Author Talk: CB Radio and American Culture

Tim Scherrer, author of Crashed the Gate Doing Ninety-Eight, will tell the story of the first electronic social network in America--the CB radio. Citizens Band Radio grew from a small number of hobby users to a cultural phenomenon in the 1970s. CB life created its ow "slanguage," music and values. What started mostly with truckers grew during the 1974 oil crisis and became widespread, with users adapting CBs to their own economic and social uses. This movement changed the character of radio use, eventually making the radios truly a citizens' band. Then they disappeared...