Baughman addresses Wisconsin Broadcasters

Journalism school director James L. Baughman was the keynote luncheon speaker at the winter conference of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association in Madison, Jan. 23. Some 100 radio and TV executives from across the state suffered the talk.

Baughman spoke on the coming of television to Wisconsin in the late 1940s and 1950s.

The state’s TV boom, he argued, obscures another development in Wisconsin broadcasting during the period. The number of radio stations actually increased significantly. Many served smaller towns and counties that had lacked radio service before 1947. They succeeded despite television’s advent by taking up a new business model that emphasized cost-efficient programming that attracted listeners during the day, when most weren’t watching TV.

Baughman’s history of 1950s television, Same Time, Same Station, was published last year by the Johns Hopkins University Press. The American Library Association’s Choice magazine recently named Same Time, Same Station one of the Outstanding Academic Titles published in 2007.