Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America

by Tona J. Hangen

Blending cultural, religious, and media history, Tona Hangen offers a richly detailed look into the world of religious radio. She uses recordings, sermons, fan mail, and other sources to tell the stories of the determined broadcasters and devoted listeners who, together, transformed American radio evangelism from an on-air novelty in the 1920s into a profitable and wide-reaching industry by the 1950s.

Hangen traces the careers of three of the most successful Protestant radio evangelists — Paul Rader, Aimee Semple McPherson, and Charles Fuller — and examines the strategies they used to bring their messages to listeners across the nation. Initially shut out of network radio and free airtime, both of which were available only to mainstream Protestant and Catholic groups, evangelical broadcasters gained access to the airwaves with paid-time programming. By the mid-twentieth century millions of Americans regularly tuned in to evangelical programming, making it one of the medium’s most distinctive and durable genres. The voluntary contributions of these listeners in turn helped bankroll religious radio’s remarkable growth.

Revealing the entwined development of evangelical religion and modern mass media, Hangen demonstrates that the history of one is incomplete without the history of the other; both are essential to understanding American culture in the twentieth century.

Genres: Religion, History

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Susie Meister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hangen examines the development of religious radio including analysis of listener fan mail. The exploration of audience correspondence provides insight on changes to religious devotion as many listeners conducted their daily routines while listening. This look into their private habits offers insight on what was heard in addition to what was said. Interestingly, even the "old-fashioned" religious leaders were open to embracing the modernity of mass media. Hangen demonstrates how religious radio provided a collective and individual experience simultaneous. Mass media provided a commonality to many fundamentalist denominations. Hangen builds upon the cultural examination of Appalachian radio by Drogan. The medium of radio became as much of an icon of worship as the content it was promoting. It's goal might have been evangelism, but its means was entertainment and the leaders became celebrities and objects of ridicule and reverence. As early as 1940, the religious radio audience was older, undereducated women. Hangen's examination of Billy Graham revealed that his style was developed by mimicking radio stars like Charles Fuller (ironic since Fuller and others were influenced by evangelists like Sunday and Moody). Religious radio reported and promoted the movement while it facilitated its continued success.

[Bradley Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anybody interested in the history of religious radio, this book from 2002 is highly recommended reading including a very extensive section on the Old Fashioned Revival Hour with Dr. Charles E. Fuller and also sections on other preachers as well including Paul Rader and Aimee Semple McPherson. What was started as a novelty became a major industry by the 1950s and is still huge to this day. They were initially shut out of network and free airtime, as they were only available to mainstream Protestant and Catholic groups (including the Lutheran Hour from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod which has been on the air since 1930), evangelists gained airtime with brokered programming and a lot of evangelists do air their shows on television as well as radio as brokered programming to this very day.