Radio broadcasting documents and
publications.
A chronicle of American commercial radio's first 60 years.
Broadcasting Magazine, Broadcasting Yearbook, R&R
Directory, Inside Radio Directory, Radio Annual, Radex, White's
Log, Jones Log, Broadcast Equipment catalogs.
Prepared by
David Gleason.
There is
no charge for using this site.
Contents Guide
Click on the
cover of
a publication next to
its description.
A separate page with
a listing of all available
issues or editions will
appear in a new window.
Or... you may click on the links listed below.
Due to the childish
behaviour of a web troll, there is no message board.
Please make comments, suggestions and corrections here:
Click here to send comments
Links
What's here
Broadcasting, White's Radio Log, Stevenson's Log, the Jones Log,
Radex, Burgess and other lists of radio stations from 1923 to
1980... radio's first 60 years dated from the sign on of KDKA.
Most files are
optimized PDF's and clicking on the
description will open
the full file. Note that these files can
be 2 to 15 megabytes in size. They are intended for viewing on a
high speed web connection.
Notice
All
publications and directories are locked. While you can
read them online, you can not download, save or print
them. All publications available on this site are
scanned to be readable but are not of sufficient
resolution for distribution, printing or otherwise
reproducing.
Jingles
by
Jam
BROADCASTING YEARBOOK
1935
to 1988 44 editions available Radio
stations by city and state, FCC
rules, equipment manufacturers, FCC rules.
Also available are 3 Television Yearbooks from the 50's.
RADIO
ANNUAL
1938 to 1966 21 volumes available
From Radio Daily.
Station listings
and listing of radio talent and many one-page articles by
industry figures.
Also included: Variety Magazine Radio Annual
1937-1939
R&R RATINGS DIRECTORY
1990's till R&R closed in 2009 17 available
Ratings summaries only from the Fall and Spring
issues
Also included...
Inside Radio Directory issues. .
WHITE'S RADIO
LOG
1926 to 1969.
110 issues available.
White's Logs with AM stations
by frequency, location and call letters. FM and TV are included
in later editions.
RADEX
1925 to 1942. 80 issues available
Radex
was the radio listener's guide when
there were fewer local stations and much listening was at
night to skywave signals. US, Canada,
Mexico
and Caribbean stations listed. Articles on radio, DXing,
receivers, programs and famous
announcers.
FCC RULES
BY YEAR
Beginning in 1937 Extracted from
different publications, the FCC rules and articles on
regulation.
MESSAGE BOARD Post Comments and Suggestions This message board is
moderated and
monitored.
EQUIPMENT CATALOGS
50's to 80's A variety of
catalogs available
Catalogs from major
broadcast equipment manufacturers showing typical radio gear from the era.
Collins, Harris, RCA, Gates and Continental.
COMMUNICATIONS
1930's
and 1940's 34 issues available
Communications
Magazine details the technical side of radio and
related fields
with articles on stations and the
development of FM in the 40's.
Pictures of antennas and studios, and much about
the "new thing" called "FM."
JONES
LOG
1957 to 1985 10 available here
The DXer's and
station owner's favorite list of all US Radio and TV stations.
Pepared by Vane Jones from the late 50's onwards.
STEVENSON'S LOG
1926 to 1951 12 available
Similar to White's, Stevenson's
was issued beginning in about 1924
as a monthly and ending publication in
the early
50's
with annual editions.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
1920-1980
Burgess Index Duplex Radio Guide Federal Radio Act 1927
Communications Act 1934 (Beginnings of FCC)1962 RCA FBIS (Foreign Broadcast Information Service, i.e. CIA) list
of all stations worldwide.
EARLY LISTS
1923 & 1924 US And Canadian Lists
from the Canadian regulatory authority. Oldest list on
this site.
50 YEARS OF RADIO
1920 to 1970
A year-by-year narrative
of the history of radio in the United States. Many wonderful
and interesting features and ads from the industry.
11/02/1970
BROADCASTING 50th YEAR
EDITION
1931-1981 Commemorating the
50th Anniversary of the industry's leading publication.
Top news stories of each year in condensed forma and many
interesting ads and features.
