Yellow Fluff

What a cracker of an episode. Jad-Robert back and forth, Oliver Sacks, linguistic sound effects, music, this show appealed to the devotee (um, like me).

The first time I listened was on a train – I don't think I've ever done that before, gone fresh to a episode of Radio Lab in a noisy world of sounds and headphones and inhibition. But my how it grabbed me. I used the pause button when faced with ticket collectors and opening doors (when you see a train at the weekend in Belgium, you don't let it leave without you). I reacted, giggling, smiling and shuddering like I had a bot worm in my scalp, in spite of what the late night Amsterdam and Antwerp crowd might have thought.

It felt like a final episode – until the end leapt up out of nowhere. It is the end of this series, but, it would seem, not the end of Radio Lab.

Somehow this this episode slipped my mind, which is silly cos it's unforgettable! I started the review weeks ago, but forgot to post it. And now it's all over. Sigh. 

Thank you and congratulations to the Radio Lab on an excellent season.

RTÉ Choice

I've been poking round RTÉ Choice, and I like it.

RTÉ Choice is a speech-based station on Ireland's limited DAB digital radio network.

The programming is a mix of RTÉ Radio one material (some is archive, some I can't be sure of), with some top NPR programmes including Morning Edition, Car Talk, and (wait for it now…) Radio Lab. It also includes the usual BBC rebroadcaster fare – World Today and the features strands – and some unexpected, but very welcome programmes: Hancock (which seems to be Hancock's Half Hour), and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

So they've done a decent deal with the BBC. Listeners in Ireland are more aware of the domestic programmes than the World Service ones. This mix of BBC stuff will be popular.

Moving across the pond, I admit I'm not sure I've ever listened to a whole edition of Car Talk, so I can't really comment.

Much of the other programming comes from WRN. I expect they've done some sort of deal to get a discount on the carriage of RTÉ's own programmes on WRN.

There are also some Deutsche Welle programmes in there – I don't know if that's as part of WRN or paid separately.

Finally, there are some parts of the schedule marked "RTÉ Choice". Some are just one minute, some longer. They bought one of my two pieces on PRX – the two minute one. 

Have a look at the a day's schedule.

It's available on DAB – which in Ireland, is in limbo, pressed right up against the pearly gates, but still, in limbo. It covers 44% of the population, leaving out cultural cities like Galway and Kilkenny. It's also available online. Probably not going onto Sky Digital I imagine, what with BBC Worldwide rights.

It's a tough time for most broadcasting (though I suspect we're better off than many businesses – more on that in an upcoming post), and I don't know if RTÉ Choice can quite pay for itself. It looks like it might, just about, break even.

The easiest way to get money from rebroadcasting is, unsurprisingly, often objectionable. Five years ago, when I worked at China Radio International, it was suggested that CRI would pay up to €10,000 a month for a good relay in Ireland. But not only were the programmes mostly poo, they were mostly propaganda too, and so might break the license of a European rebroadcaster. I guess the Luxemburgerers and Albanians don't mind.

RTÉ Choice has an online player, and maybe they could add some geo-coded advertising, for listeners using it e.g. as a time-shifted US public radio station.

I welcome RTÉ Choice. It has become one of my choices.

Diagnosis – Radio Lab

For some reason I didn't get to hear all of this episode in one sitting. I ended up downloading it and listening in chunks, to a slightly distorted and over-length version. 

 

The first half took a second listening. It worked very well on the second listen, and superbly on the third. The first time round it somehow didn't move quite right – the stories somehow didn't have enough followability – be it the right mix of liner content, presenter interaction, sense of direction in the listener, whatever. The flat presentation style of the pathology story has been switching me off of late. Ah, did I call it the pathology story? Coz that's not what it started as, it was pancreatic cancer, right? And the medical professional became the proxy for the ordinary, non-medical listener. On the first listen, it didn't seem to carry off the elegant twirl. Somehow. It maybe reflected the human-mess-ness that sparkles when Jad and Robert are on opposing sides of what a revelation means. 

That was rich in the second half, combined with the some other rocks of the show (familiar voices, wonder, highly effective FX, and brain scanners). In contrast to the top, it takes a very common condition – depression – without squeezing the raw spots – sensitive spots, yes; raw spots, no. And inside it there was a sub-story that itself twirled – Sudden Infant Death to radiation to poverty to… diagnosis. It worked.

Emanuel's story: Some would say this was a bit too NPR. Fair to both sides, yet steeped in the mainstream attitude towards disability. In the US, that understanding is far better than, for example, in China – if you want see me fume, do a story that says "只有一个词：勇敢". My mother was a remedial teacher, and I've worked with an autistic colleague who was, if not undiagnosed, at least never stated his condition. Add to that hypochondriac bonding with a BBC studio manager, and I feel autism is a part of my life. Emanuel's story gave me facts about the condition and its status in the US, not an insight into the condition. 

But this story did give me an insight – into Emanuel's life and his family. That was awesome. 

A final note, on the start. A fun tale of domestic damage, dispute, and deception. Kinda pushes a lot of buttons, for a lot of people. Not a winner to stop people switching off at the top… but maybe that's just me.

Winner

I've just noticed that My Father Takes a Vacation was recognised at the Prix Italia. Here's my review of the RTÉ version from yonks back.

