Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Loving
2. Knowing
3. Saving
4. Sharing
Conclusion
Notes
Index

Promotional Information

Unpacks the cultural phenomenon of radiophilia, the popular sensation of live radio transmission, and the reactions to it by critics, cultural producers and audiences across the globe.

About the Author

Carolyn Birdsall is Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Her publications include Nazi Soundscapes (2012) and “Listening to the Archives” (2019, ed. with Viktoria Tkaczyk). She currently leads the research project TRACE (Tracking Radio Archival Collections in Europe, 1930–1960), funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

Reviews

An inspiring example of how to resist entrenched narratives. Birdsall’s study issues a rallying cry for work that is intermedial and interdisciplinary, crossing boundaries of geography and history in order to love radio better.
*Sound Studies*

Carolyn Birdsall has provided a brilliant and extremely original way of understanding the affective and emotional engagement with radio at the intersection of media cultural history, cultural studies, fan and sound studies. The book offers a refined analysis of the different forms of affection towards radio and provides a new key to understanding the social uses of radio. No scholar has ever written such an accurate analysis or comprehensive description of how we love, know, save and share radio.
*Tiziano Bonini, Associate Professor of Sociology of culture and communication, University of Siena, Italy*

Ranging from the collection of merchandise to the conservation of infrastructure, Radiophilia is a brilliant analysis of how radio matters to people. Detailing how affective practices have moved between professional broadcasters, archivists and listeners, and how crossover fandom has connected radio and music fans, this book is itself a superb bridging of radio/fan studies. Carolyn Birdsall skilfully explores the material, multisensorial and intermedial dimensions of radiophilia: any reader interested in radio’s history, preservation and present-day energy will find a lot to love here.
*Matt Hills, Professor of Fandom Studies, University of Huddersfield, UK*

Radiophilia provides an original and compelling investigation of how radio – as a medium, a practice, an idea, an object of desire, an institution – has entered into our lives along a shifting variety of axes across the last hundred years, changing the way we both experience and respond to the world around us. A wonderful addition to the field.
*Michele Hilmes, Professor Emerita of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA*

This approach to fan culture perspectives and research delineated above speaks of how comprehensive and wide-reaching this book is; it discusses radio in its many forms, as medium and practice, as idea and infrastructure, as desire and archive. And despite it being a love letter to radio, the intermedial framing means Birdsall never loses sight of how this medium draws from and builds on existing sound media, or how the love of it is boosted or complemented by content derived from a variety of dialogues and inter-dependencies.
*RadioDoc Review*

The author successfully balances an ambitious new and overarching concept with more concrete examples, and by doing so brings in a wide range of geographical and historical contexts, which makes the result particularly convincing.
*Technology and Culture*

It allows the reader to engage with non-Western aspects of radio history and brings attention to narratives that challenge the traditionally male-centred focus, making Radiophilia an incredibly valuable touchstone for diversifying our understanding of radio and its history.
*TMG Journal for Media History*