Emergency Broadcasting and 1930s American Radio

Rating:
Summary: Uncanny Pleasures: Review of Miller's Emergency Broadcasting
Review: Informed, stylishly written, and fun to read, Edward D. Miller's book Emergency Broadcasting is a must -- especially for anyone interested in a new take on the history of American radio.

Miller skillfully connects radio's "intimate otherness" to various manifestations of the Uncanny (including Hamlet's Ghost, the delusions of paranoids and schizophrenics, and the voices of presidents). He does a close reading of three major broadcasting events of the '30s -- the reporting of the Hindenberg disaster; President Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats"; and Orson Welles's famous "War of the Worlds" broadcasts -- to show how radio both reassures and frightens the listener. A reinterpretation of the classical Echo and Narcissus myth in another chapter stretches his analogy about vocal disembodiment a bit too far into the ether. But Miller returns to earth to show the relevance of the myth to today's media landscape.

The book concludes with a chapter drawing parallels between 1930s American radio and the Internet, which will, I'm sure, surprise and delight many students as well as critics of "the virtual community."

-- Reviewed by Sumitra Mukerji