From the Prix Italia website: 

RADIO DOCUMENTARY – SPECIAL PRIZE FOR EXTRAORDINARY 
ORIGINALITY 

SWEDEN – SUEDE SR 
MY FATHER TAKES A VACATION 
DIRECTOR: MARTIN JOHNSON PRODUCER: MAGNUS ARVIDSON 
SCRIPT: MARTIN JOHNSON 

This programme moves across landscapes drawn from postcards sent by a 
father who has abandoned his children. When the author was a teenager, his 
mother died of cancer and his father, unable or unwilling to shoulder the 
responsibility for three young children, left home to cycle through Ireland. 
Martin Johnson casts a cool eye on this story of unforgivable desertion as he 
retraces his father’s steps through Ireland. The jury was impressed by the 
restraint and the sophisticated dramaturgy of this piece which never collapses 
into sentimentality. They also commend the technical production of this very 
difficult quest into the past.

Tipping my hat to PRX's Remix Radio blog, this is a funderella and/or geekerama source of sounds.

Quote: 

These are some typical sounds we hear in our data recovery lab. If your hard drive makes noises like these and you are still able to access your files - backup immediately. If you no longer can see the drive please fill out our simple evaluation form to get a fast quote on our data recovery services.
To listen to the sound simply click on the play button(one at a time). It may take some time to load. Click on the drive manufacturer next to the sound button to learn more about common problems these drives experience.
If you want to use these sounds in your music (yes, we have received lots of requests already) - no problem, but please contact us first.

New Today FM website

Oooh the 21st century has arrived at Today FM! The old website was a stinker, but this new one is gorgeous. 

Reasonable audio access on the front page – it's mostly a pop music station so a lot of listen on demand (a la BBC WS) is a bit pointless. There's no social networking like Virgin/Absolute Radio – but this is whooole lot prettier than that. It has some videos too (which I have yet to look at as it's time to fall asleep to Mixtuur). 

Anyway, for the station they are, the first impression is of a humdinger of a site.

Radio Lab - Race

A classic.

Almost nostalgic, with the children of DNA letters, the whispered commentary of one host as another has an unexpected interaction with the missus, the runner, the structure with science and then more humanist or emotional or traditional feature at the end.

Some super music – in particular, the journey to the DNA lab with Nell Greenfieldboyce. Its story-telling application was also strong on the early stage of the Vitol drug history. It was loud (if you wish to say that kept a distance from a controversial guest, okay) – it was intriguing. It worked (for me at any rate. Wish I could be that good at music… well I will be, it'll just take time…) And having that archive audio, broadcast quality, and using it in the flow.

Tasty pauses.

The hints towards the mood of Obama America was there – it would be a crime if it wasn't – going from the opening cut to the interstitial chanting.

I've already posted it to my Facebook as: "Just released today, this is an instant classic Radio Lab. Someone stop me being so zealous. Actually, don't."

It's here... the YouTube for audio

Hasn't it been a little bit, just a little bit, of a bummer, how YouTube is there with all its video joy, and nothing like it has happened for audio? There was something attached to Archive.org that kinda got close (I think. Can harldy remember it).

Now though, I think we have a winner.
www.Huffduffer.com. The name helps -- it's a reference to radio direction findng, and sounds funny, so geeks and non-geeks are all in! It uses links to audio, so the bandwidth costs aren't prohibitive.

And you can just dive into the tags! Okay one suggestion there is to be able to chose to view tags alphabetically. Maaaybe even geographically.

Anyway, my Huffduff RSS feed is in the right hand side-bar. Send me yours if you like :)

CBC Radio This is Only a Test

Facebook event

One night only, a chance to see comic Nile Seguin in action as he hosts a new
show for CBC Radio called This Is Only A Test.This Friday we're taping the pilot
for a show that looks at the psychology of why we do what we do.Come on down,
get your laughter and applause recorded for radio, and find out the reasons
behind such human quirks as why we'll often take the "free" choice, rather than
the one that makes the most sense and how to improve your brain with a simple
off-the-shelf beverage. Honest.The show is all about better living through
psychology -for this show you can learn how to save money by understanding how
your brain works.For tickets to this event, just email testtickets@cbc.ca

That's been sent round to members of Definitley Not the Opera's Facebook group. Looks good!

Mixtuur

22:30, leaving a fun work dinner, on a Monday. Yes a Monday, and the Monday after a snowy, testosterone weekend has left you acnefied and aching. Out into the cold, and walking home through Brussels.

Newly repaired headphones are in the outer part of my backpack, so I can get that in my gloves. The Olympus that doubles as podcast player is buried in the main part – so why not go for the pocket radio. It's good to walk the streets in the cold flicking between the north African stations, the noise and reflections as an FM radio moves in the city, the Walter Benjamin thoughts as the Wildean prison appears to the left. 

And back round it goes to the bottom of the band, and 89.5, and… sound art. Now that catches me off guard! It was good, the real deal, and the presenter speaks suddenly and in Dutch. It's good. I recognise a piece – is it Gregory Whitehead? The only familiar name in the next stream (of Dutch) was John Cage. What a show, could it really be five nights a week? Cos it's so good I bet it's just one night a week. Up into the dark terrazzo apartment, switching to the big headphones, the bigger radio. 

Top of the hour… "jazz"…? Ah they've segued into the next show. Happily to sleep, and today, in the office, the facts.

It's called Mixtuur, and yes, it is five nights a week. Huzzah!

Radio Lab – Sperm

Gosh.

Some episodes of Radio Lab leave me feeling uplifted, wondrous, and in love with life. Some leave me feeling thoughtful, solemn, and in love with life.

This was one of the solemn ones, and unusually not from Robert's thoughts.

It was a gorgeous show, even if I'd already heard another version of the story of the woman looking for her sperm-donor father, and even though it's the first time I can think of hearing bum edits on Radio Lab – frankly, considering how many of those I've put out there myself I am in no position to criticise on that front!

