[revised 7 September 09]
Some Useful Broadcast History Websites
Websites can be useful for what they offer---and maddening as they disappear too easily. As of the Summer of 2009, these are some interesting sites, all offering many further links.
Christopher H. Sterling (Radio History Society)
1.
GENERAL HISTORICAL WEBSITES
These each provide a wealth of valuable information across many different subjects--as well as further links.
Broadcasting
History Links by Elizabeth
McLeod
http://www.midcoast.com/~lizmcl/links.html
An authority on old-time radio provides a page or more of annotated links to a variety of websites. (See also the links noted at the end of this listing.)
History
of American Broadcasting by Jeff
Miller
http://jeff560.tripod.com/broadcasting.html
Useful listing of websites divided into sections on AM, FM, and television.
United States Early Radio History by Thomas H. White
A wonderfully useful site which offers full copy of a variety of pre-1920 articles and documents plus the author’s valuable own research on early radio station list publications, call-letter policies, and the like.
The Broadcast Archive by Barry Mishkind
Includes equipment and programming sections and links, plus information about the FCC, old stations, and links to other archives and organizations.
Museum of Broadcast Communications (Chicago, IL)
Lacking a home as this is written, is the home of the Radio Hall of Fame, and the prime backer of the multi-volume reference works Encyclopedia of Radio and the Encyclopedia of Television.
2. TECHNOLOGY HISTORY WEBSITES
These are some of the technology-emphasis sites–there are many more for different inventors (e.g., Marconi, Armstrong, Tesla).
History of Recorded Sound by David Morton
http://www.recording-history.org/
Includes the technology, the recording business, and the impact of recordings over more than a century.
Recording
Technology History by Steven
Schoenherr
http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/recording/notes.html
Multi-chapter and illustrated history of the many different means of recording and playing audio and video, including information on loudspeakers, microphones, and the digital revolution. Includes many further links.
World
of Wireless
http://home.luna.nl/~arjan-muil/radio/history.html
A Dutch site (in both English and Dutch) takes the story through World War II and includes details of the owners’ own collection.
Fybush
Media
An amazing collection of radio transmitter and tower site photos and details.
College of
Charleston Communications Museum (Charleston, SC)
http://spinner.cofc.edu/~jrmuseum/?referrer=webcluster&
Tube
Collectors Association
As the name suggests, these are folks focused on collecting and recording the history of vacuum tubes–the drivers of old radios.
Antique Wireless Association Museum (Bloomfield, NY)
One of the better museums (it's near Rochester, NY), run by a half century-old organization that issues a very useful quarterly Journal and an excellent annual review of research articles.
New England Wireless and Steam Museum (East Greenwich, RI)
Great exhibitions on both of these technologies, located not far from Newport, RI...but do check with them in advance as hours vary.
Radio Daze
This is a commercial supplier of antique radio parts.
Society for the Preservation of Antique Radio in Canada Museum (Colquitlam, BC)
http://www3.telus.net/radiomuseum/
The Museum of Broadcasting (St. Louis Park, MN)
Located just west of downtown Minneapolis, this is the home of the Pavek Collection, a quite substantial display of radio, television, and recording equipment as well as a research library.
The Museum of Radio and Technology (Huntington, WV)
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/MRT/
This museum of equipment and some programs offers an extensive website.
American Museum of Radio and Electricity (Bellingham, WA)
Located in a downtown storefront, this is really two museums in one–one about early electricity and the other focusing on radio (and some television) equipment of all kinds.
Hammond Museum of Radio (Guelph, ON)
Based on the Hammond Manufacturing Company that made transformers, this focuses on broadcasting technology in Canada.
Vintage Radio & Communications Museum of Connecticut (Windsor, CT)
National Electronics Museum (Linthicum, MD)
This large exhibition focuses on military communications and radar--it's located near Baltimore's BWI airport.
Mid-Atlantic Antique Radio Club
This is the Washington/Baltimore group, many of whose members are also active in the Radio & Television Museum in Bowie--indeed our founders came from this organization..
