Historian of the business and politics of culture
Out Now: Live from the Underground
Katherine Rye Jewell is a historian and a professor at Fitchburg State University who writes about the intersection of business, politics, and culture.
Her second book, Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio is available now.
Jewell . . . chronicles the rise, fall, and legacy of college radio in this sprawling and richly detailed account. . . . [Live from the Underground] offers both an animated homage to college radio as a microcosm of American culture and reassurance for readers that the medium isn’t dead. It’s a fascinating deep dive.”—Publishers Weekly
A pleasure for fans of alt-rock and its dissemination in the face of corporate and academic resistance. –Kirkus Reviews
Reviews
More praise for Live from the Underground:
Bruce Pavitt, Sub Pop Records
“Without college radio, indie labels like Sub Pop would not have thrived, and bands like Nirvana might not have gained initial traction. Katherine Rye Jewell has offered us a uniquely valuable reference that covers an impactful but overlooked moment in US cultural and musical history.”
Midwest Book Review
An interesting and insightful look at how this nationwide phenomenon has sculpted American culture. . . . Live from the Underground teaches us the importance of listening to college broadcasters while supporting their experimental stations as sites of free speech and free expression critical to our Democracy.”
Bill Stephney, Broad Market Media
“Detailing the evolution of what was once an extracurricular school activity into a daring pursuit of generation-defining programming, Live from the Underground vividly places you in the control room of a college radio station, behind the mixing board and turntables, ready, with teen spirit, to change the world with every spin of a new record.”
Elena Razlogova, author of The Listener’s Voice: Early Radio and the American Public
“A former DJ herself, Jewell’s name belongs among several historians whose recent work on music history draws on their own experience of cultural production and fandom, including Grace Elizabeth Hale and Kevin Mattson. Bringing together histories of the music industry, the culture wars, and university politics to expose the contradictions of the college radio culture, Live from the Underground redefines this history.”
Michael Stamm, author of Sound Business: Newspapers, Radio, and the Politics of New Media
“Katherine Rye Jewell has given us what will be the history of college radio. Animated by the voices of those who lived this story, Live from the Underground clearly and energetically gives a sense of the vibrancy and diversity of college radio and the campuses where it broadcasts.”
Katherine Rye Jewell 