Texas Signs on: The Early Days of Radio and Television

For some eighty years the airwaves of Texas have buzzed. Richard Schroeder traces the first fifty years of the development of broadcasting in the state from its inception through the formation of commercial stations, to the regulation of the airwaves by the federal government beginning in 1928, and beyond. He describes programming, financing, network development, and anti-regulation protest broadcasts. Throughout, the story is spiced with anecdotes and the colorful personalities that have filled the state's airwaves (and business boardrooms) for seven decades: Dizzy Dean, Cactus Pryor, Amon Carter, Harold Hough's inception of ringing a cowbell on WBAP, sportscaster Bud Sherman, Gordon McLendon, Bob Wills, the Light Crust Doughboys, pirate radio stations, and many others. Schroeder even explains the absence of channel 1 from the old rotary VHF dials. In his engaging narrative, Schroeder offers an insight into the challenges both radio and television faced along the way and how they were overcome.