There were lots of pauses in this episode. Perhaps that will soothe the automated grouching of some listeners who object to "that confounded music playing under people – so disrespectful". But that's for my father – for me, the pauses are a reminder that it is called Radio Lab after all. Old school in its creativity and weighting, and it soothes me to know they are able to do that still – god what am I saying, of course they know the can do that, fans (like me) never stop telling them they can.

There were the proper scientific moments of wonder, and the entertainment and engagement that makes us love it. As the ducks were mentioned, I wondered if I was finally going to hear proof that I wasn't hallucinating that time I saw a duck in the Kensington Park Round Pond – well I've seen many ducks there, but for some reason, this one was showing off its willie – and it was corkscrew shaped.

I have an idea this might have been mentioned on an episode of Qi – which when you think about it, is like the TV version of Radio Lab, but with only one, much less impressive, American.

Ok I'm rambling. Just to note I've written this straight after listening – I haven't listened back to the Sperm episode yet at all.

Update: For the first time in ages I've woken up in the early hours fretting about something other than work. I was fretting about… this review of Radio Lab! Having listened just once, it struck me I may have heard an incomplete mix of the show, missing a sub-mix or something – that would explain the editing near the top.

Man I need a life already…

Filming East director interview

Ruhua has done an interview with the director of the Filming East festival in London, for London Chinese Radio. The show it was due to go out on was cancelled, so I'm putting it in my podcast here to spread the love.

Getting a bit one-tracked

I've looked back over my recent posts, and there is way too much stuff about Radio Lab there! That's not to say Radio Lab doesn't deserve a fansite, it does, but I really must diversify. So I'll try not to mention it for… a few days, how about that? Let's say until after the next episode, on Friday.

It might be a bit difficult because last week the cable on my Panasonic noise-cancelling headphones broke. At the weekend I tried to get a replacement – the best I could do was a clunky, overpriced minijack-minijack cable at MediaMarkt. It was too clunky, so I had to pare the rubber case back – in so doing, breaking one connection. I don't have a soldering iron here (and with three in Ireland, I don't intend to buy a new one!), so that was that. I guess I'll have to get off work early enough to reach one of the pro-audio stores in town if I want to regain my commute! Not ready to take the plunge and go for in-ear headphones – I'm just not convinced the ears were designed to work that way, so I'd rather look weird with the big fat cans.

So what else do we have to look forward to this week? Well, the new PRX is to launch on Friday, and I hope to have a piece ready for it in the next ten days. It'll probably be a mono-lingual item, made from material I used in this BBC Cantonese piece.

Choice

Ahhhhh. Finally, the new series of Radio Lab has started.
And there's no anti-climax – Choice was a bute!

Lightness of touch – the chemistry and banter between Jad and Robert; the squeals – Oliver Sacks being so Oliver Sacksy; wonder – a hot coffee?; delicious imagery – the smashing window but almost everywhere else too; and surprise – Jad priming Robert.

And neuroscientists and Jonah Lehrer.

Ahhhh. Lovely. I wonder are there neuroscientists who study how people listen to Radio Lab? Oooh, and I've figrued out the typography. Radio Lab is two words – the logo is just one word, but in different colours. Wrong by rules, right by convention.

I made a point of listening to it streaming from WNYC FM. Phone switched off, dimmed lights, big comfy headphones.

And it's fab.

Oh and remember when Jad called us all bitches? That was funny. He also did an online chat thing afterwards.

Funny how they call them Ethernet cables

It's kinda weird, but the internet is depriving me of radio. These days, about 80% of the radio I hear is delivered by the internet. Mostly podcasts. A bit of streaming, mostly at work.

And listening to the online versions, I've been missing out on some interesting things. Mostly, as it happens, Canadian.

I've never heard a full episode of DNTO, and just this morning I discovered that WireTap is not just Jonathan Goldstein on the phone.

And how did I discover this? Thanks to the joy of an unofficial WireTap podcast. It turns out it has music (in some episodes) – and the podcast rights for that might just be the reason CBC only gives snippets.

I like the format of both the regular and January live music episode – arguably very car-friendly. Perhaps oddly, it reminds me of things like The Tonight Show on NBC – and probably has as much content what with the gaping lack of enormous advertising breaks every few minutes. Bizarre :-P

It's coming…

The excitement…

From the official Radiolab blog:

Post-Show Chat with Jad Abrumad
By Radiolab

November 10, 2008

Listen to “Choice,” the first episode in Radio Lab’s fifth season, this Friday (Nov 14) at 3pm on 93.9 FM WNYC. Afterwards, go to themorningnews.org to join co-host Jad Abumrad and your fellow Radio Lab listeners for a live online chat from 4-5pm.


The link to the Choice episode reveals that the other episode pages are up too…

Bush House – RTÉ's new digital radio stations

Indulgent title, I know :-)

In particular, it's this: Nick Randell's ScratchNSniff radio show on RTE Pulse! It's funky! It''s wacky! It's Gaytastic! And it's every Wed nite at 9 on Pulse!

Hello Everyone

I've been pondering this phrase, after hearing it used on the CBS Evening News. The CBS newscast is carried by Sky News in the UK and Ireland in the small hours – and if you're in Dublin Airport for an early flight, you can't really get away from Sky news.

Anyway, at the start of the programme, the newsreader opened with "Good Evening Everyone" (it might have been everybody rather than everyone). This officially breaks one of the most basic rules of broadcasting, in that it doesn't address the you as the only listener, rather it makes you out to be one of many.

But might it not be daft to suggest that you are the only viewer of a national US evening newscast? To some extent, it feels that bit more personal, to be acknowledged as an audience of "everyone". At lest that gives you credit as more than the one-size-fits-all of just "good evening".

