ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical linkage of automobile and radio, and how these two technological forms have mutually shaped each other and the structure of feeling of modern life. While the examples in this chapter are mostly drawn from US radio history, this car-radio assemblage will, I trust, be familiar to readers in other countries. In particular, the focus will be on the largest American public radio network, NPR, whose name was officially changed from ‘National Public Radio’ in 2010 to mark the network’s evolution into a multi-platform digital brand that included an ambitious line of podcasts. The chapter concludes by suggesting that the shift from broadcasting to podcasting, along with other digital audio technologies, like streaming audio, smart speakers, and satellite radio, elucidates some underlying contradictions in the affective economy of the car-radio nexus. I begin by sketching out the historical conjunction of radio and automobile, in order to understand the former’s contemporary traffic in feelings. And to suggest an origin story for the contemporary emphasis on emotional sustenance from new audio work.
