From Archibald MacLeish to David Sedaris, radio storytelling has
long borrowed from the world of literature, yet the narrative radio
work of well-known writers and others is a story that has not been
told before. And when the literary aspects of specific programs
such as
The War of the Worlds or
Sorry, Wrong Number
were considered, scrutiny was superficial. In
Lost Sound,
Jeff Porter examines the vital interplay between acoustic
techniques and modernist practices in the growth of radio.
Concentrating on the 1930s through the 1970s, but also speaking to
the rising popularity of today's narrative broadcasts such as
This American Life,
Radiolab,
Serial, and
The Organicist, Porter's close readings of key radio
programs show how writers adapted literary techniques to an
acoustic medium with great effect. Addressing avant-garde sound
poetry and experimental literature on the air, alongside industry
policy and network economics, Porter identifies the ways radio
challenged the conventional distinctions between highbrow and
lowbrow cultural content to produce a dynamic popular culture.