Something in the Air

Years ago, when TV became the next big thing, many predicted it would soon kill the then medium of choice—radio. But in the baby-booming ’50s, transistor radios, 45s, a guy named Elvis and music with a pronounced beat reinvented it. Through interviews and insightful anecdotal reportage, Something in the Air: Radio, Rock and the Revolution that Shaped a Generation traces the episodic rise and fall of listening tastes from Wolfman Jack to Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern; from the ascendancy of Top 40 and the rise of FM-banded counterculture rock ’n’ roll to today’s conversations on NPR and satellite-branded, niche-marketed offerings; from booze, broads and bribes through the jingle-jangle mornings of Radio Unnamable to KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic. A tidy little piece of pop-cultural history.