Radio Books

I HAVE LISTENED WITH GREAT INTEREST TO THE HISTORY OF THIS HEMISPHERE HAVING DROPPED THE SUBJECT AT SCHOOL THROUGH SHEER BOREDOM. SO MUCH ITS CONTENT HAS HAD ME AMAZED.

I was totally captivated! What an incredible, sweeping history, sumptuously written and produced; rich by far in audio than if it were produced on film. Bravo BBC! At one point I even briefly understood the English soccer hooligans - after all, rampaging around the Continent thumping foreigners is only what their predecessors have done for 1000 years! With an incredibly rich and diverse history and an incalculable contribution to the world's culture (hooliganism excepted!), Britons almost have the right to be admired and to be what they are not - arrogant and boastful. We must admire too, their charm, wit and self-effacing modesty. A tip of the hat from California!

I am almost ashamed to admit that the book version of this title sat on my bookshelf for a year, as I thought it would be a very cumbersome read. Recently I picked up a CD version, of the title, from my local library. (There are approximately 10 CD's, each covering approx. 200 years of history). Now I am devouring the book, wondering why I waited so long to read it. I have borrowed & re-borrowed the CD's from the library, & I listen to them at home over & over again. What I particularly like about this title is the way the author refers to contemporary documents relevant to the time in history being covered. Christopher Lee has taken a subject which, in other's hands, can sometimes be flat & 'dry', & he has created a masterpiece. If you have even the slighest interest in history I urge you to either read the print version of the title, or if you can't get your hands on that beg or borrow a copy, in either print, on tape, or on CD. You WON'T be disappointed. I only wish someone would produce a masterpiece of this calibre for 'other' history e.g. French, Italian etc Oh, & BTW, 'This Sceptred Isle - Twentieth Century' has just hit the shelves in Australia. I have already purchased my copy. I expect it will be every bit as good as '55BC - 1901'

Given sets of these tapes as a holiday gift, I was slowed in my enthusiasm toward the givers. Facing a long drive, with ample entertainment backup, I listened to the first of many tapes. Could history on tape possibly subvert popular culture and current events ? I have now listened to these tapes more than 6 times. The presentation, content, and most of all attitude of the material is addictive. The BBC should be commended again for their quality educational products, and their significant contributions toward restoring the positive reputation of the British people. I HIGHLY recommend purchasing these tapes for yourselves and your children's enlightenment.

This is a beautiful coffee table book on the Radio's Golden Age. The book provides a comprehensive historical overview of commercial radio from its infancy to the 1960s, when the radio was replaced by the television as the family's entertainment center.

"This Was Radio" presents the history of Radio from the beginning with Marconi's production of the wireless telegraph sound system in 1895. The author reviews radio programming in the 1920's and the establishment of the great radio networks - the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS).

The book includes a detail discussion of the variety of programs offered during the Golden Age of Radio (early 1930 until 1960). Specific chapters detail the radio personalities and their mysteries, adventure, horror, suspense, westerns, comedy, music, children's programs, daytime serials, panel, quiz and talk shows. The author also discusses the importance of radio during World War II and several unforgettable radio moments.

The book comes with two compact discs that include excerpts such as Fibber McGee's Closet, Jack Benny's violin; Baby Snooks (Fanny Brice) takes a piano lesson from Daddy (Hanley Stafford); famous sign-offs and much, much more. You can hear the famous voices, the inventors, the network founders, the shows and the events that made up the Golden Years of Radio.

The author, Ronald Lackmann, has written thirty-four books on various aspects of the entertainment industry, including "Remember Radio" and "Encyclopedia of American Radio." He is a former actor who worked on the radio in the 1950's and was the voice of several animated cartoon characters. Mr. Lackmann was also a secondary school and college Speech, Drama and English teacher. He was the host of "Education in Action".

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the history of radio and information on the personalities and programs that comprised Radio's Golden Age!

In the past, I have reviewed many a set of old-time radio show sets from Radio Spirits but only one or two books about that subject. I noticed in the Radio Spirits catalogue a book called "This Was Radio," became interested, got a copy, and was favorably impressed enough to want to tell you about it.

