Media

The coming of radio

How quickly the medium colonised homes

by Paul Long •

May 2025, no. 475

Listen In: How radio changed the home by Beaty Rubens

Bodleian Library Publishing, $59.99 hb, 270 pp

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Media

The coming of radio

How quickly the medium colonised homes

by Paul Long •

May 2025, no. 475

That the majority of the sounds and experiences of the early years of radio are lost to us poses considerable challenges for historians. The losses include the expressions of local innovations and experimental broadcasts across global contexts that predate the establishment of organisations, often with ambitions of a national reach, such as the BBC (1922), the ABC (1923), and Radio Bangkok of Phaya Thai (1930).

Paul Long

Paul Long is Professor in Creative and Cultural Industries and Director, Monash Migration and Inclusion Centre. He arrived in Melbourne at the end of 2019 having lived and worked in Birmingham for most of his life. He has published widely on issues in popular cultural history, participation, and creative work. He is founding co-editor of the Journal of Beatles Studies (Liverpool University Press), which has just published its inaugural edition. He is currently researching the role of migrants in the creative and cultural industries as well as Australian home-made, amateur, and DIY creative production.