Why save broadcast history?
Broadcast history has much to teach us about where we’ve been as a nation, and where we might be heading. For over one hundred years, broadcasting has both shaped and reflected our culture in ways that cannot be captured by printed media alone. For one thing, styles of performative rhetoric come across with much more clarity and immediacy through human voices, dialects, clothing, and movement. The depth of feeling that can be conveyed in a joyful exclamation (“The war is over!”) or a statement of shocking tragedy (“The President has been shot!”) have the power to place us back in those moments, and appreciate a fuller human experience of historical events. Furthermore, the work of reporters, journalists, writers, producers, actors, and musicians, as well as station owners, managers, consultants, and organizations, document behind-the-scenes approaches aimed at making every program relevant to local and national audiences. They helped to establish, challenge, and reinvent narratives that defined eras, created and disrupted patterns of consumption, and provided a sense of connection for millions of citizens. These records provide a treasure trove of primary research to historians of all backgrounds.
Unfortunately, most of broadcast history has already been lost. Few radio and television stations have ever attempted to preserve their own histories, whether because the materials were too cumbersome to manage–especially in the case of outdated audiovisual items–or because the ephemeral nature of broadcasting has led to the widespread assumption that once a program has aired, it’s moment of relevance has passed. This is never more true than when station ownership changes hands, and surviving records get tossed into dumpsters to make room for new management and new formats. A surprisingly large percentage of the collections in Mass Media & Culture comprise materials pulled from those dumpsters by station staff members and engineers, or from career broadcasters who squirreled away their own materials because they recognized their importance; the extra prudent ones convinced their colleagues to do the same. But systemic preservation plans continue to elude most networks and organizations, who still regularly dispose of their records even though there is plenty of demand for them. Michael J. Socolow, Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism, University of Maine, and member of the Radio Preservation Task Force make some excellent points in this article on why we should save broadcasting’s past.
This libguide is designed to help anyone who comes into possession of broadcast-related materials to be a responsible steward of history. Whether you’re a career broadcaster with a lifetime’s worth of items, or an heir to someone else’s legacy, you can play a role in ensuring that those materials not only survive but can be made accessible for generations to come.
A box of WWII-era transcription discs rescued from a WLW dumpster by station engineer Edwin Dooley
A late-1930s NBC payment ledger found in a trash can by a former NBC staff member
