Donna L. HalperCritiques

Full-Service Radio: Programming for the Community is less about the idea of full-service radio (which is only defined two-thirds of the way through the book) and more about the history and changes of radio in the U.S. (and, to a very small extent, Canada). When radio began in the early part of the twentieth century, music was the predominant format. But over the years, radio stations experimented with different types of music and then with "personalities" ("DJ"s who rarely spun discs, but instead just talked). Full-service radio covers playing some music, but also providing weather, sports, and some talk shows -- there's a little something for everyone, as a key component is a public service focus. The book ends with some hints on how to make full-service radio succeed, in spite of the fact that many full-service stations seem to be disappearing because it is so hard to do so much different programming well.

It's not a great "how to" guide, because there's so much prefatory history in it. It's also not the best book about the history of radio (try Barnouw's History of Broadcasting trilogy for a more academic and thorough discussion). But if you have a passing interest in radio and radio stations and their formats, it's worth a quick skim.