Today I sent Routledge the manuscript for Radio’s Digital Dilemma: Broadcasting in the 21st Century. 81,221 words over eight chapters, 285 typescript pages in all. The publisher’s new synopsis:
Radio’s Digital Dilemma is the first comprehensive analysis of the United States’ digital radio transition, chronicling the technological and policy development of the HD Radio broadcast standard. A story laced with anxiety, ignorance, and hubris, the evolution of HD Radio pitted the nation’s largest commercial and public broadcasters against the rest of the radio industry and the listening public in a pitched battle over defining the digital future of the medium. In 2002, the Federal Communications Commission elected to put its faith in “marketplace forces” to govern radio’s digital transition, but this has not been a winning strategy: a dozen years on from its rollout, the state of HD Radio is one of dangerous malaise, especially as newer digital audio distribution technologies fundamentally redefine the public identity of “radio” itself.
Ultimately, Radio’s Digital Dilemma is a cautionary tale about the overarching influence of economics on contemporary media policymaking, to the detriment of notions such as public ownership and access to the airwaves—and a call for media scholars and reformers to engage in the continuing struggle of radio’s digital transition in hopes of reclaiming these important principles.
Routledge says the publication process takes 5-6 months from submission, so that would put actual release around the new year.
At first, Radio’s Digital Dilemma will be published in hardcover and e-book editions. Because Routledge targets the library market, these won’t be cheap—and for the record, that positively sucks. However, if demand is good (in the world of academic publishing, "good" means selling several dozen copies) there will be a paperback run. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to ask your local libraries to acquire a copy, both to guarantee the book a place in our common body of knowledge and to help make the paperback edition come true.
The reception by those who’ve heard me speak on the book, or have read draft chapters, has been pretty gratifying. My favorite comment has been, "it’s the first explanation of HD Radio that makes any sense." But it’s also a story about the worst aspects of contemporary media policymaking—and unlike many histories, it’s not one that’s set in stone.
I’ve learned an immense amount over the last five years of putting this project together, and the next time around (I’m already sketching out ideas) I know there are many things I’ll do differently. But as far as first books goes, this process was surprisingly painless.
Now, let’s hope that it does some good.
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