The CBS Evening News seems to break a couple of conventions, such as the mix of male/female voices. The anchor and the first four reporters were all female, with only one male reporter in the half hour. Though to be honest that rule never held much truck with me – it's the content that counts. Aside: I wasn't watching the bulletin, the TV was out of my vision but clearly audible.

And there is someone who often says "Hello everyone", who is archetypal BBC: it's how Jonathan Agnew starts a stint as the commentator on Test Match Special. I can hear two uses for it. One is to acknowledge the presence of the listener, though some may dislike the sense of being taken out of the chat at the ground and shoved back at the end of the radio in their kitchen, potting shed or car. And the other is to establish himself as the commentator, after that last while from Henry Blofeld or whoever. "Hello everyone" is like a catchphrase, a meaningless term that allows the listener tune in to your voice, and your next sentence – you first original content of the stint, if you like – has more weight, because it has been punctuated and the mind is ready for the encoded meaning of the words, rather than the blob that "hello everyone" is hiding: "New voice – Aggers – oh this should be fun – and he's just starting, so he'll remind me of how it's going".

And of course Test Match Special has almost nothing but male voices!

Not unlike The Goon Show, where Bluebottle used to say "Hello Everybody!" to the studio audience.

So, some rules need to be looked at, while it's also good to be able to use them before chucking them out.

Adventures in Science on BBC Radio 7

I seem to remember hearing this before – and the beginning of the memory ep makes me criiiiiinge – but the techniques and sound design are interesting. Still on that ep, but liking it so far.

Chatting to real people about radio

Was at an election night party last night, and had the good fortune to meet a former New York resident who, like me, streams WNYC to Brussels at any chance!

She did say she prefers WBEZ cos of This American Life, but that said, she knew Radio Lab, from listening to WNYC on the radio.

That was rather a thrill for me! But thankfully, it didn't turn out to be the highlight of the night -- good on ya, people of America!

Coining a phrase.

This interminible wait has left me unable to think of anything intellectual to post.
I know good times are just around the corner, but why can't it just happen now?

The tension is getting to me.

Come on!

Just release the new series of Radio Lab already!

To while away the lonely nights, I've been making up phrases to describe our beloved.

Is it a Krulamradio show, in the Krulumradish tradition?

Okay that's all.

Psst…!

Teehee… just for fun, I typed in this url: www.new.prx.org… well how about that!

Radio Multikulti to shut :(

I admit I haven't listen to Radio Multikulti much recently, but it was always on the radar – and its travel programming and weighting towards German language made it a good model for multi-cultural radio stations in Europe.

Or so I thought.

It's closing down.

Bugger. Haven't read all of this article yet but must, and must find out a bit more.

Acting in Features

Just realised something while listening to RTÉ's recent Secrets and Lies. The narrator is being acted – she's not the producer, not a presenter, but an actor.

That brought to mind the Archive Hour on the Radio Ballads – which I only got to hear recently, on ABC's Radio Eye. It told of a time when the words of the common man were transcribed and delivered on radio (the BBC, at least), by actors. They performed regional roles as necessary, in a more understandable form.

Which reminded me of… Radio Lab! Few programmes out there use so many actors (if you lump singers in there too). And few programmes write around tape so much, having the presenters tell you what the interviewee said (but probably in a more log-winded, scientist way). Both of these are part of what makes Radio Lab the show that is defining a generation of radio.

True enough, some people do fear that they are losing the truth of what is being said, while some snobbish, less patient people hate the idea of sound effects and stories being acted. Radio Lab have responded well to that, by putting an entire uncut interview online, as well as allowing interviewees say what they thought of how the final show went out.

Some people complain about Radio Lab's moving away from "journalistic values" – as if it isn't a feature programme to begin with, and as if radio is good only for music, gabbing, and news – but see? The use of actors on Radio Lab is informed by the decades of strong journalistic tradition, from the second world war and from the start of NPR.

Hmmm. Now just maybe I'm pining for the new series of Radio Lab ;)

Saltcast is great.

Fairly simple point today: Saltcast is great.

An insight into what is clearly a very high standard documentary training course, an insight into making faaaab radio items, and said faaaab radio items. Fab!

Two people kinda want Robert Krulwich to be Science Advisor to the next US president

We all know that few people can explain science like Robert Krulwich can.

So I've started a Facebook group calling on the next US president to make Robert Krulwich his Sciece Advisor.

And after three days, one person has joined.

How crap is that! My take on it is: We want to keep him for ourselves, and not take him off the radio, so no one is joining in.

That's it!

Where are we headed?

An ambitious title, Where are we headed?, and as you suspected, this won't be a comprehensive answer. The setting is clear enough: incentive-less digital broadcasting, iPods, mobile phones, and the internet on the tech side, and probable decreased consumer and funder spending.

Plus, it would seem, me writing veeeeery long sentences when I could be asleep. But how and ever.

The big feature shows seem to be dying off. RTÉ canned Curious Ear this spring, despite the international recognition it got. I think the producer, Ronan Kelly, is now doing stuff for their digital station RTÉ Choice, which is fab news. I'm not up to speed with the funding for their digital services – it was always a bit hazy to be to be honest – so I don't know how secure that is. I want it to be secure, that much I know.

And now there's the big news from Australia: the ABC is ditching its best shows, Street Stories and Radio Eye.

I don't know any of the background, but that really is bad news. The paid outlets for creative features are going, going…

Do we have to look to the USA? It would seem so – and PRX have been doing a sterling job of late, bringing us the joy of the Saltcast and Youthcast, as well as a new PRX due soon.

