MICHELE HILMES is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has written several books on broadcast history, including Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States (2001) and Radio Voices: American Broadcasting 1922 to 1952 (2001). She is currently at work on a history of the mutual influence and opposition between US and British broadcasters during radio and television's formative years. Associate Editor: JASON JACOBS is Senior Lecturer in the School of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, Griffith University, Queensland and the author of Body Trauma TV: The New Hospital Dramas (2003).

• Introduction TV nations.- Institutions from origins to stability.- Institutions conflict and change.- Programming from the 50s to the 80s.- Programming new venues, new forms.