Continuous Wave

A newsletter and site exploring the forgotten history of broadcast and how it shapes our world. Subscribers get exclusive posts every month.

Featured

Jul 16, 2026

Queen of the Kilocycles

How Tallulah Bankhead's "The Big Show" tried to fend off the first pivot to video

Julia Barton

Jul 1, 2026

🇨🇦 Radio Revolutionary

For Canada Day, a guest post on Margaret Lyons, the woman who changed CBC Radio

Julia Barton, +1

May 22, 2025

The Sound of Her Voice

How sexism got hard-wired into radio

Julia Barton

Apr 16, 2026

What Does Talent Cost?

Awkward conversations about money could be made easier with time travel

Julia Barton

Feb 19, 2026

That Joke Isn't Funny

Excavating Amos'n'Andy, the problem at the heart of American broadcasting

Julia Barton

Jan 15, 2026

Carnies vs Conjurers

A theory of competing enchantments

Julia Barton

Story Vault

Jul 16, 2026

Queen of the Kilocycles

How Tallulah Bankhead's "The Big Show" tried to fend off the first pivot to video

Julia Barton

Jul 1, 2026

🇨🇦 Radio Revolutionary

For Canada Day, a guest post on Margaret Lyons, the woman who changed CBC Radio

Julia Barton, +1

Jun 11, 2026

Sweet Deceit

How radio sound effects escaped containment into “the real world”

Julia Barton

May 28, 2026

A Difficult Groove

Andy Lanset on the long struggle to gather and edit "field tape"

Julia Barton, +1

May 21, 2026

Empire of Electrons

As CBS cuts its last ties to radio and good comedy, let's revisit psychodramas of yore

Julia Barton

Apr 30, 2026

When Actors Did the News

Time Magazine and their ad agencies re-enacted events and people, fake accents and all. But their news show wasn't a parody.

Julia Barton, +1