Michael C. Keith

Last updated
Michael C. Keith Michael C. Keith photo.jpg
Michael C. Keith

Michael C. Keith (born 1945 in Albany, New York) is an American media historian and author. He has served as a faculty member of the Boston College Communication Department [1] since 1993 and is the author of some two dozen books on media. He is one of the country's foremost authorities on the social impact and role of radio in American culture. He has lectured in Russia, Spain, Tanzania, and at several institutions in the U.S. and Canada. He was appointed emeritus professor in 2017 upon retiring from Boston College.

Contents

Keith served as a visiting professor at George Washington University and Marquette University and Director of Telecommunications at Dean College. He frequently appears in both American and foreign media as an authority on electronic media. Prior to becoming a full-time academic in the late 1970s, he worked as a broadcast professional for more than a decade.

Keith's substantial published output melds his own experience, a network of contacts in and beyond the radio business, and careful research, to produce solid analysis of what a growing number of people in and out of the industry see as the growing crisis of broadcast radio.

A number of his books have been co-authored with Robert Hilliard, now retired from Emerson College. The team usually works with Keith conceiving the topic and doing much of the initial legwork research and Hilliard taking on the initial book manuscript draft. They both work on the final version. Their co-authored works, and those of Keith alone, often tackle controversial topics such as the demise of local radio programming (2005); the legal intricacies of indecent or even obscene programming (2003); the use of radio by extreme hate groups (1999), a title on President Clinton's summer reading list one year; and the use of radio by Native Americans (1995), the first monograph to appear on that topic.

Keith has been a Stanton Fellow of the International Radio & Television Society and received the Distinguished Scholar Award given by the Broadcast Education Association and the Achievement Award in the Humanities by the University of Rhode Island.

In addition to his many media books and academic articles, Keith has written a well-reviewed memoir of his unconventional childhood years — The Next Better Place (Algonquin Books, 2003) — as well as a coming of age novel, Life is Falling Sideways (Parlance, 2009). He has written an ever-expanding list of short stories, which have appeared in numerous online and print journals, such as The Literati Quarterly , The Penmen Review, Lowestoft Chronicle , "Grey Sparrow Journal," and several annual anthologies. Collections of his stories are available in paperback editions and in ebook formats; these include Hoag's Object (Whiskey Creek Press), And Through the Trembling Air and Of Night and Light (Blue Mustang Press), Sad Boy (Big Table Publishing), Everything is Epic (Silver Birch Press), The Collector of Tears (Underground Voices), If Things Were Made To Last Forever (Big Table Publishing), Caricatures (Strange Days Books), The Near Enough (Cold River Press), Bits, Specks, Crumbs, Flecks (Vraeyda Literary), Slow Transit (Cervena Barva Press), Perspective Drifts Like a Log on a River (PalmArtPress), Let Us Now Speak of Extinction (Mad Hat Press), Stories in the Key of Me (Regal House Publishing), "Insomnia 11" (Mad Hat Press),"Leaning West" (Cervena Barva Press), "Pieces of Bones and Rags" (Cabal Books), "Quiet Geography" (Cervena Barva Press), The Late Epiphany of a Low Key Oracle (Scantic Books), and "Bodies in Recline" (Pelekinesis). His fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Pen/O.Henry Award, among others. His work has been translated in Greece, Albania, Russia, Germany, Indonesia, Spain, and China.

Work

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Crumb</span> American illustrator and cartoonist (b. 1943)

Robert Dennis Crumb is an American cartoonist who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voice of America</span> International state-owned United States broadcaster

Voice of America is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest of the U.S.-funded international broadcasters. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages, which it distributes to affiliate stations around the world. Its targeted and primary audience is non-American.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Crumb</span> American composer (1929–2022)

George Henry Crumb Jr. was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical language which "range[s] in mood from peaceful to nightmarish". Crumb's compositions are known for pushing the limits of technical prowess by way of frequent use of extended techniques. The unusual timbres he employs evoke a surrealist atmosphere which portray emotions of considerable intensity with vast and sometimes haunting soundscapes. His few large-scale works include Echoes of Time and the River (1967), which won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and Star-Child (1977), which won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition; however, his output consists of mostly music for chamber ensembles or solo instrumentalists. Among his best known compositions are Black Angels (1970), a striking commentary on the Vietnam War for electric string quartet; Ancient Voices of Children (1970) for a mixed chamber ensemble; and Vox Balaenae (1971), a musical evocation of the humpback whale, for electric flute, electric cello, and amplified piano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty</span> United States-funded international broadcaster

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded media organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says that "the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed". RFE/RL is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation supervised by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, an independent government agency overseeing all U.S. federal government international broadcasting services. Jeremy Bransten is acting editor-in-chief of RFE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seven dirty words</span> Words disallowed in U.S. radio and TV

The seven dirty words are seven English-language curse words that American comedian George Carlin first listed in his 1972 "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" monologue. The words, in the order Carlin listed them, are: "shit", "piss", "fuck", "cunt", "cocksucker", "motherfucker", and "tits".

