Date of Award
Spring 2025
Project Type
Dissertation
Program or Major
History
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
First Advisor
Kurk Dorsey
Second Advisor
Lucy Salyer
Third Advisor
Fredrik Meiton
Abstract
“Freedom of Speech and Freedom to Change the Dial” examines American radio audiences’ views of controversial speakers during the golden age of radio, focusing primarily on the broadcasting career of Father Charles Coughlin, the notorious “Radio Priest” most famous in the 1930s. Using letters to the Federal Radio Commission and Federal Communications Commission, letters to the editor of newspapers, and fan letters, this dissertation discusses Americans’ reactions to Coughlin and other broadcasters, and how those reactions shaped their views of freedom of speech, radio regulation, the obligations of the federal government, and broadcasting in the public interest. Though listeners in favor of or in opposition to a controversial speaker often differed in what they asked of regulators, they often aligned in multiple ways: in the conviction that it was the federal government’s responsibility to intervene to produce their desired outcome, even if what they demanded was not within the government’s power; in their insistence that as the listening public, they knew best what was in the public interest; and in their view that as the American people had a certain ownership of radio, they also had the right to be involved in determining how it would be regulated. It was not only the intellectuals of the day who worried about this new medium and sought to express their opinions about it; ordinary Americans, too, sought to share their thoughts regarding a medium of such vast importance and believed that such thoughts ought to be heeded by those in power.
Recommended Citation
Clina, Alyssa, "Freedom of Speech and Freedom to Change the Dial: American Responses to Controversial Broadcasting in the Golden Age of Radio" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations. 2951.
https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2951