Gibbons featured at Century of Broadcasting Conference

As noted in UMaine News, Michael Socolow, associate professor at the Department of Communications and Journalism, presented on April 29 at the 2023 Radio Preservation Task Force conference in Washington, D.C.  He spent several days in Special Collections accessing the Floyd Gibbons Papers while preparing for the talk.

Socolow, who was a member of the 2023 Conference Organizing Team, has been a member of the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force since its inception. At the “Century of Broadcasting” conference, he presented research on radio pioneer Floyd Gibbons, who hosted the first network newscast in American history (“The Headline Hunter”), as part of the panel titled “Radio News and Commentary: Revisiting Developmental Modes of US Broadcast Journalism.”

Floyd Gibbons was an award-winning author, journalist, and radio personality. He was on the staff of the Chicago Tribune starting in 1912 and served as a war correspondent during World War I. His papers, 96 boxes of material dating from 1900-1940, were donated to Fogler Library by members of his family in 1975 and contain correspondence, columns, manuscripts of his writings, radio scripts, recordings, news clips, photographs, and Gibbons family memorabilia. For more information, access the finding aid for the collection online, or contact Special Collections by phone at 1.207.581.1686 or email um.library.spc@maine.edu.