Rating: 
Summary: The Definitive Book on Old-Time Radio
Review: John's 1976 "Tune In Yesterday" is a classic. "On The Air" is more than just a revision of his earlier book. Some 1,500 radio shows presented in alphabetical order. There is extensive information on each show's length of run, cast, writers, and directors. A comprehensive bibliography of Old-Time Radio (OTR) literature is included. What really sets this book apart from other OTR books is John's insightful writing about the shows; he writes from the heart and with passion. John is an acknowledged expert on OTR; he had OTR shows on various stations in Denver, CO for over 20 years. John is also a best-selling author - his two novels on, cop-turned rare book seller/detective, Cliff Janeway are very readable. If I could only buy one OTR book, this one is it!
Rating:
Summary: #1 reference for old time radio fans
Review: Most OTR (old time radio) fans began the way I did: hearing a snatch of a show, being mildly intrigued, picking up a few shows on cassette, then finding shows that you love and getting the whole series in mp3 (most online auction houses have these at a very reasonable price), and then ending up as collectors and full time hobbyists. You can now buy hundreds of shows for a few bucks and load them onto your ipod in seconds. OTR is a great entertainment hobby. Shows such as Jack Benny, Life of Riley, Our Miss Brooks, Phil Harris, Vic and Sade, and Fibber McGee are still very funny. Shows such as Johnny Dollar, Suspense, and Escape are still intriguing. OTR is perfect for anyone tired of the sex drenched, toilet humor of much of what comes out of Hollywood and cable today. Frankly, I hardly turn on my tv anymore - and I have no cable or satellite bills to pay.
Sooner or later, every OTR fan is going to want to have this book. It is an exhaustive reference on almost every show with great background stories to keep you entertained for weeks. It is expensive but it is the best.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Compilation
Review: Nothing less than excellent and thorough is this re-write of "Tune In Yesterday", Dunning's 1976 edition. The only thing missing are the photos included in the earlier book. Glad to find out all about 1941's "Latitude Zero", an esoteric West Coast serial often discussed between a pal and myself as one of the missing artifacts of our society, and for which no known information seemed to be available. Thanks, Mr. Dunning, for the insightful and comprehensive update.
Rating: 
Summary: An outstanding resource guide! I just wish it had pictures.
Review: On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio is a must-have for any Old-Time Radio buff. The book has already helped me arrange my collection of shows. If it had pictures, the book would be even better, but the facts and obvious love that John Dunning has for these shows makes the book an incredible read.
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Summary: Most useful as an educational tool too
Review: The great value of this book as a "good read" or as an aid to sorting one's collection of old time radio recordings is covered very well by other reviewers on this site. I want to point out its use as an educational tool. Social Studies classes are all too often made boring by reliance on textbooks (which are either outdated or too politically correct to be of any use) or on films and tapes, which are better but still pretty factual (whatever the bias) and dull to many students. I have always in my classes used the music of the period to liven things up a bit; but what about using radio broadcasts? Each one of them is a reflection of the people and events that shaped these shows and so many of them are available on tapes and CDs from such catalogues as Radio Spirits. is a fantastic resource manual for a teacher who wants to see what is appropriate for any particular class and to provide the background information for the students. Oxford University Press might want to consider this angle in their advertizing. But even all this aside, it does make for some fascinating reading!
Rating:
Summary: Most useful as an educational tool too
Review: The great value of this book as a "good read" or as an aid to sorting one's collection of old time radio recordings is covered very well by other reviewers on this site. I want to point out its use as an educational tool. Social Studies classes are all too often made boring by reliance on textbooks (which are either outdated or too politically correct to be of any use) or on films and tapes, which are better but still pretty factual (whatever the bias) and dull to many students. I have always in my classes used the music of the period to liven things up a bit; but what about using radio broadcasts? Each one of them is a reflection of the people and events that shaped these shows and so many of them are available on tapes and CDs from such catalogues as Radio Spirits. <On the Air> is a fantastic resource manual for a teacher who wants to see what is appropriate for any particular class and to provide the background information for the students. Oxford University Press might want to consider this angle in their advertizing. But even all this aside, it does make for some fascinating reading!
Rating:
Summary: This is the second edition, but the first was great fun.
Review: The original verison of this book came out years ago (1970-ish). Very popular with OTR folks because it lists obscure shows too. Not many - if any - photos in the first edition. Looking forward to seeing what has changed.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding! An encyclopedia that's fun to read.
Review: This book is an exhaustive works which contains complete information on just about every old time radio show that was ever on the air. It's written in an entertaining style, which not only brings back fond memories but which makes it fun to read. It's sure to become a collector's item.
Rating:
Summary: Definitive and a pleasure to read
Review: This review is going to be formatted differently than usual. Right off, I'm just going to start by saying that every old-time radio fan reading this needs to just stop reading right now and buy a copy of On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. John Dunning definitive encyclopedia of the golden age (and then some) of radio needs to be on the shelf of anyone who dares to call himself a fan. Building from his earlier work, Tune in Yesterday, John Dunning (a long-time fan of radio himself) has written the encyclopedia of radio. I didn't have my copy for a long time and had no idea what I was missing. You'll not only be graced with full schedules and showtimes, but also the history of each show, sometimes with memorable quotes from favorite episodes. The index alone is worth the price of the book, with actors cross-referenced to shows you didn't even know they appeared in. The bold page numbers steer the reader to the featured articles, but reading all the related articles is fun, too. Heck, even just browsing can while away hours of your time, as each show entry will remind you of another that you just have to look up. While looking up one show, the eye crosses the title of another on the page heading and, bang, you're away and have forgotten what you took the book down off the shelf for to begin with. In this way, you'll learn the names of favorite character actors whose voices you recognize from different shows, but whose name escape your memory (Frank Lovejoy and Elliott Lewis leap to my mind). Then, you can look them up in the index and discover more of their work for you to seek out. Of course, even with a book this size, not all of the shows are going to have exhaustive articles, but Dunning has done as much as one man possibly can. He has compiled obscurities lovingly, interviewed living cast and crew members for memories, sought out archival copies of long-thought-lost shows, and researched like a madman to bring us On the Air. There is not likely to be another encyclopedia of radio that is so much fun to read. In this way, it equates the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll for sheer browsability. I've read the Lackwanna book (The Encyclopedia of American Radio), and it's okay if you're on a budget or are interested in modern radio (which I'm not), but On the Air is the one that really gives you your money's worth, even though it costs considerably more. You'll be better off saving your money and buying this solid work than wasting less of it on an error-ridden lesser one. Also pick up Dunning's radio novel, Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime, for a terrific read that is also a behind-the-scenes look at World War II-era radio.
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly lacking in vital area
Review: Yes, this is the most comprehensive book on old-time radio, a subject which deserves much more exploration.
Unfortunately, the index is lacking a list of characters. To Trivia players, this is vital information. When you have 4 minutes to answer a question, you need a character index, or a listing of characters specifying the show(s) in which they appeared. If Mr. Dunning were to add this to his index, his book would be the ULTIMATE encyclopedia on old-time radio, instead of the best there is of the limited selection on this topic.
Despite the excellent research and obvious knowledge of his subject, the overall rating on this manual is a 3, because of the vital omission of a character index. (Hopefully, Mr. Dunning will publish a separate index of old-time radio characters and the show(s) they graced.)
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