At the Speed of Sound
At the Speed of Sound
Techno-Aesthetic Paradigms in U.S.–French Broadcasting, 1925–39
This chapter sketches the history of U.S–French electronic communications prior to the rise of U.S.–French radio broadcasting. Focusing primarily on France, it analyzes the anticipatory and reactive discourses to live interwar transatlantic broadcast connectivity with the United States. The period saw two contrasting, nationally inflected techno-aesthetics take shape in America and France that defined excellence in radio. In America, technological power, abundance, and high-speed execution demonstrated professional competence and efficiency. The French emphasized quality, accepted scarcity, and valued deliberate speed. More than extensions of preexisting differences in U.S. and French cultural conventions these broadcast paradigms emerged relationally and cross-nationally to shape the future of U.S.–French broadcast interaction and the character of an evolving international medium.
Keywords: Wireless, global, techno-aesthetics, NBC, David Sarnoff, Radiotelegraphy, RCA, Radio City, transatlantic, shortwave, speed
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