Americans are spending more of their radio time listening online. Does this mean that traditional radio is on the verge of extinction? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll turn our ears to the future of radio. We'll also wax nostalgic about the history of this most intimate of inventions. And we'll shiver our timbers as we talk about pirate radio.

Don't touch that dial! Or your downlink! There is nothing wrong with your set! We're using some production effects on the program open after the newshole. It's supposed to sound strange! Tod Maffin is a radio broadcaster and technology futurist in Vancouver, British Columbia. He tells Steve Paulson about internet radio and its potential as a threat to terrestrial broadcasting. He says the most important thing is and always will be good content. Also, media historian Susan Douglas is the author of "Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination from Amos n' Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern." She and Jim talk about the early days of radio, and the pioneering days of public radio. And there are lots of clips - from "The Shadow" to the very first edition of ATC. And, we get to hear the most famous radio commercial ever done — Stan Freberg's bit with the mountain of whipped cream, and thousands of cheering extras. You know, "Cue the maraschino cherry!"

There's another little taste of Stan Freberg - Sarah Vaughan singing "Who Listens to Radio?" Then, Anne Strainchamps talks with Greg Ruggiero, author of "Microradio and Democracy: (Low) Power to the People." Ruggiero says the radio waves belong to the people and we all have a right to create radio as well as consume it.

Mal Sharpe and Jim Coyle brought a distinctive blend of mirth and mayhem to the air waves of San Francisco in the 1950s and ‘60s. Mal Sharpe tells Steve Paulson how they got started, and the sorts of things they did. And we hear several examples of their outrageous (and hilarious) work.

• Radio Waves from the album Road Radio with Skydigger
• Stretching the Imagination from Tip of the Freberg with Stan Freberg
• The In Crowd from the album Soul with The Ramsey Lewis Trio
• Who Listens to Radio? from Tip of the Freberg with Stan Freberg
• We Want the Airwaves with The Ramones
• Hillbillies From Outerspace with The Vaughan Brothers
• Printer Painter from the album Audio Visionaries with Coyle & Sharpe
• Swan's Splashdown with Perrey & Kingsley

Distribution dates:

• week of 10/29/2000 - hour 2