Measuring about 14 1/4" long and 11 1/4" high, this attractive volume of only 57 pages (plus an index) gives a very nice introduction to what radio was all about in the pre-television days and provides plenty of pictures to let you know what the stars looked like. Now the important word is "introduction." I must make it clear that you will have to turn to other books for fuller details; but author Ronald Lackmann does what he set out to do very well. He gives you an outline, not a full history, of that phenomenon that was part of so many lives in my generation.

The contents are divided like this. Chapter 1: The Beginning, 2: Mystery, adventure, horror, suspense, westerns, 3: Comedy, 4: Music programs, 5: Popular children's programming, 6: Daytime programming for the ladies, 7: Panel, quiz and talk shows, 8: Radio news brings World War II home, 9: Unforgettable radio moments, 10: The golden age of radio lives on.

Just as important are the two CDs that accompany the text, letting you hear the actual sounds of many of the programs mentioned in the text and many important moments from our history such as the Hindenburg disaster and Churchill's "Finest Hour" speech. Among the less important but still memorable selections are the sketch that got Mae West banned from radio and the voices of Marilyn Monroe and Marlin Brando.

But I must register a strong reprimand to whoever gave the first CD only two tracks and the second one only four. So while the book gives a complete list of the selections on the discs, you would have a very hard time locating any given one of them-which makes their classroom value nearly nil. Perhaps this can be remedied (although I doubt it) and replacement CDs sent to purchasers.

Nevertheless, the discs are fine if you play them straight through; and the text and pictures are well worth the price.

As a teacher I am always in hot pursuit of books that can help add to a unit or to my personal library. This book tackles both! Full of wonderful photographs from the early days of radio, Lackman's book is a historical account of the glory days of Old Time Radio. The book also contains two narrated cds with excerpts from many comedy shows, drama, mystery and news broadcasts. Those are very helpful in introducing old time radio to my students. If there was ever a book with visual and audio recollections, this is the one to buy!

This has to be one of the best books on old radio I've ever seen. The collection of rare photographs was amazing and the audio selection was fantastic.

i rarely write reviews unless i'm ticked off.

i own a used copy of the original hardcover, back in the days before amazon.com, when it was a real accomplishment to find a rare used book. fred allen has been a favorite of mine since i was 12 years old and discovered old time radio. in fact, it's in hommage to f.a. that i have always typed in all lower case, as he did in his letters (see the other great book in the allen trio, "fred allen's letters". "much ado about me" is also wonderful, but unfortunately not quite finished when allen passed away.)

so my criticism is painful. . . i was so excited to see this book reprinted that i actually posted an announcement to the old time radio internet digest, encouraging folks to check it out. i ordered a copy myself, even though i own the original, just to throw a teeny bit of financial support at such a surprising endeavor. it seems quite unlikely to me that enough folks have even heard of fred allen these days to make this reprint a financial success (which would then, hopefully, spur more of this material to surface).

as i paged through the book i've read 100 times already, i could tell that the reprint was made from the original plates. the ink bleeds badly on many pages, and one page (which i can't seem to find now) was even printed slanted. the front cover is acceptable, even if as minimalist as one could make it given that it features a hirshfeld drawing. the back cover looks just awful, a plain white page with a bar code at the bottom and a small paragraph describing the book.

it's just simply a very cheap affair, despite the quality of the writing itself.

one other note: be aware that at least 50% of the book consists of script excerpts. when the book was published in 1953, no one had even conceived of the idea that one day people would be listening to these shows on reel to reel tapes, then lps, then cassettes, then mp3s. so to give the reader a sampling of the flavor of the show with these excerpts made sense.

now, however, anyone with enough interest in f.a. to buy this book most likely has had access to the shows one way or another. having a large collection myself, i was disappointed that i had heard many of the shows excerpted already.

but this is a minor reservation on a truly delightful, honest, witty, and funny account of allen's days in radio.

