Contemporary Radio Programming Strategies (Routledge Communication Series)

Contemporary Radio Programming Strategies deals with music radio as it is today, yet reflects the legacy of the '50s and '60s pioneers who changed the medium from a program-based to a station format orientation. The main concern of the book is to arrive at a set of fundamental beliefs about the values and realities of the radio business in regard to entertainment programming in order to provide a basis for developing programming strategies. Rather than describe the formats and programming that already exist, it asks the question: "What do listeners really want from radio?" and adopts the functionalist viewpoint that a medium is best defined by how people use it.

The book employs a heuristic approach to explore possibilities and relationships regarding the development of innovative programming strategies and includes, after each chapter, a list of the major points summarizing important arguments.