although clearly influenced by European radio drama, Israeli radio plays have nonetheless developed a unique blend of “form and content.” Through a selected number of radio plays, this first of its kind survey offers a thematic approach to the repertoire, in dealing with topics such as the Holocaust, the Arab‐Israeli conflict, and the image of the Israeli‐born “Sabra.”     

Disembodied Voices and Dislocated Signals: The World of Modern-Day DXing

DXing is a hobby which historically has been associated with amateur radio enthusiasts, though there are subcategories of DXing which focus on shortwave, AM, FM, and other communications. DXing features many interesting characteristics, including its own jargon, intercultural communication, a competitive, gendered orientation, eavesdropping, and a strong sense of community.

This article examines an understudied aspect of radio listening: the DXing community. There is a dearth of scholarly research focusing on this community of radio listeners, but DXing remains a popular and widely practiced hobby and aspect of radio listening to this day. Based on 17 interviews that were conducted with active, present-day DXers (including ham radio DXers and broadcast band DXers), as well as a textual analysis of articles and other materials pertaining to DXing, this article examines the hobby, the particular aspects which appeal to its participants, and some of its notable characteristics, such as the jargon that has developed within the community, and its social networking aspect. Furthermore, the response of the DXing community to the growth and increased prevalence of new media technologies is also examined.     

Dial the Difference—How and Why BBC Local Radio and Independent Local Radio Developed Different News Services

This article is principally concerned with how and why these 2 types of radio news developed. It discusses the culture, ethos and practices of the 2 services and, in particular, if and how each was influenced by the other. Much of the article is concerned about how the new commercial stations developed practices and styles that were consciously different from, and in some cases in direct opposition to, those at the BBC, both nationally and locally. The article argues that it was the BBC which adopted and integrated commercial radio’s style and practices, rather than, as is often supposed, the other way around.     

Kern,Jonathan. (2008). Sound reporting: The NPR guide to audio journalism and production

This article examines the emergence of local radio in a rural southeastern Turkish city called Sanllurfa in the early 7990s following the end of the state's media monopoly on broadcasting. Informed by a media ethnography conducted there in 2001, this article discusses local debates over the content and quality of local radio and the influence of the state's official cultural policies on the programming decisions of local radio owners, managers, and DJs. This paper also illustrates Turkish young people's local and national radio preferences, their responses to local programming and on-air personalities, and the meaning of music and local radio in their lives.     

Distinctiveness of Public Radio in the Age of Digitization

This article examines the distinctiveness of the public broadcaster offer in the roll-out of digital terrestrial radio across 25 European markets. Distinctiveness was measured through the number of services and the diversity of genres provided by the same broadcaster on analogue-only, simulcast and digital-only stations. The results illustrate which public broadcasters have made an effort to provide exclusive digital services and which genres are being preferred in digital. As a whole, the research provides useful insights into the role of public media as drivers of digital radio and technological innovation.     

REPURPOSING OF CONTENT IN MULTI-PLATFORM NEWS PRODUCTION

One of the characteristics of convergence journalism is the prominence of repurposing of content. This article analyses news production processes at the Norwegian public service broadcaster, NRK, through the concepts of genre and adaptation. Convergent, or cross-media, news journalism involves media content travelling across media boundaries. As different media platforms use different sets of sign systems (audio, video, writing, images and graphics), this requires some form of translation or adaptation. This article analyses some examples of audiovisual content that travels across media platforms; mainly from television and radio to the Web, but also between radio and television. News content made for a specific programme on a specific platform, with a characteristic rhetoric, is adapted in part or as a whole to be republished on a different platform with a different rhetoric. In conclusion, the article outlines a typology of different forms of repurposing in cross-media news journalism, expanding on those found in Dailey et al.'s (2003) “convergence continuum”.     

Radio Archives and Preservation in Latin America: A Preliminary Overview

This article surveys efforts at preservation and diffusion of archival radio in Latin America. The region’s largest radio archives are housed within large sound libraries in Brazil and Mexico. Mexico’s Fonoteca Nacional, for example, houses the archives of XEW/Televisa Radio, the nation’s most important radio network. In countries like Argentina and Chile, radio preservation and diffusion has been a component of efforts to document and preserve the public memory of revolution and dictatorship during the Cold War era. While much remains to be done to secure the region’s radio patrimony, Latin American radio preservation has advanced significantly in recent years.     

Does Media Consumption Make Us Happy? Evidence for Spain

This article concerns the study of the impact of media consumption on happiness in Spain using data from the fourth wave of the European Social Survey, distinguishing between watching TV, listening to the radio, reading newspapers, and using the Internet. A negative effect of TV watching was found on individual happiness, mainly among women; those with higher incomes; and those with paying jobs—that is, among those with a higher opportunity cost of time. However, this negative effect on happiness does not appear for radio listening, newspaper reading, or Internet usage.     

Buying Time to Start Spanish-Language Radio in San Antonio: Manuel Davila and the Beginning of Tejano Programming

This article reveals how Spanish-language radio started in San Antonio, Texas—as blocks of time bought by Hispanics interested in providing music to San Antonio's Spanish-speaking residents. In particular, this study recognizes the contributions of San Antonio radio pioneer Manuel Davila and his role in starting Spanish-language radio and the Tejano format, drawing from a combination of on-site observation at Davila's station, personal interviews, and the collection of historical data. The article also lays a foundation for critically analyzing the political economy and hegemonic process of maintenance of economic and cultural power possible in the early days of radio broadcasting to compare it to the current corporately dominated marketplace.     

Democracy in the Air: Radio as a Complement to Face-To-Face Discussion in the New Deal

This article focuses on the use of radio broadcasts as resources for those organizing and convening face-to-face discussion groups in rural communities across the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. Led by the United States Department of Agriculture, small group discussions took place with leadership coming from Cooperative Extension agents from land-grant universities. As public affairs shows were being carried on the major commercial radio channels, the USDA discussion project utilized radio broadcasts to introduce people to the methods of conducting group discussions. The article focuses on the national efforts of the USDA as well as localized attempts to utilize radio broadcasts in the service of democratic discussion, focusing on one of the most robust examples of a land-grant university—the University of Wisconsin-Madison—utilizing technology for democratic discussion in rural communities across the state. It notes shortcomings and challenges, as well as identifying the critical role that radio played in helping citizens and communities begin to think about complex public problems through the use of new technologies.