ABSTRACT
The chapter looks into the processes leading to the foundation and early development of Radio Barcelona and the visible transformations brought by the spread of radio production and consumption. As commercial audio content started crowding streets and households, it examines the development of distinctive communication practices related to radio broadcasting and listening. The chapter discusses the construction of contexts of production, circulation and appropriation of knowledge, and the related power struggles involved in the inception and diffusion of this technology as a commercial medium. These dynamics were permeated with powerfully crafted techno-scientific discourses, which simultaneously reflected and constructed an urban-driven set of modernization guiding principles. The case of Barcelona and its new radio station in the decade that ended with the International Exhibition allows you to reflect on the relation between people's construction and transformation of their everyday-life contexts, the spreading and use of media technology, and wide-ranging processes of knowledge management.
