The impact of radio on rural America in the three decades before the arrival of television is the subject of Out of the Dark: A History of Radio and Rural America (University of Alabama Press) by Steve Craig, professor of radio, television and film.
His study shows that as radio connected isolated families to the rest of the nation, its advertising and entertainment produced more uniform values that led to a stronger national identity. Radio also contributed to a growing demand for consumer goods among rural families, quickly bringing them into modern America.