I would love (as ever) to have been at the Third Coast Festival in Chicago last week, but do I have the money? Like hell I do. But I wonder what was the murmur there about the economy.

Oh and this week I had my first experience of a public radio fund drive – listening online to WNYC, it's was rather cool, though timezones and lack of internet access at home meant I only heard Takeaway/ME - Brian Lehrer. Of course I would have loved to have heard Radio Lab funders, maybe like the ones on PRX or whatever.

All that ramble (man, I need a sub), is a prelude to the Where are we headed? bit. Shows like Radio Eye, the hour-long sound and emotion rich feature, are made for listening to while sitting down, doing not much other than enjoying the programme.

So, you kinda need a home to get the most out of it (I listen on the hoof, but know the city is distracting and detracting). And these days, it seems, fewer and fewer people have homes, especially in the US.

Doesn't that suggest a benefit for more iPod friendly programmes? I think so.
And what is iPod friendly? Hmmm. Not sure just yet. My first reaction is "back to basics": speech based, no background music or sounds, low dynamic range, short, well written, to the point.

Of course you can have background sounds, to play "for the fifth listen", but if it's so simple, will people want to listen again anyway? Lot's of opportunities there I think, that's for sure!

Will ponder and post more later, but right now, I've got to find some wi-fi to steal so I can post this!

Hearing Voices and nature sound. Yay!

H/T from the blog of the super Hearing Voices, here's a point to an article on wildlife sound recording and phonography, with a really cool photo!

DNTO, outside radio

Sometimes, I lose interest in DNTO because Sook-Yin Lee is so un-radio, it seems irrelevant to me, it falls apart.

But she is so un-radio, that she she breaks it out and brings it to new people. She makes me feel like a snob or a jealous child, not wanting radio to be enjoyed by other people who "don't get it".

But that is so important! Especially in these days when the technology is shooting off in all sorts of directions. Radio used to be how music people found their new music, but now that's much less the case. So we're losing the music people (though as an aside, if an economic downturn means people are going to gigs less, the full coverage a radio operation can muster of live shows can drag us up a bit – but that's an aside). Sook-Yin Lee is a music person, a wider-world person who happens to be using radio. I've been listening to the podcast for about a year now, before being convinced. But joining up with the new theme music, and (cos this is where the technology and life are making eye-contact) the video on the website, I'm a convert.

Well, I'm still myself of course. Just seeing new ways of making the would audible.

Here's the first video:

The Journey to Away, the Best of Outfront podcast, CBC radio, week of October 1st 2008. 

This is an exemplary use of music and sound – no, the Asian gong is not a patronising or flat tool. Hear how it punctuates the speech, and how it ramps up the significance of words – what could be "just words".

I suspect in parts of Canada, this story may seem old, common, ordinary. There is something out of the ordinary and uncommon at the end, but how to bring in those listeners who may discount the story as "just another one of those"? With evocative sounds, sound that remind listeners why they have heard a story like this before, how the difference between Vietnamese food here and there is something they know, a part of their social definitions.

The gong, like the school children and waves, sounds like field audio. The sounds of war are also so real, that they do a lot of explaining.

On the second listen, I'm more struck with the return journey to away. The sign of a great piece, I think, if it can absorb you yet still leave more to discover on the second listen. That might break one of the traditional rules of radio, but that's always been a news-based rule, and this is, after all, the age of podcasting.

Outfront is one of those amazing shows that made me want to go to Canada and work in the CBC. That's not to say there isn't still a chance of course…

Diary of Leanne Wolf wins at Third Coast

An outstanding RTÉ Radio One documentary has won an award at the Third Coast Festival.

The Diary of Leanne Wolfe is superb. It's gut-wrenching, and it's tough to listen to only because it's so sad.

It has been honoured by Third Coast. I am very pleased at this. Making a radio piece is a way of honouring a story, and radio makers recognising a particular piece is honouring it further. I suspect a tremendous radio documentary means something small to Leanne Wolfe's family. That piece winning a Richard H. Driehaus Foundation award half way across the world can, hopefully, also mean something to her parents and sister.

I was bullied in school, but this documentary helped wipe that experience from my past. It's wonderful.

This week:

On Sunday, the batteries that came with my Olympus LS-10 finally gave up the ghost. I bought it in late June, and recorded about three hours of audio, but had also used it as my regular mp3 player almost all the time since then too. Awesome battery life.

Changing tack, an interesting post (they all are, but this one is more of a sharer, I guess) on James Cridland's blog about personality radio.

Flickr, CNN, and Christopher Lydon

I've started an internship – no comments about denying my age, please – outside radio. Chatted with the media analyst there the other day, and somehow we got talking about France24. And he told me of a time he was interviewed there during a bulletin and got all tongue tied: he couldn't concentrate because the presenter was so pretty.

Ok we probably got talking about that because Mishal Husain was presenting on BBC World News just then on the TV set above his head.

Still, I didn't know it at the time, but my new colleague had just given me an opening to a blog post I've been considering for a few weeks now.

A lot of people – mostly male, I'm thinking – watch more TV news because the person on screen looks good. Ok maybe I do it too, and maybe even with radio presenters, but thank heavens there's no website that holds onto things like blog posts you once wrote then deleted in a blush.

Since I paid up for a Flickr Pro account, I've been able to see which is my most visited photo. The search-engine grabbing tit shots perhaps? How about a shag from above? My collection of antenna masts in New Zealand? Amazingly not.

