American Reference Books Annual (ARBA)
The great value of Swingin' on the Etherwaves is that it provides original reviews, articles, and other materials from the sources consulted, providing a wealth of research materials for students and scholars. The work is highly recommended for all public and academic libraries, and is a must for all dedicated African American collections.
Reference Reviews
The author is to be congratulated for making the fruits of his painstaking labour available to the public and the publishers for offering us a work that is both highly entertaining and easy to read. The result is a mine of information which readers will find hard to put down.
Booklist
A great deal of research went into this work, and it contains much valuable and interesting information....comprehensive collections in broadcasting and in African American studies will want to consider this set for its wealth of information.
Communication Booknotes Quarterly
A huge labor of love...one learns a great deal about an almost forgotten topic...often fascinating.
American Reference Books Annual
The great value of Swingin' on the Etherwaves is that it provides original reviews, articles, and other materials from the sources consulted, providing a wealth of research materials for students and scholars. The work is highly recommended for all public and academic libraries, and is a must for all dedicated African American collections.
Reference and Research Book News
This ambitious two-volume reference is a chronological account of African-American contributions to broadcasting in the US from 1924-1955. The material is presented in an inclusive, non-interpretive format, with a descriptive narrative of each era under consideration at the beginning of each chapter followed by a chronology of the broadcasts from the period. The listings comprise an exhaustive compilation of original material, quoted in full, for each date listed. B&w photos are interspersed throughout. Author Sampson, a retired engineer who writes and consults on the historical contributions of African Americans to the entertainment industry, explains in his introduction that the material did not fit into a thematic or topical format, hence the chronological arrangement.
Library Journal
For more than a decade, researcher Sampson (Blacks in Black and White: Source Book on Black Films) has contributed some of the best resources available on African Americans and the media, but his newest work is truly extraordinary. Not content simply to list names and dates, he quotes at length hundreds of excerpts from both the black and white press-including letters to the editor and publicity releases-on every notable event involving African Americans throughout the heyday of radio and early television. Arranged chronologically by date (e.g., June 21, 1924), the double-column entries vary from a few lines to a page long. Radio scripts, 250 rare black-and-white photos, graphs and statistical data of African American radio programming, a list of "All-Negro Radio and Television Programs," and an index (which could be more detailed) supplement the entries. Bottom Line Even casual browsers of this two-volume reference will quickly grasp the racial schizophrenia of the era, when white soldiers could dance with black hostesses at the Hollywood Canteen but not hear black musicians on white-owned radio stations. Swingin' is sure to remain the definitive reference work on the topic well into the future. An essential purchase for all public and academic libraries.-Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., Houston, TX Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