"Treadmill To Oblivion" is the definitive book of Fred Allen's wit, humor, and charm. It traces his adventures in radio from 1932 to 1949. Within, we get samples of rountines, brilliantly funny jabs (Bewtween he and Jack Benny) and insight into the comic, concentrated mind of Fred Allen; one of America's greatests comedians. Also, there are sevral humorous observations, asides, and quips that reveal Allen's biting ever-throbbing wit. A MUST-READ for any lover of wit, wisdom, and humor. A good companion to this book is the honestly warm "Much Ado About Me", Fred Allen's subsequent book, telling the tale of his life before radio. Regardless, READ THIS BOOK!!!!!

"Treadmill To Oblivion" is the definitive book of Fred Allen's wit, humor, and charm. It traces his adventures in radio from 1932 to 1949. Within, we get samples of rountines, brilliantly funny jabs (Bewtween he and Jack Benny) and insight into the comic, concentrated mind of Fred Allen; one of America's greatests comedians. Also, there are sevral humorous observations, asides, and quips that reveal Allen's biting ever-throbbing wit. A MUST-READ for any lover of wit, wisdom, and humor. A good companion to this book is the honestly warm "Much Ado About Me", Fred Allen's subsequent book, telling the tale of his life before radio. Regardless, READ THIS BOOK!!!!!

Have owned & loaned both.In Treadmill To OblivionFred tells of his greedyagent booking him into themuddiest place in AustraliaHis early bookings & dealings with this agentare an Allen gem. All About Me was mostly hisradio scripts. Finished byhis daughter. Excellent forwriters of comedy. Successto all that follow in hissteps.

This is a fun book to read with lots of football and
party action. I'm learning about the American game of
football and this book shows the mind it takes to play
this game, and it shows how much they give up to reach
for their NFL dream. For some it is too much for
others whatever it takes. Read this book. I think it
will surprise you like it did me.

I'm not a big sports fan, but I loved this book, it's more than a sports story. It's raw, fast, and furious. It captures your attention from start to finish. A book about extremes. Yes, the eighties really were like that.

A fast read. I couldn't put it down. Sex, drugs,
rock'n roll and the best football scenes I've ever
read. You feel like you're right on the field. But
there's more than football in this story. The sacrifice for
ones dreams: Is it all worth it? I highly recommend this
book. I look forward to Mr. Burgin's next project.

Whether of not you have ever played football you will love this story. Some of the circumstances will make your side hurt from laughter and other times you will also see a dark side of minor league football that you never knew existed. The alcohol, drugs, women, and hangovers give it the hard core rock and roll feel. Two thumbs way up!!! My girlfriend even loved it and she doesn't play sports.

Put a great voice to use as a voiceover actor in VOICEOVERS, a survey of opportunities in everything from network promos and documentaries to books on tape, radio, and animated films. A CD-ROM holds vocal exercises and interviews with voiceover actors, while tips for building strong demos rounds out an excellent survey. Other books don't go nearly as far: if only one on the topic were to be chosen for a business library, it should be VOICEOVERS: TECHNIQUES AND TACTICS FOR SUCCESS.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

If you've heard all your life "you have such a great voice, you should be doing voiceovers," but written off the idea because A. you don't live in California, B. you don't live in New York, C. you haven't got a clue how to get started, Janet Wilcox has written the book for you!

Expert, practical, and complete, Wilcox leads you through what it takes to go from cocktail-party compliment to working professionalism, including lessons, classes, coaches, renting facilities, setting up a studio, and creating not just a demo, but the best demo you can. She explains the always-fascinating problem of getting an agent and assures you that if you ARE good enough, professional enough, and persistent enough, you will find one.

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of VOICEOVERS for this reviewer, who has been told she has a great voice and has actually had a lead in one TV commercial, is that its conversational writing is so appealing that you are convinced to embark on the process of becoming a "voice actor" despite how much work it entails. Exercises and contact numbers are provided, along with a CD, making the book a great workbook as well as an inspiration.

What distinguishes the "voice actor" from the "good voice"? According to Wilcox, the ability to create character and explain "who, what, when, where, and why?" in the matter of seconds.

A handbook for beginners and a guide along the way for working professionals by an extremely expert and experienced "voice actor," VOICEOVERS: TECHNIQUES AND TACTICS FOR SUCCESS is also a fascinating read for audiences who wonder how the people you hear got the jobs they did.