It's this one:


A photo of me in studio, or is it a photo of CNN International anchor Kristie Lu Stout somewhere outside the usual set? Flickr also kindly tells me the referring site, and it is a forum thread on CNNfan.org simply called… Kristie Lu Stout:

Wendy Mok took the picture, I think with Rik O'Shea's camera (yeah I'm still a name-dropper!). The photo data is wrong though, it was taken in late-summer 2004.

So right. Does it make people follow the news more? It does with some, yes. How does it change the authority of a newsreader – either by increasing or decreasing it?

CNN rarely employes unattractive presenters (okay they have that odd western aesthetic with Asian women. Fine), and if your favourite correspondent gets sent to a different bureau or beat, she'll bring your interest with her. Anyway. I'm not going to get intellectual about this because I'm not sufficiently equipped.

To me, for now, yes I reckon it's rather immature.

Back Home

What about radio? Painting your own pictures… how much better is that!

There's a discussion thread about that over at The Sound of Young America (no, I don't understand the branding. Maybe young Americans are very ironic. Many of those I've met are super-well informed and pleasent. I'm stumped by the cheesiness thing though). Anyway, as well as the wholly deserved adoration of Jad Abumrad (can't wait for the new season of Radio Lab, eeee!), and the delightful description of him as "adorkable", there is something I had only the vaguest sense of. That Christopher Lydon. All I know of his work is the Open Source podcast , with The Watson Institute at Brown University, An American conversation with… etc. Okay I thought, he's an academic who's doing a podcast as part of the course. Good on him.

Ah ignorance.

How surprised was I to find on that forum that there's a song about falling in love with Christopher Lydon! And in that song, the heart-broken Dresden Doll sings she won't contribute to NPR… naturally I have educated myself, slightly, about Christopher Lydon's career, though I have a way to go yet on that.

So how about this: Christopher Lydon interviewed the Dresden Dolls!

Musicans write and sing songs, radio producers get ideas of who to interview, and presenters make the sounds that reach us – the touch at a distance.

And in case you don't know it, here is surely one of the greatest break-up songs in the history of fantasy and broadcasting: stream.publicbroadcasting.net/ros/open_source_051005_lydon.mp3

Orientalism, China, radio.

I've just been listening to Studio 360's piece on the poetry of Mao Zedong. Raised some thoughts.

It started in the menu, where they played a clip of a Mao poem being read in English – by what sounded like a Chinese student. I guess I was pre-disposed to question the piece after it flagged itself as representing Mao with a young, weak voice.

The piece itself followed an item on how tyrants (their term), including Mao, ease themselves into the psyche through graphic and architectural art.

The first interviewee was an American expert on Mao – Willis Barnstone. I'd never heard of him so I was immediately interested in what he had to say. I was happy with that, and happy to hear a new voice on modern Chinese history, even if it's one of which I have no contextual knowledge – a glance at his bio is well-impressive.

The next guest, though made me feel less comfortable, when she said Yan'an as if it rhymed with Yemen. I reverted to the old habit of doubting the authority of someone who pronounces the names wrong (a habit that was only slightly softened by how most Chinese Olympians were given names with "jeee" in them for much of August on British TV). It led me to question why both their specialists were Westerners. But with a bit of thought: if I were working on a US radio piece about modern Chines poetry, who would be my first port of call? Prof Heather Inwood at Ohio State University. Though at least I could be sure she'd get the pronunciation right.

The arguments for using a westerner could include how clearly the person will speak English. You have to balance that with the practicality of taking who you can get. That said, for a timeless arts piece, you have little excuse for not getting the best person who will speak to you. And then, perhaps the most significant point: the piece was re-versioned from a podcast. As a podcaster myself, I think that's freaking awesome! But, should that be enough to excuse some weaknesses?

It's maybe a bit harsh of me to say weaknesses. As an independent, producing for little or no money, arranging quality interviews is very tough – sometimes even a TBU is out of the question, and Skype is your only way of getting an interview. While I feel radio has to move away from phone audio where possible to strengthen itself in the age of diverse digital media, I also accept that there are practical difficulties for the individual.

Back to the point of using Western experts. If you're an expert, you're an expert. So it shouldn't matter where you grew up. Where you grew up may mean your starting point is closer to that of the listener – so that would be an example of an American academic being better for Studio 360 than a PRC academic, for example.

Helping a listener see the PRC understanding may be very valuable, and may be very difficult – a level of difficulty that Radio Lab could take on, better than most, although it can be far less comfortable to talk about another race or culture than about science.

But you know, I could have been being sexist or agest too as the speaker was young and female. I'm not sure I'm equipped to examine that.

Now back to the young weak voice – indeed, Mao wrote poetry in his youth, and it is possibly a good challenge to our presuppositions to have him portrayed by an early-20s Chinese student in the US. That's likely a fair comparison to who Mao was in his day.

So this has become more of an analysis, than a criticism: and I would hate to think the producers would be in any way put off by some guy writing stuff on his blog.

And a final note, I don't actually know who read the poetry, how old he is or any of that. Though I know they could have gotten someone pretty good at London Chinese Radio ;-)

UPDATE, Sunday 5 October: With a bit more distance, I've been struck by the obvious point that this story comes from a poetry background, while I was hearing it from a Sinology background. If you work on a poetry podcast, and poetry is you field, of course you will find most of your experts from that field. And that's media – it gets heard by people in all sort of different fields. And to be fair, I was listening to an arts programme, not a history or, um, China Studies programme.

In Brief: Merchandising

Radio 4's Today programme had presenter-head eggcups; NPR allows loyal listeners even more unashamedly celebrate their passion:




It's a tote – which I guess is a more American term for a shopper, or shopping bag, or canvas bag, or cloth bag, or… oh just look at the picture. It's one of those, punning on the name of their Legal Affairs correspondant Nina Totenberg.

