Documentaries, Television

Radio Documentary

Documentaries held a small but significant place in American radio. From the beginnings of radio broadcasting in the 1920s through the 1940s, the handful of hours per week of documentary programming on each network were really docudra-mas that presented reenactments of historical and current events. Yet programs such as Great Moments in History (NBC, 1927–28), The March of Time (CBS, 1931–45), and Norman Corwin's (1910–) patriotic reports on American institutions and World War II (CBS, 1941–45) helped develop some of the conventions of radio and television documentary. Such programs also offered network affiliated stations an important way to fulfill their public service programming obligations as then encouraged by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Two main barriers limited development of radio documentary before the 1950s: the limits of bulky and unreliable recording equipment and the networks' reluctance to air recorded material because of poor sound quality. Advances in recording technology—including magnetic wire, discs, and, [Page 458]eventually, audiotape—allowed some experimentation with recording live voices and sounds from the field. Growing interest in documenting cultural and social life during the 1930s inspired a handful of reports on folklore, folk music, and the impact of the Depression. These programs were produced by the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution and other government agencies. During World War II, recorded reports from the front began to break down network resistance to airing material created outside the studio. After the war, a few programs began to weave clips of reality sound with narration, including Edward R. Murrow (1908–65) and Fred Friendly's (1915–98) Hear It Now (CBS, 1950–51), which quickly became the basis for their early television documentary series, See It Now.

However, the economics of commercial radio continued to relegate documentary to the margins from the 1950s onward. The networks' hold over radio waned with the rise of independent radio stations, television networks, and alternative program packagers. Most local stations adopted music formats with only brief breaks for news that left little room for long-form treatment of issues.

In the 1990s and 2000s, radio documentary enjoyed a small creative renaissance on the two American public radio networks: National Public Radio and Public Radio International. American RadioWorks was the largest in-house producer of public radio documentaries, while Soundprint primarily developed and distributed programs made by independent and station-based producers. Both created a steady stream of investigative, historical, and cultural documentaries told in a narrative style. The most notable of these programs, This American Life, introduced a new format with its 1995 debut that explored a common theme through individual stories told in the first person by those who lived them. Wry, literate narration by host Ira Glass (1959–) and the breadth of topics explored, ranging from war to summer camp, offered an innovative way to view social and political life through personal voices that created a kind of collective diary.

...