"Bootlegging the Airwaves" by Eleanor Patterson

While growing up in Los Angeles and while attending school in Madison, Wisc., Eleanor Patterson was fascinated by old radio: shows like Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and the Jack Benny Show.Curious about the source of programming that long since left the air, she asked the host of the Madison public radio program how he came by the old radio programs he shared on the air. People just gave them to him, he said. That led to the book, Bootlegging the Airwaves: Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution, where Patterson explores how radio and TV shows have been copied, collected, and shared over the years--outside of network constraints.What Patterson discovered was that after shows--both radio and TV-- went off the air they were often not only saved and shared by an active body of enthusiasts who allowed people to be entertained all over again.Radio collectors developed fanzines in the 60s, 70s, and 80s to help circulate programs and information, said Patterson, who talked to individuals who published these newsletters that offered or sought recordings.While the digital era now provides a wide variety of radio programs from the past, shows aren't aired as they were originally presented, she said. Internet channels often group radio shows by genre--mysteries or science fiction, for example. When radio networks were pumping out home entertainment before television took over, you had a variety of programs presented across the course of a day and night, said Patterson.Sometimes circulating programs of the past enlisted controversy, she noted. Amos & Andy, for example, was an extremely popular radio show in its day but has been cited as promoting racial stereotypes.Just as radio has survived television, Patterson said that old forms of media delivery have their place even in a digital world. "I see us going back to DVDs and CDs in some ways because you can control the media," she said.Patterson said her next project will be a review of network television in the early 2000s.