As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s and then the 1990s, American radio underwent a profound transformation. The death of the radio star arrived with the birth of MTV in 1981, and a new generation—Generation X—came of age waiting by the speaker with a tape recorder, hoping the DJ wouldn't talk over the song they wanted for a homemade mix tape. This collection captures the sound of those changing decades, from the rise of talk radio on the AM dial to the local personalities who kept communities connected before monopolies, the Internet, and satellite radio changed terrestrial radio forever.