As an actor seeking work in the voice-over business, you have two choices. The first is to spend several years trying to figure it all out. The second is to accept the experience of someone who has been successfully working in the field for a long time.

There are just too many mistakes and misconceptions that can hold an actor back in an audition and later in a session. If you want to get work doing voice-overs, then read VOICEOVERS.

Ms. Wilcox knows the terrain and all the land mines and all the tricks. I highly recommend the book.

Allen Blumberg

Janet has managed to do the impossible - create a book that guides, informs and encourages newcomers and voice-over pro's alike.

With a witty, and conversational writing style and clever analogies to sports and games, Janet manages to make the pragmatic process of polishing your voice style and delivery - the real work - fun. Plus, she generously shares real-world career advice learned over many years as working voiceover professional. This is a wonderful - and practical - new book from an accomplished performer and teacher.

Memorable interviews with the most affable interviewer. A lovely way to spend some time.

Even today, when celebrity revelations droppeth like the gentle rain, Studs Terkel stands head and shoulders above other interviewers. He had a knack. He could get people to say things they hadn't planned on saying. Terkel knew precisely what to ask, and how to ask it. Those are my words - the Chicago Sun Times said it better:

"Studs Terkel (gets) people to say things in such a way that you know at once they have finally said their truth, and said it better than they ever believed they could say it."

Trained as a lawyer, experienced as an actor, and a best-selling author, Terkel spent half a century on his Chicago based Peabody Award winning syndicated radio program. He brought together people from all walks of life, artists, writers, philosophers, inventors, and visited with each of them as they recounted their triumphs and failures.

Now, 48 of these original interviews have been gathered for our enjoyment - it's a treat to hear the stories of those who influenced our world in their own voices. We hear R. Buckminster Fuller, Woody Allen, Gore Vidal, Eudora Welty, Dorothy Parker, Bertrand Russell, Leonard Bernstein, and a host of others.

Exemplary listening pleasure!

- Gail Cooke

Studs Turkel is a wonderful interviewer, and over the past five decades he has interviewed many of the great thinkers, writers, and doers of our time. The ones he chose for this collection include Aaron Copland, Oliver Sacks, Margaret Mead, Daniel Ellsberg, Maya Angelou, Pete Seeger, John Kenneth Galbraith, and dozens of others. All together, they provide a fascinating portrait of the last half of 20th century. Highly recommended!

Having grown up in Chicago and spent a chunk of my adult life there as well, perhaps the thing I miss most is Studs Terkel and WFMT, the best
FM station in the country. I learned as much about life and the never-ending struggle for human rights from Studs' interviews as I did from any
professor or priest. Hearing these wonderful chunks of those conversations again fills me with nostalgia and recharges my batteries for my own twilight struggle against the world's ills.

This weekly funfest brings chuckles and sometimes out loud laughter. Not My Job pulls material from the show and listeners will be pleased. The Tom Hanks and Janeane Garofalo are very funny, but reactions from the panelists also make this a must hear.

For those who think NPR is a bunch of boring folks, "Wait Wait" is a great weekly quiz show that's entertaining and (slightly) educational. This CD collection of the "Not my Job" sections from Wait Wait makes great listening - perfect for commutes, while running on a treadmill, etc.

Often times I disagree with the opinions of the commentators but they express them in such a wry agreeable way that I can't help but laugh. I listen to this CD and the program podcast at work and my coworkers often wonder what it is that I am giggling over! I highly recommmend these CD's.

If you like the show, you'll love the audio cd. And if you don't listen to the show, you'll be amazed at how much fun it is! Try it, you'll love it!

'Waiting For The Mountain To Move' is full of interesting and thought provoking. It is written in an easy to read format.

Jill Weeks
Author 'Where To Retire In Australia'

One of the easier to read books by Handy. Contains many interesting ideas presented in a easy to read and understand manner. Excellent.

