First published by Random House, 1971 

Elkin had long been fascinated by the radio as a means of mass communication, collecting them and listening to two-way talk radio shows as a young man. More than a decade before he started writing this novel, he had the idea of exploring how the conversations of alienated, obsessive, or off-kilter people connected listeners of the same ilk who otherwise would remain isolated. The Dick Gibson Show is one of Elkin's most structurally innovative novels with one of his most mercurial protagonists and most colorful cast of characters. It was a National Book Award finalist and has since been recognized as anticipating the rise of talk radio and the deluge of chat rooms and podcasts.