Simple pleasures :)

If I had a million dollars (or two thousand pounds)

Wildeye Bulletin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First of all, news of an exciting new trip for 2009. As with all things with Chris Watson we expect places to go fast - so do let us know asap if you'd like to book a place...

Wildlife Sound Recording in Northern India with Chris Watson

A unique opportunity to record the rich sounds of the jungles of Northern India accompanied by experienced wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson.

Our base will be Camp Forktail Creek - a forest home surrounded by a dense Sal forest and moist jungles and the only ‘jungle’ camp of its kind within Corbett Tiger Reserve, offering exclusivity in game viewing, great walks and explorations on foot. Corbett National Park was the first National Park founded in Asia and being an excellent habitat for the Bengal Tiger, “Project Tiger” was launched here in 1973. Corbett is also rich in avifauna with counts of over 600 bird species.

From Camp you could get great sound recordings of Great Hornbill, Slaty Woodpecker, Oriental Scops Owl, Spot bellied Eagle Owl, Brown Hawk Owl, Large Tailed Nightjar, Indian Cuckoo, Common Hawk Cuckoo, Cheetal, Barking deer and monkey alarm calls and if lucky a leopard sawing.

As can be seen at http://www.wildeye.co.uk/india.html, we have a fantastic itinerary planned with walks, game drives into various parts of the park, night expeditons, and, with luck, elephant-back safaris. Although the focus will be on recording wildlife and natural atmospheres there will also be opportunities to record the wonderful sounds of the people and villages of the area. As April is wedding time in the area we may get lucky with a wedding in the village or a prayer ceremony in a local temple.

Dates: Sun 29th March - Wed 8th April 2009

Costs: £1,990 per person. Includes international flights, all local travel in India, accommodation and full board (apart from expenses of personal nature like phone calls, postage, laundry, tips, alcoholic beverages)

Booking: To check availability contact: info@wildeye.co.uk
If places are available you will be asked to pay a deposit of £500 per person to secure your booking.
Places are strictly limited so early booking is recommended.

Wildlife sound recording with Chris Watson

I have had the pleasure of attending two workshops run by Chris Watson – one of the most respected natural-sound recordists around, and the choice of the BBC. He was also an avant garde musician of the 70s and 80s. And, he's lovely!

The first workshop was organised by the Museum of Garden History in Lambeth (well done Chris Potts), and the second was by the Wildlife section of the British Library Sound Archive (well done Cheryl Tipp).

So a lot of like-minded people met and talked and listened and learned and felt warm and fuzzy.

We all learned a lot of techniques and skills from Chris. The biggest benefit for me was the encouragement that you are free and perfectly entitled to go out, get gear, drive and walk out to a hide and record, edit, compose, and perform. You can do it all. There's no need to fear you aren't as microphone-minded as some, no need to fear the editing, no need to think you don't deserve a podcast or a public exhibition.

I've increased my podcast output a lot since the workshops, and that can only be good!

London Calling

Watcha!

Back again, this time from good old London town. As ever I'll make my excuses and promise a longer post soon – in this case on a fab natural sound recording workshop with the one and only Chris Watson.

In the meantime, some bits and bobs: 

• Virgin Radio is still IDing as Virgin Radio.
• There are new carpets in the centre block of Bush House
• London Chinese Radio has a studio on Camberwell Road, and will be web-streaming live from next week
• Maplin doesn't (seem to) sell skinny mic cable.

How did I miss this?

In April 2007, a momentous milestone was met, as The Onion reported at the time:

This American Life Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence

Another top Documentary on One

The most recent edition of RTÉ's Documentary on One is a cracker.

Who fears to speak of '98? is about events in Gaelic Games in 1998 – I know little about the sport and have no memories of those events, but can still enjoy this doc. It presents the drama of sport through radio features techniques – and also brings a sense of wider tension, in the air around the stadium. The editing is great – nice techniques that create the atmosphere and feelings needed, without disgruntling some of the more traditionally mined listeners who are probably still significant for this slot.

For listeners outside Ireland there may be some accent and vocabulary difficulties, but I think it's still worth listening to!

Physical gallery show for Martin Williams

A gallery in London is to exhibit ten pieces by Martin Williams. Details below! I know a couple of the pieces, Billy, Pack it Up Will You? is (to my ears) classic Martin. And The Tourist has just been featured again on the Third Coast Festival's weekly radio show and podcast.

I have a notion I've heard some of the others, but I'd like to hear them again as my own awareness has changed. But I won't get a chance as I won't be in London!

The details:

MARTIN WILLIAMS

YORKSHIRE RELISH
-10 pieces for radio

3-6 July 2008: Thur 3/7: 6-9pm and Fri 4/7 - Sun 6/7: 12-6pm
Lorem Ipsum Gallery, 2b Vyner Street, London, E2 9HE


The Lorem Ipsum Gallery is pleased to present Yorkshire Relish - ten pieces for radio by Martin Williams.


“I put the dowt behind my ear and walked through to the kitchen. The switch! Electricity! The Slot! Jesus no shilling. No breakfast. Overcome with despair I sat down, close to tears.My mind was completely blank for some time. Then. Raw eggs! Very healthy. Yes and there was some Yorkshire Relish to mix in.”
-from Wednesday by James Kelman



Billy, Pack it Up Will You? (30mins)
A found photograph... midnight taxi journeys... false memories.
Featuring the voices of Polly Frame, Leah from Alderney St. cemetery, a handful of taxi drivers and folk from the street.

