Everyman’s radio-telephone

How CB radio users mobilized West Germany’s communication culture

Bibliographic Data

ID14800568
AuthorsHélène Weber (0000-0002-3258-5934, Technische Universität Berlin, corresponding author), Heike Weber (0000-0002-9421-1292, Technische Universität Berlin, Institut für Philosophie, Literatur-, Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte, Berlin, Germany)
Year2019
Volume35
Issue2
Pages156-176
Publication date2019-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Technology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0734-1512 • E-ISSN: 1477-2620
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07341512.2019.1652434
OpenAlexW2972285504
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited29

In the 1970s and 1980s, Citizen Band (CB) radio users explored novel mobile, fluid and network-based forms of wireless communication. This article describes the case of West Germany and places the appropriation of CB radio in its inter-medial and inter-technological contexts. Many CB radio users invented creative uses for the medium, and an engaged and predominantly male subgroup of CB radio amateurs even defined CB as participatory ‘civic radio’. In an increasingly mobile society, CB radio helped people to stay in touch with each other and to micro-coordinate their everyday lives with friends and family. This multi-dimensional analysis of CB radio use also provides a corrective to the standard narrative of a ‘mobile’ revolution that took place around the turn of the millennium, triggered by cell phones and social media applications. Mobile communication culture has a longer history, and CB radio constitutes an essential part of it

Economic history · Political science · Telecommunications · West germany · Engineering · History · Media Studies and Communication · Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media

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