Radio Days

Perspectives: Research and Creative Activities at SIUC, Spring 2008

:: research survey ::

Radio Days

The best stories are sometimes near your doorstep.

While colleagues traveled to locales including Australia and Africa to conduct research, Jacob Podber chose a less-traveled route—roughly 30 minutes from his Ohio home—for a unique look at the arrival and impact of radio, television, and the Internet on rural Appalachia.

He traveled throughout Appalachia conducting interviews for his recent book The Electronic Front Porch: An Oral History of the Arrival of Modern Media in Rural Appalachia and the Melungeon Community (Mercer Univ. Press).

Podber, an associate professor in SIUC's Department of Radio-Television, hopes readers glean "the power of the media in creating community—in helping people feel a part of a community, with an identity and belonging."

And while there are theories that the media isolate communities and decrease social skills due to the amount of time that can be spent in front of the television or computer, the book also reflects the media's "great potential for bringing communities together," Podber says.

Podber began his work while a doctoral student in mass communication at the University of Ohio in Athens, which is in Appalachian Ohio. Podber said he realized he was living in a very underserved and underrepresented area of Appalachia. He decided to focus on how new media affected Appalachian communities over the years.

The book features 86 oral histories with recollections dating back to the introduction of battery-operated radios in the 1920s. Podber started by going to community centers and nursing homes, and found that a conversation with one person resulted in suggestions to talk with more people.

"Without their voices, this book would not have been possible," Podber says.

Many of the interviews deal with radio. Families were initially careful about when to use the radio because battery-operated sets required trips into town to recharge the battery. One story details how a wet-cell truck battery used to power a radio meant leaving the truck parked on a hill so it could be pushed in case the battery died.

Of course, listening habits changed dramatically once electricity became common. "Initially, they carefully planned what they would listen to because they knew the radio would only be running for a certain amount of time," Podber says. "But with electricity, they started leaving it on more as a companion."

The radio, as well as early television, reduced feelings of isolation and provided a community listening post for neighbors to gather and discuss the day's events. It fostered a greater sense of community identity, with people talking with pride about performers they knew who appeared on shows such as the "Grand Ole Opry." And it also offered a view to other parts of the country and world, and a realization of shared concerns and problems, Podber says.

Even with initial limited broadcast hours, early television had a similar impact on Appalachian communities. Gathering around a television with neighbors, family, and friends "became a major social event," Podber said.

Unlike radio, where Appalachian residents could easily find performers with whom to identify, the same was not true with early television, according to Podber. When popular shows such as "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Green Acres," and "Hee Haw" did appear, they often generated a mixture of ambivalent and contradictory responses, he says.

"We would sometimes laugh at the characters and other times...we wondered if other people thought we were that bad, if other people thought we were that way," one lady told Podber. "If they did, we felt...that this was very stereotypical."

In spite of the stereotypes, some people felt a connection with characters such as the Clampetts—viewing the characters and their value systems as similar to their own neighbors rather than "superstars on TV," another woman said.

Podber also takes a look at how the Internet is playing a pivotal role for the tri-racial Melungeon communities in northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. The people in these communities, with European American, Native American, and African American heritage, were often shunned. Through the use of Web sites and listservs, the group has reconstructed its image and expanded into a virtual community where thousands of people are able to reconnect to their heritage, Podber says. The Internet also proved to be a catalyst for an annual reunion that attracts people from around the region.

While there are critics, the electronic media have been empowering for these groups and Appalachia in general, Podber says.

—by Pete Rosenbery