Antique Radio Classified Magazine
Publication providing--as the title suggests--classified ads, largely for radio devices and equipment.
Early Television Museum (Hilliard, OH)
Located near Columbus, Ohio, this is an amazing collection of receivers, many of them dating before World War II and well back into mechanical systems.
3. “OLD TIME” RADIO WEBSITES
Virtually any radio entertainment or news program from the days of OTR is now the subject of a site or sites of its own–listed here are some more general “master” sites that usually link to a host of others.
Old
Time Radio
Includes many logs of program series, links to other sites, information on collecting programs.
Olde
Time Radio
Allows one to listen to episodes of about a dozen old radio dramatic programs.
Radio
Days
http://www.otr.com/index.shtml
Information on many old network radio programs (including some complete logs), OTR (old time radio), radio commentators and news events, chat room and FAQs, and more.
Download
Free Old-Time Radio Shows
http://www.oldtimeradiofans.com/
Available programs are arranged by program type.
Radiolovers–Free
Old-Time Radio Shows
Another site which makes clear they do not have copyright ownership of the programs listed (they say the copyright has expired which may not be true)
Welcome
to Old-Time Radio, by the
Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio
Indexed by program type, number of dowloads, reviews, recent reviews, and recent updates
Free
Old-Time Radio Shows
Arranged by program title
Old-Time
Radio Show Downloads
Claims to hold some 200 thousand episodes of programs, most available through this site.
Old-Time Radio Researchers Group
Primarily concerned with preserving old-time radio programs and developing detailed logs of what is available.
4. TELEVISION HISTORY WEBSITES
Some of these are fairly recently formed as interest in early decades of television increases.
TVland
Provides television program downloads as well as much else.
Old
TV Shows Homepage by Crazy About
TV
Arranged by program title.
Early
years of television in Time
magazine
http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_television_history,00.shtml
Useful archive of contemporary articles.
Museum
of the Moving Image Research Guide
http://www.movingimagesource.us/research/guide/100
Massive site with many articles and reference items
MZTV
Museum of Television (Toronto, ON)
Soon to reopen a physical display in the downtown area, this collection offers an extensive website dealing with both equipment and programming.
5. MORE HISTORICAL ELECTRONIC MEDIA SITES
(There is a growing number of these–some are physical museums, others reside only on the Web, but all of these groups can provide a lot of information, much right on their sites.)
Antique
Wireless Association
http://www.antiquewireless.org
Operates a museum in upstate New York (see under technical, above), and publishes both a useful quarterly and an excellent research annual.
Voice of America Museum
Near Cincinnati, this is to be a museum located at a VOA relay station.
Eyes of a Generation
http://www.eyesofageneration.com/home.php
An online display (including relevant video clips) of an extensive collection of television and related equipment. See also its extensive collection of television-related links, including museums from many nations.
Reel
Radio
A massive archive of contemporary radio “airchecks” and jingles from the 50’s through today.
A nominal membership fee is requested.
Old Radio
Eclectic site of radio history
Radio Was Better
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~gulino/aircheck/index.html
An archive of contemporary radio “airchecks” and jingles from the 50’s through today.
Also containing links to other “aircheck” collectors, traders and station tribute sites.
Big Apple Airchecks
http://www.bigappleairchecks.com
A massive archive of contemporary radio “airchecks” and jingles from the 50’s through today.
AM and FM Morningside
http://www.amandfmmorningside.com
The un-official Top-40 history site of WPGC, Morningside, Maryland-Washington, DC.
WKBW Radio
The un-official tribute site for 50,000 watt WKBW, Buffalo, NY
WLS History
http://www.wlshistory.com/home.htm
The un-official tribute site for 50,000 watt WLS, Chicago
Musicradio 77
The un-official tribute site for 50,000 watt WABC, New York
93 KHJ History
http://www.93khjhistoryofrockandroll.com/index_press.html
The un-official tribute site for KHJ, Los Angeles (audio automatically plays throughout this site)