Books on the Radio
April 7, 2020
If you haven’t listened to High Plains Public Radio (HPPR) Radio Reader’s “Book Bytes” yet, it’s time you did. Each episode features a contributor giving their short review of a book they’ve recently read. And this spring, HPPR is celebrating its 40th anniversary by focusing on books about—and get ready for things to get meta, folks—radio. That’s right, they’re diving into the history, culture, and errata of their own medium with books all about the AM-FM airwaves!
Listen to Book Bytes
How can you join in the fun? First check out these recent “Book Bytes” on titles that are part of the spring season:
- Richard Brookman, consultant for Southwest Kansas Library System, and Leslie VonHolten from Chase County reviewed Paulette Jiles’ Stormy Weather: A Novel (2017), which explores how a Midwestern family relies on the comfort of the radio to make it through the Great Depression;
- PJ Pronger from Amarillo and Mike Strong from Hays review Bob Edwards’ Edward R. Murrow & The Birth of Broadcast Journalism (2004), which tells the story of the late, great news broadcaster who got his start making live radio casts from Europe during World War II; and
- Valerie Mendoza from Topeka and Nicole English from Fort Hays State University talk about Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford’s Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwave (1987), which relates the history of Mexico’s mega-watt border radio stations that blasted programming across the US and around the globe.
Join the Club
Then, consider recording a “Book Byte” of your own! Like Radio Reader’s Facebook page and register to become an official member of the club. Then, email Kathleen Holt at kholt@hppr.org for more information about how to submit your own “byte-size” book review.