"Western broadcasting is tyrannized by an instrument we have accepted as inviolable: the clock."

"Radio today is the pulse of a society organized for maximum production and consumption. Of course, this is temporary; radio will not keep this beat forever. The advantage of the quartz watch is that it doesn't stop or need to be reset, so the ceremonious timekeeping of radio is already anachronous. And if industrial civilization is in decline - and it is - alternative radio rhythms may be closer than we think."

"The rhythms of radio are always changing. Rhythmic patterns dictate content; never the other way around. If you can put your idea into a three-minute capsule, you can move it onto radio; if you can't, you can't. This brevity shapes the treatment of all material, producing what John Leonard called the "flat shriek" of contemporary radio:"

Instead of stories, canned opinion; instead of discussion, sirens; instead of sadness, the gruesome details; instead of play, havy breathing, fists. The limitation is not technical but cultural, for technically the radio signal is continuous and can be shaped in any way desired."