MY RADIO PHOTOS
1963
Pictures of radio stations in
Latin America which I visited in 1963 like this one of me inside the XEW 900 AM 250,000 watt transmitter.
Click on the picture for stations
in Mexico City, Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa
Rica,
Panamá
and Colombia.
EARLY RADIO
An excellent and highly detailed and
researched site. A wealth of material ranging from why there are "K"
calls east of the Mississippi to the development of the
technology that "created" radio. Oh, and you can answer the
question of "what does 'radio' mean?"
REPORT CHANGES Post your comments
and corrections. Please use this link
to notify any non-working links, missing pages, and
general comments on this site.
CALL LETTER MEANINGS
1920 to present. What did the letters
originally mean? Click on the "K & W" to see some
explanations. Please submit any
documentable call
letter meanings and
they will be added.
HELP! Contribute to
this site There are
many issues of the publications listed
here that I do not
have. I you own any of them, I will purchase them if
you
wish to sell. I will
also provide a
guarantee and / or payment if you wish to allow me to
scan
and return. Click icon to e-mail me!
Information and links
about the history of radio in the US and Latin
America.
IT'S OVER
Broadcasting
Yearbook ceases publication
"A passing of a major
institution in the broadcast biz:
The Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook,
formerly the Broadcasting Yearbook,
was a dog-eared fixture on many
broadcasters’ desks since probably
before WWII." The publisher's
website states that Bowker will no
longer accept orders for the
Yearbook due to its publication not
continuing. The 2010 issue was the
last. The near-$400 reference book,
like others in the field, has been
replaced by online data, which is
often free. Here is a hint to the
publisher to provide this site with
missing back issues so all may have
access to the historical data.
For 75 years, this was the
sourcebook for the radio industry
and then the TV industry and then
cable. The end of publication does
not take away the usefulness that
the Yearbook had for all of us.
Hardware
Fujitsu 180 page per minute Scanner
Click on the printer for
a datasheet.
Book Cutter
All magazines,
guides and Broadcasting yearbooks are cut at the
binding on a printer's guillotine paper cutter (most
were library copies, already bound and "mutilated").
Then the sheets are scanned by a Fujitsu fi6670 or a
Fujitsu Fi 6130. These are a
high speed sheet fed scanners of different sizes
which can process batches of 200 pages on both sides
in just a few minutes. An array of Canon flatbeds is
used for delicate or mutilated pages. The
coated paper used in the late 50's and early 60's is
now very brittle and these additions must be hand
fed or flatbed scanned. Fortunately, these ageing
books are now preserved... unlike the few remaining
copies at university libraries and the like, which
are crumbling and being thrown out.
In all, 6 different scanners are used, each one
appropriate for one specific task.
The deterioration of the old yearbooks and magazines
is just one factor in my decision to try to preserve
the heritage of radio's premier publication. The
other is the fact that most libraries are short on
space and funding. This means that seldom used
publications are sold to eBay merchants and every
day that passes there are fewer places where this information
can be obtained. Most of these specialized
publications were not microfilmed... and who has a film
reader at home, anyway?
"Broadcasting," the magazine, is now focused on cable and
syndication; the new publisher has not offered any
service for the students and devotees of radio's history
and heritage. As library access is now nearly
non-existent and no alternative exists I have tried to
fill in this very obvious void. Hopefully, at some time
the publisher will create an electronic archive. Until
such time, I will share my collection and attempt to
keep building it.
White's and Radex are long gone, as is the SAMS / Jones
log. I am attempting to build a full archive of these
publications.
Since this is a
free site, as it always will be, many have asked,
"why do you do it?" since some of the Yearbooks have
cost as much as $1,000 on eBay. Simply put, I
celebrated 50 years in radio in 2009, and this
endeavor is a
small way to preserve the memories, the heritage and
the events of that industry, particularly at a time
when the death of our medium is so broadly
predicted.
This site is
my small contribution
to the
industry and profession that have given me challenges, joy,
frustration and, of course, an income for half a
century.
Notice I have placed
security on many of the documents to prevent this from becoming
a download site
rather than a virtual library.
David E. F.
Gleason, Los Angeles, CA, September, 2009
