9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea, by Randall Davidson

Preface Note - I thought this new book would be of interest to the Public Radio/Non-Commercial board. And I should write that I have no connection to the author or the book.


"9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea," by Randall Davidson


http://www.madison.com/tct/features/index.php?ntid=120928&ntpid=1

WHA history on the air

By Rob Thomas
The Capital Times
E-mail: [email protected]
Published: February 28, 2007

... In addition to being the network's chief announcer and a news producer and anchor, Davidson has also been WPR's unofficial historian. When somebody wants to know when the first WPR call-in show aired, or the first time they played jazz, they turn to him. And if he doesn't know, he hunts through the station's voluminous archives to find out.

Davidson has now taken that interest and passion and turned it into "9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea" (UW Press, $34.95). It's an engaging account of the station's long history, from its fledgling days largely as an experiment for University of Wisconsin physics and engineering students to the oldest public radio station in the country.

He says he hoped the book would give due honors to a physics professor named Earle Terry, who founded the station and kept it going against the odds. And he always wanted to come as close as possible to answering the question that radio historians have argued about for years. Is WHA/AM, as the plaque outside Vilas Hall tells it, really the oldest radio station in the United States?

Davidson will read from and sign copies of "9XM Talking" -- and likely answer questions about the "oldest station" controversy -- at University Book Store in Hilldale Shopping Center, 702 Midvale Blvd., at 7 p.m. next Tuesday. ...

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[Click link above for the complete newspaper article.]


http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/wsj/2007/03/18/0703140443.php

Radio Station History

Wisconsin State Journal :: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT :: G3
Sunday, March 18, 2007
William Wineke

The "oldest station in the nation" is the UW-Madison's radio station, which began its history in 1909 and, over the years, morphed into a statewide network of AM and FM stations.

The history of that endeavor is told in "9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea," by Randall Davidson (UW Press: $34.95).

Interestingly enough, the first regularly scheduled broadcasts of station 9XM, WHA's predecessor, were telegraphic weather forecasts -- and UW's Physics Department sent out instructions on how to build radio receivers for those who wanted to receive them.

A year later, the station was sending out play-by-play reports of a basketball game between Wisconsin and Ohio State, Davidson notes. ...

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[Click link above for the complete newspaper article.]

I just wanted to say that this is an excellent book! It's well worth reading!

The Kindle edition is $19.95

It seems not many libraries have it, so I expect a wait before I can get it that way.

WHA has the distinction of being the only "first" station CBS doesn't currently own. The others are KCBS (FN, SJN, 6XF, 6XE and KQW), WWJ (8MK) and KDKA (8XK).