Radio-Television-Cable Management

by James A. Brown and Ward L Quaal

This text explores the essential elements of broadcast management and looks at all levels of management in each of the major components of the broadcasting cable industry including, personnel,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0697132374
• ISBN13: 9780697132376
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Langua
• Length: 554 Pages
• Weight: 2.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.3" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

A Classic Updated

Although it was 22 years between editions of this book, the title likely will be familiar to many persons in professional broadcasting and in academics. The 1976 second edition for many years occupied the top-rung of choices for management texts in the field; its endurance no doubt was due in part to the authors success in gauging the long-term impact the social movements of the 1960s would have on broadcast station management's roles and responsibilities. Similarly, in its new incarnation, Brown and Quaal's work, (with author names reversed for this edition), seems in step with the new electronic media landscape: they have fashioned a work in sync with the economic, organizational, regulatory and technological changes of the recent past. Emphasis in management clearly is placed upon management's role and responsibilities in the age of mergers and bottom-line thinking. This book seeks a larger audience than a typical textbook, presenting a vast collection of research and literature data in footnotes, endnotes, and in separate historical and numerical displays. It would seem most appropriate as a text for advanced college courses emphasizing the radio-TV-cable industries and for which historical context is especially desired. In addition, this book would seem to fill a niche as a solid reference work for scholars and working professionals interested in a comprehensive survey of the field and a balanced philosophical approach to viewing major management issues. The authors represent both the academic prospective (Brown) and the working media professional (Quaal) and at times reflect this point of difference in their treatment of subject matter. For example, they openly disagree on the broad question of who owns the airwaves-broadcasters or the public. The result for the reader is a work that offers engaging and insightful views of relevant issues from alternate perspectives. This is a big book, broad in its audience target and exhaustive in its treatment of many subjects. Its mass may be its weakness for many teachers and students who want a more streamlined text with fewer historical side trips and quantitative displays. Moreover, I found it disappointing that the chapter on theory did not present wider representation of traditional management theories: the authors favor the alphabet theories such as X, Y, Z, and in so doing perhaps place too much emphasis upon their own V-Theory of managing. One may need to seek out other published sources on management to get a more representative serving of prevailing management theories.W. Joseph Oliver, Ph.D. Professor of Communication Stephen F. Austin State University Nacogdoches, Texas