Listening in: Radio and the American Imagination, from Amos 'n' Andy and Edward R. Murrow to W Olfman Jack and Howard Stern

Tracing radio's development from the early days of wireless to the shock jocks and NPR commentators of the '90s, Douglas (Where the Girls Are) delivers a carefully researched and well-documented look at the medium and the people who listened. Although Douglas's prose can be sluggish, occasionally mired in statistics, her subject matter is always engaging. She finds that each new technological innovation in radio was pioneered by amateurs, resisted by the mainstream media, made popular by a daring few and finally watered down and exploited by commercial interests. Douglas's main interest is not in the innovations themselves, however, but in how they affected the Americans who were listening to shows from Victor Lopez's jazz band broadcasts in the '20s to Eddie Cantor's Chase and Sanborn Hour in the '30s; Alan Reed's mixed-race rock 'n' roll broadcasts in the '50s; ""White Rabbit"" on KSAN in San Francisco in the late '60s; Larry King in the '80s; and Dr. Laura and Rush Limbaugh in the '90s. She shows us how radio has opened up new worlds, and how its persistent presence (in the kitchen, in the car, at work) continues to influence the nation despite being taken for granted. (May)