[BARC-List] Early Histoty of Radio book for the history buffs among us

[Arthur Ashley]

     Hi, All. The following is an email excerpt from a friend of mine
who is a long time viewer of the ham radio scene and their interests.


     Between the lines of asterisks below is one of the book reviews
that I copied from a Web site.

> Arthur:
>  
>     Those of your BARC members interested in the early history of
> radio, and about the people involved in it will surely enjoy a
> recent book about this: "Hello, Everybody : The Dawn of American
> Radio" by author Anthony Rudel, published by Harcourt, 2008.
>  
>     You mignt sugggest this to them.  Some of them may already know
> of this,  

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Hello Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio  
Long before the internet, another young technology was
transformed--with help from a colorful collection of eccentrics and
visionaries--into a mass medium with the power to connect millions of
people. 

When amateur enthusiasts began sending fuzzy signals from their
garages and rooftops, radio broadcasting was born. Sensing the
medium's potential, snake-oil salesmen and preachers took to the air,
at once setting early standards for radio programming and making
bedlam of the airwaves. Into the chaos stepped a young secretary of
commerce, Herbert Hoover, whose passion for organization guided the
technology's growth. When a charismatic bandleader named Rudy Vallee
created the first on-air variety show and America elected its first
true radio president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, radio had arrived.

With clarity, humor, and an eye for outsized characters forgotten by
polite history, Anthony Rudel tells the story of the boisterous years
when radio took its place in the nation's living room and forever
changed American politics, journalism, and entertainment.

"One the many reasons I love radio is its tolerance for eccentricity.
What I learned from Hello, Everybody is the origin of this
eccentricity: It turns out that American radio is descended from
wonderful, oddball radio pioneers of all shapes and sizes, a group
who contributed mightily to the rich texture of medium. Rudel is much
more than a radio aficionado, he is a master story teller." 
 
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