A transnational history of radio listening groups I: the United Kingdom and United States

Abstract

The article offers the first archivally researched, comparative and transnational history of the organised radio listening group in the UK and US, Canada and Australia, from 1928 to the 1950s. It points to several commonalities – listening groups in each nation were supposed to help combat broadcast propaganda, to encourage a more tolerant and worldly perspective in listeners, and to foster skills in articulating and defending personal opinions on public affairs. But it also examines noticeable differences – the somewhat more insistent educational focus in the UK, the emphasis on both self-expression and self-help in the US. The article concludes that the listening group deserves a more prom..