Lost Sound: The Forgotten Art of Radio Storytelling

by Jeff Porter

Overview

From Archibald MacLeish to David Sedaris, radio storytelling has long borrowed from the world of literature, yet the narrative radio work of well-known writers and others is a story that has not been told before. And when the literary aspects of specific programs such as The War of the Worlds or Sorry, Wrong Number were considered, scrutiny was superficial. In Lost Sound, Jeff Porter examines the vital interplay between acoustic techniques and modernist practices in the growth of radio. Concentrating on the 1930s through the 1970s, but also speaking to the rising popularity of today's narrative broadcasts such as This American Life, Radiolab, Serial, and The Organist, Porter's close readings of key radio programs show how writers adapted literary techniques to an acoustic medium with great effect. Addressing avant-garde sound poetry and experimental literature on the air, alongside industry policy and network economics, Porter identifies the ways radio challenged the conventional distinctions between highbrow and lowbrow cultural content to produce a dynamic popular culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469627779
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	05/30/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jeff Porter teaches English at the University of Iowa.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Jeff Porter has brilliantly filled the huge gap on radio's greatest contributions to twentieth-century American culture by offering the strongest argument to date that the first electronic mass medium brought something of genuine significance to the nation's literary canon. Lost Sound is thorough and timely, and the narrative is lucid and consequential. I'm pleased and thrilled that there will now exist—at long last—a definitive work on the subject.—Michael C. Keith, Boston College



Lost Sound shows that in our phonophobic culture, we have forgotten to attend to radio's literary past, preferring to see our precious written word as the primary source of literary expression. As Jeff Porter reveals, however, sound technologies such as radio offer powerful and alternative modes of artistic production. Writing with real beauty, energy, and verve, Jeff Porter has made a significant contribution to our critical understanding of this important medium.—Kathy M. Newman, Carnegie Mellon University

Editorial Reviews

Provides a much-appreciated and –needed work of solid, well-written scholarship on a subject that has too long been overlooked and underprized.—Theatre Journal



Porter takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the heyday of [radio storytelling] in the 1930s and 1940s United States. . . . This intriguing, amply researched analysis certainly brings a fine addition to the existing literature on radio history.—European Journal of Communication



Cogently and authoritatively written, Lost Sound is an exciting read for literary, sound, and communications studies enthusiasts alike.—Canadian Journal of Communication



A fascinating perspective on broadcasting history, written in clear, often captivating, prose.—Journal of American Folklore



A valuable addition to literary, radio, sound and gender studies, at whose intersection it is located.—parallax

From the Publisher

War of the Worlds” (1938) by Orson Welles, “On A Note of Triumph” (1945) by Norman Corwin, and “Under Milk Wood” (1954) by Dylan Thomas—these are just a few classic programs that stretched the boundaries of how poetic language was first employed in radio, changing how an entire generation heard the world around them. With an air of authority and sophistication, Arthur Morey reads the author’s illuminating deconstructions of seminal works like “Sorry, Wrong Number” (1943), starring Agnes Moorehead, and “The Fall of the City” (1937) by Archibald MacLeish. There’s almost a sense of mourning in Morey’s voice when discussing the cultural highpoints of yesteryear, but as Porter points out, the tradition of producing audio stories hasn’t disappeared. It’s simply moved from radio to podcasts and audiobooks. B.P. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2016 - AudioFile