Michael Krysko - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Books by Michael Krysko

Contested Airwaves: American Radio at Home and Abroad, 1914-1946 (University of Illinois Press, 2025)

From the publisher: Controversial American-led radio initiatives sparked a kaleidoscope of confli... more From the publisher: Controversial American-led radio initiatives sparked a kaleidoscope of conflicts and rivalries from the medium's earliest days through the end of World War II. Michael A. Krysko explores how the medium engaged the knowledge, assumptions, and prejudices that fueled listeners' and policymakers' objections to foreign and unwelcome radio content.

Krysko considers Americans' antagonism toward non-English language broadcasting; issues of identity, geography, and sovereignty that propelled opposition to Mexico's "border blaster" stations; how a project aimed at helping Cajun-speaking listeners became a French-only celebration of Acadian culture; a failed initiative to teach English to Latin Americans via shortwave broadcasting; enduring US-Panamanian conflicts over the control of radio in and around the Panama Canal; and how farmers from across the Southwest protested a radio treaty's perceived preferential treatment of Cuba. Paying particular attention to the act of listening, Krysko shows how these initiatives illuminated and solidified divisions rooted in identity, nationalism, and prejudice.

Clear and wide-ranging, Contested Airwaves reveals early radio's place at the nexus of public programming, transnational relations, and its own evolution as a communication medium.

Interwar era efforts to expand US radio into China floundered in the face of flawed US policies a... more Interwar era efforts to expand US radio into China floundered in the face of flawed US policies and approaches. Situated at the intersection of media studies, technology studies, and US foreign relations, this study frames the ill-fated radio initiatives as symptomatic of an increasingly troubled US-East Asian relationship before the Pacific War.

Published Articles by Michael Krysko

Oxford Research Encyclopedia for American History, 2019

Technology is ubiquitous in the history of US foreign relations. Throughout US history, technolog... more Technology is ubiquitous in the history of US foreign relations. Throughout US history, technology has played an essential role in how a wide array of Americans have traveled to and from, learned about, understood, recorded and conveyed information about, and attempted to influence, benefit from, and exert power over other lands and peoples. The challenge for the historian is not to find where technology intersects with the history of US foreign relations, but how to place a focus on technology without falling prey to deterministic assumptions about the inevitability of the global power and influence-or lack thereof-the United States has exerted through the technology it has wielded. "Foreign relations" and "technology" are, in fact, two terms with extraordinarily broad connotations.

"Foreign relations" is not synonymous with "diplomacy," but encompasses all aspects and arenas of American engagement with the world. "Technology" is itself "an unusually slippery term," notes prominent technology historian David Nye, and can refer to simple tools, more complex machines, and even more complicated and expansive systems on which the functionality of many other innovations depends. Furthermore, processes of technological innovation, proliferation, and patterns of use are shaped by a dizzying array of influences

By 1946, Cuban–US relations had become strained over radio. Broadcasting from each nation repeate... more By 1946, Cuban–US relations had become strained over radio. Broadcasting from each nation repeatedly crossed borders and interfered with radio reception in the other country. The 1946 North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) attempted to remedy that problem. This account of the impassioned reactions and heated rhetoric surrounding the 1946 NARBA underscores the enduring strength of national and regional identities in a globalizing world. Encounters with US radio programming in Cuba inspired Cubans to fight for distinctly Cuban radio interests. The resulting 1946 NARBA, which imposed new restrictions on US broadcasting to benefit Cuba, provoked farmers from California and Arizona, who – as those who believed they were the most affected by the new restraints imposed on US radio – railed against their government’s acquiescence. Their reactions, in fact, were deeply entangled with the complex history of US identity formation, which had from the nation’s earliest years privileged specific regional loyalties that coexisted alongside both local and national ones. It is, in sum, a story that shows how in certain contexts audiences can and will resist globalizing influences by leaning on their existing national, regional, and local identities that provide meaning in their world.

Radio debuted as a wireless alternative to telegraphy in the late 19th century. At its inception,... more Radio debuted as a wireless alternative to telegraphy in the late 19th century. At its inception, wireless technology could only transmit signals and was incapable of broadcasting actual voices. During the 1920s, however, it transformed into a medium primarily identified as one used for entertainment and informational broadcasting. The commercialization of American broadcasting, which included the establishment of national networks and reliance on advertising to generate revenue, became the so-called American system of broadcasting. This transformation demonstrates how technology is shaped by the dynamic forces of the society in which it is embedded. Broadcasting's aural attributes also engaged listeners in a way that distinguished it from other forms of mass media. Cognitive processes triggered by the disembodied voices and sounds emanating from radio's loudspeakers illustrate how listeners, grounded in particular social, cultural, economic, and political contexts, made sense of and understood the content with which they were engaged. Through the 1940s, difficulties in expanding the international radio presence of the United States further highlight the significance of surrounding contexts in shaping the technology and in promoting (or discouraging) listener engagement with programing content.

