‘The Pictures are Better on Radio’: A Visual Analysis of American Radio Drama from the 1920s to the 1950s

Abstract

This essay takes a sensory approach to the study of radio listening by looking at American radio dramas of the 1920s through the 1950s. Analysis of radio writing handbooks, fan magazines, publicity and radio content from the period will show that radio producers, writers and actors conceptualised the art of radio listening as acutely visual, despite its auditory format. The medium invited the listener to participate actively in the visualisation process, to formulate mental pictures of characters, settings and scenes through the personalised act of listening. And yet, radio practitioners endeavoured to guide their listeners towards similar visual conceptions of the fictional worlds of radio drama by drawing upon familiar images and stereotypes already in broad circulation. To do this, they created a multi-sensory effect by layering sound, combining speech, silence, music and sound effects to kindle the imagination of listeners. They utilised identifiable dialects, music and language that correlated to stereotypical depictions of race, gender, class, ethnicity, nationality and place in order to create a shared portrait of characters or settings. This essay will also consider the impact of the concurrent transmission of dramatic radio content on multiple media platforms. The sensory experience of listening was no longer strictly auditory when audiences received additional visual cues through other media. Because many radio shows also had counterparts in cinema, novels, comic strips and later television shows, the process of visualising radio content for listeners could not be detached from the experiences of engaging its stories through other sensory formats. Listeners could also gain visual familiarity with actors and settings by perusing fan magazines or seeing promotional advertising. The conscious reliance on images broadly shared in the media culture as well as the multi-media consumption of radio content allowed for a listening experience that was as much unifying as individualised.