A Word From Our Sponsor

During the “golden age” of radio, from roughly the late 1920s until the late 1940s, advertising agencies were arguably the most important sources of radio entertainment. Most nationally broadcast programs on network radio were created, produced, written, and/or managed by advertising agencies: for example, J. Walter Thompson produced “Kraft Music Hall” for Kraft; Benton & Bowles oversaw “Show Boat” for Maxwell House Coffee; and Young & Rubicam managed “Town Hall Tonight” with comedian Fred Allen for Bristol-Myers. Yet this fact has disappeared from popular memory and receives little attention from media scholars and historians. By repositioning the advertising industry as a central agent in the development of broadcasting, author Cynthia B. Meyers challenges conventional views about the role of advertising in culture, the integration of media industries, and the role of commercialism in broadcasting history. Based largely on archival materials, A Word from Our Sponsor mines agency records from the J. Walter Thompson papers at Duke University, which include staff meeting transcriptions, memos, and account histories; agency records of BBDO, Benton & Bowles, Young & Rubicam, and N. W. Ayer; contemporaneous trade publications; and the voluminous correspondence between NBC and agency executives in the NBC Records at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Mediating between audiences’ desire for entertainment and advertisers’ desire for sales, admen combined “showmanship” with “salesmanship” to produce a uniquely American form of commercial culture. In recounting the history of this form, Meyers enriches and corrects our understanding not only of broadcasting history but also of advertising history, business history, and American cultural history from the 1920s to the 1940s.

Brown (1906-1972) was a popular and respected author of more than 20 mysteries and science fiction novels (The Fabulous Clipjoint, won the 1948 Edgar Award for best mystery novel). This study looks closely at his work and chronicles his unusual life. Paper edition (unseen), $16.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

When a 12-year-old boy tries to protect consumers from a dangerous drinking mug, he discovers he must challenge his father's advertising agency.

To today's radio listener, it is difficult to imagine the influence radio once held over the American people. Unlike movies or newspapers, radio both informed and entertained its audience without requiring them to participate. Part of its success depended upon the people who created the sound effects--a squeaking door, the approach of a horse, or a typewriter. The author did live sound effects during the "Golden Age" of radio. He provides many insights into the early days of the medium as it grappled with entertaining an audience based on a single sense (hearing). How the sounds were produced is fully covered as are the artists responsible for their production. Stories of successful effects production are balanced by embarrassing or funny failures. A list of artists and their shows is included.

A decade after the first Canadian telecasts in September 1952, TV had conquered the country. Why was the little screen so enthusiastically welcomed by Canadians? Was television in its early years more innovative, less commerical, and more Canadian than current than current offerings? In this study of what is often called the 'golden age' of television, Paul Rutherford has set out to dispel some cherished myths and to resurrect the memory of a noble experiment in the making of Canadian culture. He focuses on three key aspects of the story. The first is the development of the national service, including the critical acclaim won by Radio-Canada, the struggles of the CBC's English service to provide mass entertainment that could compete with the Hollywood product, and the effective challenge of private television to the whole dream of public broadcasting. The second deals with the wealth of made-in-Canada programming available to please and inform vviewers - even commercials receive close attention. Altogether, Rutherford argues, Canadian programming reflected as well as enhanced the prevailing values and assumptions of the mainstream. The final focus is on McLuhan's Question: What happens to society when a new medium of communications enters the picture? Rutherford's findings cast doubt upon the common presumptions about the awesome power of television. Television in Canada, Rutherford concludes, amounts to a failed revolution. It never realized the ambbitions of its masters or the fears of its critics. Its course was shaped not only by the will of the government, the power of commerce, and the empire of Hollywood, but also by the desires and habits of the viewers.

Mary Vipond's approach is based on the idea that the development of radio broadcasting was a process that involved equipment manufacturers, broadcasters, and "audiences/customers." She charts the expansion of these three groups, surveys the development of advertising and networking as methods of financing, and analyses the evolution of programming. From 1922 to 1932, radio administration was the responsibility of the Radio Branch of the federal Department of Marine and Fisheries. Vipond discusses the regulatory policies of the branch. She completes her study with an analysis of the period from the formation of the Aird Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting in 1928 to the passage of the Radio Broadcasting Act of 1932. Between 1922 and 1932, virtually all Canadian broadcasting was in the private sector. The campaign in the early 1930s to institute a broadcasting system oriented more toward public service and the promotion of a national identity was partially successful. Vipond reveals, however, that the act that in 1932 set up the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, now the CBC, was much weaker than has generally been recognized. She argues that this weakness was a consequence of the fact that, over the course of the 1920s, broadcasters, listeners, and politicians alike had built up certain expectations of radio which could not easily be disregarded.

Business results, major change, project initiatives can be achieved more easily than imagined. Strategic Organizational Alignment shows you how and points out the reasons why most excuses businesses make for inadequate implementations are wrong. Through stories, illustrations, and step-by-step guides, Crosby shows you a simple, profound, and repeatable way to ensure your business aligns its employees and has a clear path to success. This book will help you to learn how to focus your workplace on the dynamics critical to achieving greater productivity.