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Jan 1, 2007

PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW, Jan 1, 2005

Technology and Culture, Jan 1, 2004

Book reviews by Michael Krysko

The Price of Truth: The Journalist Who Defied Military Censors to Report the Fall of Nazi Germany

History: Reviews of New Books, Dec 24, 2023

Review of Justin Castro’s "Radio in Revolution: Wireless Technology and State Power in Mexico" and Alejandra Bronfman’s "Isles of Noise: Sonic Media in the Caribbean"

A Contracorriente: una revista de estudios latinoamericanos, 2019

Modern Mexico, Media Studies and the Cold War. A Review of Celeste González de Bustamante's “Muy Buenas Noches”: Mexico, Television, and the Cold War (Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2013)

A Contracorriente, Oct 15, 2013


A Review of “Early FM Radio: Incremental Technology in Twentieth-Century America”

History: Reviews of New Books, 2011

Dissertation by Michael Krysko

China Tuned Out: American Radio In East Asia, 1919-1941

Papers by Michael Krysko

Review of Justin Castro’s Radio in Revolution: Wireless Technology and State Power in Mexico, 189... more Review of Justin Castro’s Radio in Revolution: Wireless Technology and State Power in Mexico, 1897-1938. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016 and Alejandra Bronfman’s Isles of Noise: Sonic Media in the Caribbean. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016

American Radio and Technological Transformation from Invention to Broadcasting, 1900–1945

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, 2018

Radio debuted as a wireless alternative to telegraphy in the late 19th century. At its inception,... more Radio debuted as a wireless alternative to telegraphy in the late 19th century. At its inception, wireless technology could only transmit signals and was incapable of broadcasting actual voices. During the 1920s, however, it transformed into a medium primarily identified as one used for entertainment and informational broadcasting. The commercialization of American broadcasting, which included the establishment of national networks and reliance on advertising to generate revenue, became the so-called American system of broadcasting. This transformation demonstrates how technology is shaped by the dynamic forces of the society in which it is embedded. Broadcasting’s aural attributes also engaged listeners in a way that distinguished it from other forms of mass media. Cognitive processes triggered by the disembodied voices and sounds emanating from radio’s loudspeakers illustrate how listeners, grounded in particular social, cultural, economic, and political contexts, made sense of an...

“As If We Lived on Maine St. in Kansas, USA”: Shortwave Broadcasting and American Mass Media in Wartime China

American Radio in China, 2011

The morning of February 19, 1939 was thrilling for Addie Viola Smith. “AN ECSTATIC MOMENT,” she e... more The morning of February 19, 1939 was thrilling for Addie Viola Smith. “AN ECSTATIC MOMENT,” she exclaimed, describing her feelings at precisely 8:00 am on that chilly Sunday morning. “From this time onward to 11:30 am … [my] apartment hummed with excitement and incessant telephone rings brought in observers’ reports from various parts of the city, telling of glad tidings.” Smith, the long-serving American Trade Commissioner for Shanghai, was referring to the very first broadcasts of W6XBE, a California-based shortwave station established to broadcast American radio programming to China. “W6XBE came in … as clear as a local station in many parts of Shanghai, and very good in buildings noted for poor reception,” Smith reported.1 For four years, Smith lobbied for just such a station. Smith, like many other Americans, believed that international radio could serve as a vehicle for beneficial cross-cultural and economic exchanges across international borders. From this vantage point, W6XBE’s inaugural broadcast presumably heralded the beginning of a new era in American-East Asian relations.

“We Owe Nothing to Their Sensibilities”: Federal Telegraph, the Open Door, and the Washington System in 1920s China

American Radio in China, 2011

Jacob Schurman, the American Minister to China, was elated when the Federal Telegraph Company of ... more Jacob Schurman, the American Minister to China, was elated when the Federal Telegraph Company of California reached an agreement with the Chinese government in January 1921. This agreement provided for the first radiotelegraphy link between China and the United States. “In more than one direction the present personnel of the Chinese government is anxious for a close understanding with the United States,” Schurman reported to Washington. The contract proposed building five stations, the main one in Shanghai and four low power stations in Harbin, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. The prospective stations promised to be “an important agency of cooperation between the two governments and peoples,” Schurman claimed. “From all aspects, political, military, and commercial” the ebullient Minister concluded, “the conclusion of this contract is a cause for greatest satisfaction.”1

“We Are Not Interested in the Politics of the Situation”: The Radio Corporation of America in Nationalist China, 1928–37

American Radio in China, 2011

RCA quickly put the Federal debacle behind it. The company agreed to two radio contracts with Chi... more RCA quickly put the Federal debacle behind it. The company agreed to two radio contracts with China’s new Nationalist regime in 1928, and had two new stations operational in China by the early 1930s. The optimism surrounding the potential for Sino-American radiotelegraphy returned in full force. When RCA opened the first of those radio links between China and the United States in 1930, company president James Harbord predicted that the new Sino-American radio connections “will be a factor in bringing China and the United States into a closer relationship.”1 Convinced that a stagnant China had been historically disconnected from the ongoing global march of progress, RCA Vice President William Winterbottom metaphorically claimed that radio made a “breach in the Great Wall of China’s isolation.” “This direct service,” Winterbottom continued, “gives China an independent communication system operated by the Chinese Government to aid in developing foreign markets and increasing her trade and commerce.”2