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Freedom on the Airwaves: Does Rebel Radio Have a Future in America?

BOOK FORUM
Thursday, November 1, 2001
4:00 p.m.

Featuring Jesse Walker, author of Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America (New York University Press, 2001); with comments by Tom Hazlett, American Enterprise Institute.

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Most histories of radio broadcasting in America-as typically told by government regulators and large broadcast interests-stress the importance of federal management of the broadcast spectrum, the licensing of large broadcast stations to serve the national market, and the regulation of program content to conform with "the public interest."

But in his new book Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America, Jesse Walker, an associate editor of Reason magazine, offers a refreshingly different perspective on the history of radio told largely through the eyes of the small entrepreneurs whose eccentric style and range of programming has offered the public meaningful listening options. Rebels on the Air also explains how FCC regulators and large broadcasting giants have worked tirelessly to craft rules that favor licensed broadcasting giants and penalize unlicensed amateurs and local community microbroadcasters. Tom Hazlett, one of America's leading experts on the history of broadcasting, will provide additional analysis of government involvement in the development of the broadcast marketplace.

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