Radio On: A Listener's Diary
- Book Review,
by Sarah Vowell
From Booklist
Vowell's survey of the current state of American AM and FM radio concentrates on the Chicago-area airwaves and Montana State University's KGLT in Bozeman. Aside from Nirvana, Hole, and KGLT, Vowell doesn't find much to like. NPR is too stodgy, Garrison Keillor too sappy, Republicans and Rush Limbaugh simply too much. She likes Chicago's quirky, low-powered WZRD, though, especially its airing of the Church of the SubGenius' Hour of Slack, and also establishment rock critics Greil Marcus and Jim DeRogatis. Vowell expresses her opinions strongly and forthrightly. Her criticisms of NPR and Keillor, for that matter, are hard for even their fans to disagree with, but panning Keillor while praising smarmy NPR elder newswoman Susan Stamberg seems odd, and getting the call letters of Chicago's all-sports station wrong casts doubt on her objectivity and thoroughness. Oh well, if you worship at the altar of the media god Alternative and take radio really, really seriously, Vowell's rant is just the thing. If you don't, it is still stimulating reading. Mike Tribby
From Kirkus Reviews
Be ready to hit the scan button repeatedly with this wildly uneven, day-by-day-by-day diary of a year--1995--spent listening to the radio. Like strip malls and superhighways, radio has become such an integral part of the American landscape that we rarely notice its sheer ubiquity. Between our houses, our cars, our offices, even our elevators, there are more than 500,000,000 radios in this country, all spewing a 24-hour-a-day hodgepodge of everything from rock to religion to right-wing ranting. Any account of this vast cacophony is necessarily subjective, but Vowell, a music columnist for San Francisco Weekly, spices her impressionistic stew with unhealthy dollops of narcissism and jejune banality: ``I only conceived this diary as a means to say that I'm just as confused and overwhelmed as my elders, just as ill-informed and worried and perplexed and lacking in answers (but willing to look) as people twice my age.'' In these limited terms, the book is a roaring success. As Vowell spins her way around the country, tuning in to the local radio stations, she reacts like the perfect poster girl for Generation X: I mean, don't you just hate Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich and all those mean Republicans? And how about National Public Radio, isn't it, totally nonadventurous and establishment? And doesn't Top-Forty completely bite? What little wisdom there is to be found in this landscape apparently comes mainly from grungy Seattle rockers like Nirvana and Pearl Jam (those who believe that truth resides in rock lyrics will be particularly taken with this book). By the end, Vowell is justly sick and tired of radio, of the noise and chatter, the hate and spew and ``all the stupidity.'' Unfortunately, one of those rare books in which subject and author are in near-perfect harmony. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"A cranky stylist with talent to burn."--Newsweek
"A sparky, ferociously intelligent examination of a medium that people forget about from one of the most promising young journalists I've come across recently."--Nick Hornby
"The magic really begins when you sense Vowell is absorbing radio as much as listening to it."--the Toronto Star
"She's very aware of how radio can divide and conquer"--Charles Taylor, the Boston Phoenix
"Her diary is more the coming-of-age story of a young critic, soundtrack included."--Chicago Tribune
"Radio On escapes its own insularity through its insistence on the language of desire: the wish for a country where every citizen isn't bent on seceding into his or her own Private Idaho, where it is still possible to speak and be heard."--Howard Hampton, the Village Voice
"Her comments on what she heard are illuminating and smart."--Gina Arnold, East Bay Express
"Vowell's touch is about as delicate as Teddy Kennedy's after a pitcher of martinis."--Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Review
"A cranky stylist with talent to burn."--Newsweek
"A sparky, ferociously intelligent examination of a medium that people forget about from one of the most promising young journalists I've come across recently."--Nick Hornby
"The magic really begins when you sense Vowell is absorbing radio as much as listening to it."--the Toronto Star
"She's very aware of how radio can divide and conquer"--Charles Taylor, the Boston Phoenix
"Her diary is more the coming-of-age story of a young critic, soundtrack included."--Chicago Tribune
"Radio On escapes its own insularity through its insistence on the language of desire: the wish for a country where every citizen isn't bent on seceding into his or her own Private Idaho, where it is still possible to speak and be heard."--Howard Hampton, the Village Voice
"Her comments on what she heard are illuminating and smart."--Gina Arnold, East Bay Express
"Vowell's touch is about as delicate as Teddy Kennedy's after a pitcher of martinis."--Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Book Description
There are approximately 502 million radios in America. For this savvy, far-reaching, and well-written diary, celebrated journalist and author Vowell turned hers on and listened—closely, critically, creatively—for an entire year.
As a series of impressions and reflections regarding contemporary American culture, and as an extended meditation on both our media and our society, this keenly focused book is as insightful as it is refreshing.
Throughout Radio On, "Vowell's touch is about as delicate as Teddy Kennedy's after a pitcher of martinis" (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times).
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