{"id":16459,"date":"2025-02-24T23:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T23:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/?p=16459"},"modified":"2025-02-24T23:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T23:03:21","slug":"2025-bea-book-award-bootlegging-the-airwaves-alternative-histories-of-radio-and-television-distribution-by-eleanor-patterson-auburn-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/2025-bea-book-award-bootlegging-the-airwaves-alternative-histories-of-radio-and-television-distribution-by-eleanor-patterson-auburn-university\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 BEA Book Award: Bootlegging the Airwaves Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution \u00a0 by Eleanor Patterson, Auburn University\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

2025 BEA Book Award: <\/span><\/b>Bootlegging the Airwaves Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution<\/span><\/i><\/b>
\nby Eleanor Patterson, Auburn University<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Washington, D.C. \u2013 The 2025 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Book Award has been awarded to Eleanor Patterson, Auburn University for her book, <\/span>Bootlegging the Airwaves: Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Long before internet archives and the anytime, anywhere convenience of streaming, people collected, traded, and shared radio and television content via informal networks that crisscrossed transnational boundaries. The cultural history in this book explores the distribution of radio and TV tapes from the 1960s through the 1980s. Looking at bootlegging against the backdrop of mass media\u2019s formative years, the research presented delves into some of the major subcultures of the era. Old-time radio aficionados felt the impact of inexpensive audio recording equipment and the controversies surrounding programs like Amos \u2018n\u2019 Andy. Bootlegging communities devoted to buddy cop TV shows like Starsky and Hutch allowed women to articulate female pleasure and sexuality, while Star Trek videos in Australia inspired a grassroots subculture built around community viewings of episodes. Tape trading also had a profound influence on creating an intellectual pro wrestling fandom that aided wrestling\u2019s growth into an international sports entertainment industry. The stories presented in Bootlegging the Airwaves Histories push us to grapple with several dominant paradigms that have framed the way broadcasting cultures, both past and present, are understood. The research in this book redefines the historical understanding of broadcasting\u2019s materiality, reconceptualizing the idea of a broadcast commodity and the significance of replay culture to interpretation. This history also highlights the distributive labor fans have done moving content to audiences, and how this shapes subjectivity and community formations.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eleanor Patterson <\/span><\/b>is Associate Professor at Auburn University in the Film & Media Studies Program. Her research focuses on the intersections of industries, technologies and audiences in broadcast history in order to understand distribution and reception practices. <\/span>Bootlegging the Airwaves<\/span><\/i> is her first book, and she is currently researching the history of network television in the digital age for her next project.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cBEA is known for its legacy supporting broadcast studies and education,\u201d says Patterson, \u201cand it is a tremendous honor to be recognized by an institution that is, itself, an important part of broadcast history.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The BEA Book Award was established in 2020 to recognize an outstanding book written by a BEA member(s) in the field of broadcasting and mass communication.\u00a0 Each year the recipient will be recognized at BEA\u2019s annual convention in Las Vegas.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>About the BEA Convention – <\/span><\/b>BEA\u2019s annual convention<\/span><\/a> is held in conjunction with NAB Show in Las Vegas every spring.\u00a0 Co-located at the Las Vegas Convention Center, West Hall, BEA’s annual convention attracts 1,200 educators and students with 250 sessions, events, research panels, technology workshops and an exhibit hall, making BEA the largest conference partner of NAB Show.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>About the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) – <\/span><\/b>BEA is the professional association for professors, industry professionals and graduate students interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprises. There are currently more than 2,500 individual and institutional members worldwide. Visit <\/span>www.beaweb.org<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 for more information.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2025 BEA Book Award: Bootlegging the Airwaves Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution by Eleanor Patterson, Auburn University\u00a0 \u00a0Washington, D.C. \u2013 The 2025 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Book Award has been awarded to Eleanor Patterson, Auburn University for her book, Bootlegging the Airwaves: Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Long before internet archives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":true,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"Published: 2025 BEA Book Award: Bootlegging the Airwaves Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution \u00a0 by Eleanor Patterson, Auburn University\u00a0","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":89,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bea-info","category-news-events","category-press-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16460,"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16459\/revisions\/16460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beaweb.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}