Seriality

The repetition of standardized cultural content is typical of radio broadcasting since its inception. The repetition of standardized cultural content quickly took the shape of a structural feature of radio broadcasting:serial programming. This chapter will explore the genealogy of radio serial programming and how it has in turn been partly re-mediated in podcasting. Building from a wide literature review, the first part of this chapter will distinguish between two forms of radio seriality ( infrastructural vs. narrative seriality), then it will trace a history of radio serial formats, from American commercial radio in the 1930s to contemporary serial forms. In the second part it will analyze seriality in podcasts, starting with the case of Serial , and in the conclusion, it will distinguish the cultural form of seriality in radio from that of podcasts. Therefore conclusion will then discuss how podcasts remedied some aspects of radio seriality.