{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03383458646616541, 'fraction_numerical': 0.013328776486671223, 'mean_word_length': 4.6505791505791505, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Book Review of Leora M. Sies and Luther F. Sies's The Encyclopedia of Women in Radio, 1920–1960, and Mitchell E. Shapiro's Radio Network Prime Time Programming, 1926–1967

McFarland & Company, Inc., have recently published two reference books that focus on radio. The most recent is The Encyclopedia of Women in Radio. Leora Sies (who passed away before the completion of the volume) and Luther Sies use a variety of academic sources, archives, magazines and newspapers, and professional sources to identify the women who performed on radio. The Sieses do not claim to have identified all the women of radio. “This book is far from complete. It is little more than a representative sample, since most of the record of women’s work in broadcasting has been lost” (p. vi). In spite of this limitation the work contains over 10,000 entries in 407 pages. The book is organized alphabetically with each entry assigned a number. Most of the entries are quite short and simply list names and stations. For example, entry number 3534 is “Gillen, Anne. Organist (WGBS, New York, NY, 1929)” (p. 119). Entries are longer when more is known about the person. In addition to entries about individual women, the encyclopedia lists programs that prominently featured women. The program entries are generally more extensive than those of individuals. Also included in the volume are nine extended entries “that describe women’s special contributions to American Radio” (p. 3). The topics include comediennes, daytime serials, gender discrimination, and pioneers, among others. The gender discrimination entry includes quotes from women about their experiences and discusses many of the ideas about gender that characterized the times. For example, Elmer Lawler of ABC news is quoted as saying, “Many women may possess the knowledge and authority but they seldom can convey this through their voices ... Her voice is naturally thinner ... It’s not appropriate for reporting crucial events” (p. 110). These extended entries are among the most useful for scholars who want more in-depth information. The book is easy to use. There is an appendix that lists broadcasters by category, such as actresses, bridge experts, home economists, and numerous other categories. There is an index of names. This would seem somewhat redundant given the alphabetical listing of names in the book, but some names appear in multiple entries. There is an index of programs and a good basic bibliography. The primary strength of The Encyclopedia of Women in Radio is that it demonstrates the overwhelming presence of women in radio. The extensive list of names testifies to the variety of roles women played on the air. It also provides a good starting point for identifying particular individuals and identifying issues of gender that are worth further study. There are a few limitations to this work. Because so many of the entries are quite short they have lim-