I can't say enough about Charles Handy's many books, and this little gem is absolutely thrilling. Comprised of 65 stories of about 500 words each, Handy's eloquent style and a non-proselytized collection of Christian anecdotes make each story a beautiful experience. Core values with a deep, profound essence of faith. I hope more Americans become familiar with his tremendous work.

An excellent book to make you stop and think about the realities of work and life. Prof. Handy has put some very valuable truths in the short essays in the book. Some of the essays touch on spiritual issues and I endorse the truths he mentions! The essays are short and you could read them at the start of a long commute and ponder over the thoughts during the journey. Or are we do too busy to do that even? For those you have read Prof. Handy's other books, don't miss this one!

Wenzel's Menu Maker was written by George L. Wenzel, and William J. Wenzel, the authors son, helped extensively with the
afformentioned revised edition.
The book is an excellent resource, but is well overdo for an update, which William J. has confided to me that he is more than willing to do, if the publisher ever expresses such an interest.
(by way of disclosure, George L. is my grandfather & William J.
is my father)

This book was written by George Wenzel Sr., not William Wenzel as is stated here.

This is a very informative resource for serious or recreational cooks. It helps you to match foods with suggested menu ideas. It is written in a clear manner and makes exactly the amount it says it will, yet, the amount can be easily reduced. I purchased a very nice used book, and am pleased with the individual that I dealt with.

An excellent reference text for restaurant owners, menu planners, restaurant consultants, or those who just need a couple thousand new recipes. I have found it to be an indespensible resource.

I highly recommend this book. The only caveat is that it is well over a thousand pages, so you'll need to make room in your kitchen for it!

This book is written Prof. Yi-Bing Lin (an IEEE Fellow, ACM Fellow, AAAS Fellow, and IEE Fellow) who has been extensively involved in developing the wireless networking technologies including IMS and wireless VoIP. This book provides a great overview of wireless and mobile network architectures, while providing appropriate depth for both the novice to learn and reference for more experienced readers.

This book is an excellent reference book on state-of-the-art technologies for integrating wireless and mobile networks with the Internet core networks. It focuses on the networking issues, i.e., higher layers network design including architecture, protocols, and services. It provides comprehensive details on implementing mobility management, session management, billing, security guarantees, etc. in third-generation (3G) and beyond 3G (B3G) networks. The book also covers many new technologies such as VoIP, mobile multimedia messaging, session initiation protocol, mobile number portability, integration of WLAN and cellular networks, etc. The extensive bibliography contains all the relevant standards, IETF documents, and research papers on 3G all-IP networks. The book is very informative and timely.

If you are doing research in mobile all-IP networks, this is an excellent book for you by providing a clear system picture and broad details of 3G and B3G networks. If you want to expand your knowledge but are afraid of reading tons of lengthy standards and technical articles, the book is a perfect systematic reference book. It explains each concept in a very clear manner yet with sufficient depth. It is very easy to read and understand. The book is also good for teaching in wireless networking at an advance level. The exercises at the end of each chapter give a good review and focal points of the chapter. They may also help readers/students better understand the concepts and clear their doubts.

This book describes All-IP approaches for mobile telecommunication such as IP Multimedia Core Network Subsystem (IMS) that is considered as the heart of converging fixed and mobile networks. The book describes how All-IP approaches provide SIP-based control layer with open interfaces to both the transport and the service layers

This book is an excellent complement to the book
Wireless and Mobile Network Architectures, which focused more on traditional mobile telecommunications based on SS7.
It is great to finally have a comprehensive hand- (and possibly text-) book on all-IP cellular networks.

I have found the review and modeling questions at the end of each chapter an excellent tool to deepen the knowledge given by the authors. The modeling questions apply probabilistic modeling techniques to the topics learned.

In 2001, Lin and Chlamtac published the book Wireless and Mobile Network Architecture (by John Wiley & Sons), which laborated on how voice and data are delivered through the second generation (2G) and the 2.5 generation (2.5G) mobile networks. In this book "Wireless and Mobile All-IP Networks", Lin and Pang focus on the third generation (3G) and the beyond 3G all-IP networks for advanced mobile applications. I found the book to be very informative and well laid out for use as a reference. It has been a life saver in giving a good background on each technology.