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Rise of a Medium: Arrival of the Radio Critic

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Radio Critics and Popular Culture

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Abstract

This chapter explores how, as radio established itself as a popular medium in the 1930s, radio critics start to be appointed by most newspapers. The critics writing for the popular papers were given their own columns and started to establish or develop further some of the main ways of writing about radio, such as with previews and reviews, supplemented by gossip about and from the industry. Some of these critics, such as Collie Knox, Jonah Barrington and Sydney Moseley, become key columnists for the papers, although those appointed by the quality papers are less well known and not yet given by-lines. The form of radio coverage developed by these critics and found in a range of newspapers is explored in detail, including an analysis of the listings information, the types of programmes that dominate the previews and reviews and how programmes are critiqued. Such analysis helps provide a reflection on how radio is being positioned culturally at this time by different newspapers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Roehampton, London, UK

    Paul Rixon

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  1. Paul Rixon
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Rixon, P. (2018). Rise of a Medium: Arrival of the Radio Critic. In: Radio Critics and Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55387-4_4

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