Graduation Date
Spring 1976
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Other
Program
Master of Arts
Committee Chair Name
Dr. James E. Seward
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Art
Subject Categories
Art
Abstract
It is known that American radio broadcasters concern themselves with attracting listeners even though listeners generally consider listening to the radio as something with which one need not be actively concerned. While most Americans are part of a huge group of radio listeners, few realize that broadcasters spend both time and money attempting to attract listeners. Since radio stations make money from selling air time to advertisers who want to convince the listeners to buy the advertised product and/or services, those stations with the largest audiences are the stations which can charge the most for the air time and thus make the most money in the radio business. As such, the listening audience is any radio station’s most valuable commodity. This, together with the fact that much money can be made by broadcasters who successfully devise programming which attracts large audiences, explains why anybody who programs a radio station must be concerned with attracting listeners even though the listeners may never be consciously aware that they are being attracted. In American radio broadcasting there are successful radio programmers just as there are unsuccessful radio programmers. Equally true is that the successful ones typically gain acclaim in the broadcasting industry if the successes are large. The radio programming of Bill Drake and Gene Chenault, as broadcasters know, became the "talk of the industry" in the 1960's because of how that programming attracted a sizeable national audience. Yet, no one has attempted an in-depth analysis of this "success story." While the Drake-Chenault programming received coverage in trade publications, beyond that exists little more than verbal "legends" concerning the programming pair's power and mystique.
Recommended Citation
Goulart, Elwood F., "The Mystique and the Mass Persuasion: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Drake-Chenault Radio Programming 1965-1976" (1976). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2408.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2408