<i>American Splendor</i> Autobiographical comic books written by Harvey Pekar

American Splendor is a series of autobiographical comic books written by Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists. The first issue was published in 1976 and the last one in September 2008, with publication occurring at irregular intervals. Publishers were, at various times, Harvey Pekar himself, Dark Horse Comics, and DC Comics.

Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court that defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over indecent material as applied to broadcasting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Edwards</span> American journalist

Robert Alan Edwards is an American broadcast journalist, a Peabody Award-winning member of the National Radio Hall of Fame. He hosted both of National Public Radio's flagship news programs, the afternoon All Things Considered, and Morning Edition, where he was the first and longest serving host in the latter program's history. Starting in 2004, Edwards then was the host of The Bob Edwards Show on Sirius XM Radio and Bob Edwards Weekend distributed by Public Radio International to more than 150 public radio stations. Those programs ended in September 2015. Edwards currently hosts a podcast for AARP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey Pekar</span> American comic book writer, music critic and media personality

Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a well-received film adaptation of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of broadcasting</span> Aspect of history

It is generally recognized that the first radio transmission was made from a temporary station set up by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 on the Isle of Wight. This followed on from pioneering work in the field by a number of people including Alessandro Volta, André-Marie Ampère, Georg Ohm and James Clerk Maxwell.

Kingdom Identity Ministries (KIM) is a self-described "outreach ministry" based in Harrison, Arkansas, which advocates racism, antisemitism, and extreme homophobia. Its website states that it "is an outreach ministry to God's chosen race" by which it means "the White, European peoples" whom it calls the "true Israel". It adheres to the white supremacist theology which is known as Christian Identity. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers it "the largest supplier in existence of materials related to Christian Identity".

Kenneth Robert Coleman was an American radio and television sportscaster for more than four decades (1947–1989).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WVAZ</span> Radio station in Oak Park–Chicago, Illinois

WVAZ is an urban adult contemporary radio station serving the Chicago metropolitan area and Northwest Indiana. Licensed to Oak Park, Illinois, WVAZ is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., alongside sister stations WCHI-FM, WGCI-FM, WGRB, WKSC-FM, WLIT-FM and WVON. WVAZ carries the nationally syndicated "Steve Harvey Morning Show" and "The Sweat Hotel with Keith Sweat."

Rory O’Connor is a journalist, author, educator, and documentary filmmaker. He is co-founder and president of the Globalvision Corporation, and board chair of the Global Center, an affiliated non-profit foundation. His films and television programs have aired on PBS, BBC, NHK, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, and numerous other networks. He has been involved in the production of more than two dozen documentaries, and his broadcast, film and print work has been honored with a George Polk Award, a Writer's Guild Award for Outstanding Documentary, an Orwell Award and two Emmys. He has written several books and blogs for the Huffington Post, AlterNet, Al Jazeera and other news sources.

Christopher H. Sterling is an American media historian. Sterling is professor of media and public affairs at The George Washington University where he has taught since 1982. Author of numerous books on electronic media and telecommunications plus a host of research and bibliographic articles, his primary research interests center upon the history and policy development of electronic media and telecommunications. He regularly teaches courses in media law and federal regulation and society. He was an acting chair in the early 1990s and served as associate dean for graduate studies in arts and sciences from 1994 to 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donna Halper</span> American historian

Donna Lee Halper is a Boston-based historian and radio consultant. Beginning in 1968, Halper worked as a radio disc jockey and music director, and is credited with discovering the progressive rock band Rush while at WMMS in Cleveland in 1974. She has taught courses in broadcasting, media criticism, and media history, and is author of a number of books, including the first book-length study devoted to the history of women in American broadcasting, Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting. In March 2023, it was announced that she would be inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame and receive the Pioneer Broadcaster Award.

Diane Wald is an American poet and novelist. Her most recent poetry collection is The Warhol Pillows. She has published poems in literary journals and magazines including The American Poetry Review, Skanky Possum, Fence, The Hat, Verse, and The Paterson Review. She was born in Paterson, New Jersey. She earned a B.A. from Montclair State College and an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and has lived in Massachusetts since 1972. She lives near Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William James Austin</span> American poet

William James Austin was a New York City poet, writer, musician, visual artist, and academic. Austin received his PhD on fellowship from Tulane University in New Orleans, and was an associate professor of English and philosophy, and artistic director of the Visiting Writers Program at SUNY, Farmingdale. He is the author of five collections of poetry, essays, and "photopo", plus a book length study of T.S. Eliot and Jacques Derrida. His visual art has been exhibited in the USA, Germany, and Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold A. Lafount</span> American businessman (1880–1952)

Harold Arundel Lafount was an American businessman who served on the Federal Radio Commission from 1927 to 1934. He was the father of Lenore Romney; the father-in-law of businessman and politician George W. Romney; and the maternal grandfather of businessman and politician Mitt Romney.

Alex Faust is an American television sportscaster who most recently served as the television play-by-play voice for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). He also calls national NHL games for NHL on TNT, and national Major League Baseball (MLB) games for Apple TV+ and Fox Sports. He gained additional fame in 2018 when Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek suggested that Faust could replace him as the show's host.

References

  1. McEllan, Dennis (October 21, 2011). "October 21, 2011". Nashua Telegraph . Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  2. "Scar"