Across the Waves

Radio broadcasting was often viewed by American scholars as a homegrown industry that radiated outward to the world, but recently that historiography has enjoyed a transnational turn. Led by Michelle Hilmes and her colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, new analyses have looked at radio broadcasting as a bi- (or multi-) directional exchange of technologies and cultures across oceans and national borders. Across the Waves is the latest addition to this literature. Derek W. Vaillant argues that Franco-American cultural exchange through radio developed between the 1930s and 1970s. This exchange was fueled (and often hampered) by “techno-aesthetic differences” between French and American broadcasters: Valliant argues that Americans valued technological power, abundance, and high-speed execution on the airwaves, while their French colleagues favored quality over quantity, accepted technological scarcity, and valued “deliberate speed” (p. 11). U.S.-French programming was exchanged, first by shortwave broadcasts and then after World War II by transcription discs distributed to hundreds of American radio stations. By these means, programs such as The French Hour (produced by NBC in French and broadcast on shortwave to France between 1937 and 1944) and Bonjour Mesdames (produced by French broadcasters, but spoken in English and distributed to American stations on disc between 1948 and 1964) spoke to both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in good times and bad. American broadcasts to France were most prominent during the dark days of Nazi occupation between 1940 and 1944, while French broadcasts to the United States peaked during the 1950s as France recovered from the war, cemented its ties to the United States, and reestablished its tourism industry

Broadcasting (networking · Historiography · Political science · World War II · History · Law · Media, Journalism, and Communication History

• Roundtable

  David Clayton•Media History•2022

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