Published in Brill An important contribution to the study of religion, media, and culture in America During the 1920s, savvy American revivalists pioneered evangelical electronic broadcasting by bringing the old-time religion to radio, the latest in communications technology, thereby paving the way for today’s celebrity-driven and heavily commodified media ministries. As Lerone Martin points out in Preaching on Wax, African Americans were largely excluded from early religious

Published in The Journal of American History Martin thus locates in phonograph religion the roots of several of the most significant developments in African American Christianity over the last century. For most readers, the names of black celebrity preachers such as T. D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, and Juanita Bynum will be far more familiar than that of James Gates. Yet, for a time, Gates's recorded sermons outsold even popular entertainers such as Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith.