Personally, I have lots of interest in what the disruptors have done. They started the fires that have changed communications between people and institutions. I call them fire starters. I’m writing a book about them. One interesting aspect is that radio is one of the seeds that grew the revolution now coming to a close.
But there was something else going on in the 50s. The Cold War included policies that scared Hell out of us kids. We were schooled that in case of nuclear attack, we should jump under our desks and cover our heads with our hands. After the blast, the next thing we were supposed to do was turn on our radios to Conelrad—the Civil Defense network. Civilization as we knew it might disappear, but radio would be there to give us the information we needed to start over again. A few years later we realized that all this was both macabre and silly. We began not to trust authorities at their word. But somehow the voices on the radio, maintained and expanded their credibility.
My generation fomented this Conversational Revolution. It is, in part, a result of the culture that shaped us as we grew up. An example: In 1955, Rock Around Clock beat out Love & Marriage for most popular song. Rock would become the music of a generation a music filled with rebellious notes, a music hated by many of our parents but embraced by our children and now grandkids. Rock set the rhythm for much revolution and radio fed it to us.
The rebellion, cultivated silently in the 50s exploded when my generation went off to college in the 60s. TV may have presented dramatic visuals. But radio was with us as we marched. In this photo here, there are probably scores, perhaps hundreds of people with portables. We learned about our demonstrations as we marched from the radio. Radio told us how many we were, and if somewhere, we had turned violent. It often told us what police planned to do about us.. Radio in the 60s played the same role as Twitter did in Egypt as a source of information for people on the streets.
Dec. 10 22K convos a day Operationalizelistening,” Manish Mehta Distribute by relevancy Trained 5K
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