Questions of Intermediality: An Analysis of Radio Listings and Radio Highlights in British Newspapers, 1920-1960

Open Access

Abstract

Radio listings and radio highlights published by newspapers, have attracted limited scholarly interest. In many ways they appear as a form of information, reporting to the reader what the newspaper has been told will be broadcast that day. However, as I will argue in this article, radio listings and programme highlights provide an important insight into the intermedial relationship, which developed over time between radio and the print media. Indeed, the different forms they take are linked to the way newspapers and those that work there actively shape their coverage for their readerships. Listings are also important in how newspapers represent the geographic dimensions of radio, showing not only where the stations are broadcasting from but also where they are located on the airwaves. Again, these spatial representations change overtime depending on the needs and circumstances of the newspapers and broadcasters and developments happenings in the wider political, cultural and social context. In this work, I will present a discursive historical analysis of the listings and programme highlights found in British newspapers between 1920 and 1960 and how these forms came to represent radio in different ways for the readers. I will also, from this analysis, identify and develop concepts, such as the diachronic, synchronic, spatial and cultural intermediary, as important ways of understanding how the listings and programme highlights work to define and culturally position radio.