Since the rise of television, much radio consists of ''capsule'' news and music formats which are heard as background to other activities. However the medium offers a great deal more. This collection of essays shows how in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and the South Pacific, radio continues to provide distinctive forms of content for the individual listener, yet also enables ethnic and cultural groups to maintain their sense of identity. Ranging from radio among the primordial communities to digital broadcasting and the internet, these essays suggest that the benefits and gratifications which radio confers remain unique and irreplaceable in this multi-media age.

Since the rise of television, much radio consists of 'capsule' news and music formats which are heard as background to other activities. However the medium offers a great deal more. This collection of essays shows how in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and the South Pacific, radio continues to provide distinctive forms of content for the individual listener, yet also enables ethnic and cultural groups to maintain their sense of identity. Ranging from radio among the primordial communities to digital broadcasting and the internet, these essays suggest that the benefits and gratifications which radio confers remain unique and irreplaceable in this multi-media age.

General Introduction
Andrew Crisell

PART I: INSTITUTIONS

Chapter 1. Look with Thine Ears: BBC Radio 4 and Its Significance in a Multi-Media Age
Andrew Crisell

Chapter 2. BBC Radio 5 Live: Extending Choice Through ‘Radio Bloke’?
Guy Starkey

Chapter 3. U.S. Public Radio: What is It – and For Whom?
Bob Lochte

Chapter 4. Digital Reflections of Finnish Speech Journalism: YLE Radio Peili
Marko Ala-Fossi

PART II: IDENTITIES

Chapter 5. Indigenous Radio in Canada
Valerie Alia

Chapter 6. Native American Radio: Wolakota Wiconi Waste
Bruce L. Smith

Chapter 7. National Public Service Radio in the South Pacific: A Community Loudspeaker
Helen Molnar

Chapter 8. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away: Gay Radio, Past and Present
Alan Beck

Chapter 9. Continuities and Change in Women’s Radio
Kate Lacey

PART III: GENRES

Chapter 10. ‘Reality Radio’: The Documentary
David Hendy

Chapter 11. Radio and Popular Culture in Germany: Radio Culture Between Comedy and ‘Event-isation’
Andreas Hepp

Chapter 12. Radio as a Medium for Poetry
Mike Ladd

Chapter 13. A Medium for Mateship: Commercial Talk Radio in Australia
Terry Flew

Chapter 14. Fireside Issues: Audience, Listener, Soundscape
Frances Gray

PART IV: NEW TECHNOLOGY

Chapter 15. Dutch Web Radio as a Medium for Audience Interaction
Martine van Selm, Nicholas W. Jankowski and Bibi Kleijn

Chapter 16. Speech Radio in the Digital Age
Richard Berry

Notes on Contributors
Index