UC Santa Barbara

The future of radio broadcasting is uncertain. To better understand what the future of radio may hold, this paper explores the complex history of American radio broadcasting as a continuous struggle over media power. Utilizing the idea of “static” as a metaphor for the ideological and practical tension in American radio history, this paper argues that this history is characterized by the contradiction between radio as a facilitator of liberatory democratic communication versus its use as a means for capitalist homogenization and control. Drawing from theoretical frameworks established by Marx, Foucault, McLuhan, Adorno and others, this paper analyzes important texts in radio studies to craft a narrative that traces important historical moments in which the battle of the airwaves was fought. From the early technological innovation of pioneering inventors to governmental intervention and the enclosure of the radio commons. From wartime propaganda and anti-communist blacklisting to the FM revolution and counter cultural radio movements. From Reagan-era deregulation and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to the Free Radio Movement and Low-Power FM. The history of American radio broadcasting is a history in which radio broadcasting as a resource for the public good is continually fought for and challenged.