"With the coming of radio as a mass medium, suddenly the world changed. It became about, 'Can this leader project emotional connection through the way he speaks on the radio?' And the anxiety about whether he could do that, we've inherited"
- Tom Hooper
About this Quote
In this quote, Tom Hooper is going over the effect of radio as a mass medium on society. He suggests that with the increase of radio, the world went through a considerable transformation. All of a sudden, the focus shifted to whether a leader might effectively communicate emotional connection through their voice on the radio. This produced a sense of anxiety and unpredictability about a leader's ability to get in touch with the public through this brand-new medium. Hooper suggests that this anxiety has been passed down to future generations, as we have actually inherited this expectation for leaders to be able to job emotional connection through their words on the radio.
"I think I owe thanks to the people who have listened to me over the years, who tuned in on the radio. They have given me a warmth and loyalty that I've never been able to repay. The way they have reached out to me has certainly been the highlight of my life"
"I wrote a lot of stuff quickly: pages and pages of notes that seemed pretty incoherent at first. Most of it was taken from the radio because -suddenly being a parent- I'd be confronted by the radio giving a news report every hour of the day"
"I think some people record songs and make records a certain way to cater to radio. If you're born to make commercial music that's cool. But if you're born to not make commercial records, maybe you're meant to cater to another market"
"If the education of our kids comes from radio, television, newspapers - if that's where they get most of their knowledge from, and not from the schools, then the powers that be are definitely in charge, because they own all those outlets"
"There were also horror shows on the radio. Very terrifying and thrilling to me as a kid. They had all these creepy sound effects. They would come on at ten o'clock at night, and I just would scare myself to death"
