Of Crooners, Hucksters,
Tycoons, and The Lonesome Cowboys Of The Airwaves:
Oklahoma Musicians and
The Broadcast Frontier
Bryan Kelly Raines
Abstract
Oklahoma's broadcast industry provided a 50 year boom time for local musicians
similar to the many booms in frontier history. From the 1920s to the 1960s, local
broadcast ownership celebrated indigenous culture and utilized many local musicians
for the programs they produced. Access to radio and television provided substantial
economic opportunities to the musicians who appeared on Oklahoma stations.
After the 1960s and 1970s, the broadcast industry underwent a period of consolidation
nationally. As broadcast station ownership progressed from local, single station
ownership, to national, multiple-market, corporate ownership, programming decisions
were made with less attention to local and regional cultural forms. Because the
broadcast industry became more national in scope, local musicians' access to Oklahoma
broadcasting and the related economic opportunities ceased. Over the years, this
pattern of marginalizing indigenous culture seems to have repeated itself with
each new phase in broadcasting technology; with each new wave of technology, regional
culture has continued to erode. However, despite the increasingly homogeneous
broadcast industry, many of the unique qualities of Oklahoma culture persist and
likely will continue to evolve in ways uniquely Oklahoman.
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Copyright (c) Kelly Raines
1995