The Person I’m Talking About (15mins)
Combining an account of the inexorable progression of coastal erosion with inter-connected stories extrapolated from fleeting observations.
And songs.
Originally made for the Resonance FM series All Day Everyday. Featuring the voices of Malcolm Kirby, John the newsagent and customers.

He Always Did, He Always Will (30mins)
Melancholy dada: nonsense made musical.

Property is Theft (13mins)
A tea-towel from the washing line was found on the bedroom floor. All the drawers downstairs were open and their contents scattered.
Taking stock in the aftermath of a burglary.
With bowed guitar and home-insurance claim forms.

Two Thousand and Six (60mins)
Constructed out of a series of recordings made each day for a year.
Three hundred-and-sixty-five days as banal bricolage.

News From Cuba (30mins)
A sound portrait of Cuba.

I Can Remember It Very Well (30mins)
Radiophonic collage: ablutions, Baudrillard and bagpipes.

The Tourist (30mins)
The oblique saga of a fictional traveller.
The Tourist is lost. He can't sleep, or tune out the music emanating all around. Secretly he looks forward to the journey home.
Including quotes from James Clifford's Routes, John Berger's Here is Where We Meet and William Basinski's The Garden of Brokenness. Featuring the voices of Ana Bonaldo, Haimo Li and Maike Zimmermann.

Sometimes I think You Too Sweet to Die (30mins)
Musicalised hokum.

At Home the Woman Read the Words Aloud (13mins)
Home-spun stories.
Including a quote from Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Originally made for the Resonance FM series No Place like Home.


For further information please phone Birthe Jorgensen: 44 079841 53375, e-mail: birthejorgensen@loremipsumgallery.com

AJE Witness Special on Polynesians and Taiwan

Wooooow…

What a terrific show. "Made in Taiwan" is a Witness Special by Al Jazeera English, where a Samoan and Cook Islander analyse their genes, and follow the path they make.

I had known for years that Pacific Islanders, it's generally held, originate from Taiwan. That was a bit of information in my head.

And I had known how girls on the streets of Auckland would remind me of a Taiwanese woman.

But this show brought it together. I spent ten months in New Zealand, until mid-May, then two weeks with American-Taiwanese. The faces, accents and attitude reminded me of my diggs in Auckland and working Radio New Zealand International.

And it somehow worked deeper. This programme moved (me at least) in both the head and the heart. Ace programme.


I can't find it on their website or YouTube channel – I'll post an update if I do!

Edirol R-09 RIP again

A week ago, my Edirol R-09 got a soaking, and in spite of being left next to a toasty Aga for a day, no longer works.

:(

Thinking of an Olympus LS-10 as a replacement, but I should earn some radio-money first!

New series of All Day Everyday

I missed most of the first series, even though I thought I'd set Audio Hijack Pro to record…

Anyway, Martin Williams is producing more All Day Everyday for Resonance FM. 

A L L    D A Y    E V E R Y D A Y
Every Wednesday at 5:45pm on Resonance FM – 104.4fm in London – worldwide via the internet: www.resonancefm.com.
 
Reflections on the mundane and the miraculous.
 
As if in response to Walter Benjamin's belief that the everyday is saturated with the marvellous, All Day Everyday presents an array of artists addressing the quotidian – the beauty and banality ever-present in the everyday.
 
Documentaries, musical compositions, radio drama, essays, poetry, soundscapes, performance, interviews…
 
Series produced by Martin Williams
http://www.notfarfromhere.co.uk/
 
Details of the next few programmes in the series…
 
Wed June 18th:
Tartu Sound by Murmer
In February, 2008, Maksims Shentelevs and Patrick McGinley led a workshop in the southeastern Estonian city of Tartu entitled Sound as Space/Sound as Language with a group of 15 Estonian and Finnish university students. The work focused on a development of deep listening skills, and on the use of sound as a communication tool, or as a way to describe or create real or imaginary spaces. Only acoustic objects, brought in by the participants, and elements of the space itself (floorboards, walls, windows, chairs) were used during the two-day workshop. This piece, intertwined with reactions by a few of the participants, was composed by Patrick McGinley using recordings made of the workshop exercises.
Murmer, aka Patrick McGinley, is a sound artist and composer.
http://www.murmerings.com
 
Wed June 25th:       
Boots Brown: All Day Everyday by David Grubbs
The Swedish improvising group Boots Brown takes its name from a pseudonym once used by the clarinetist and saxophone player Jimmy Giuffre. Guiffre came up with the name for a recording session in order to sidestep the demands of a recording contract. The current Boots Brown is premised on the perhaps impossible melding of free improvisation and the kind of US West Coast jazz for which Jimmy Giuffre was a key figure.

This short programme, Boots Brown: All Day Everyday, takes as its subject a set up and soundcheck prior to Boots Brown's concert on 25th April 2008 at the Bunker in Bielefeld, Germany. It is inspired by the series of documentaries that Luc Ferrari and Gérard Patris made for French television in the mid-1960s under the title Les Grandes Répétitions. These five documentaries about musicians in rehearsal beautifully capture the sounds of the comparatively empty time that leads up to a performance. I've also admired Leonard Cohen's idea on Live Songs of recording the final song on a live album in his hotel room after the show. The live recording was made prior to the concert.

Boots Brown consists of Mats Gustafsson on saxophones and electronics; Magnus Broo, trumpet and, at least during this soundcheck, opera singing; David Stackenäs on guitar; and Johan Berthling on double bass.

On the day of this performance, Jimmy Giuffre died at his home in Massachusetts at the age of 86.
David Grubbs is a New York-based musician and writer.
http://www.dragcity.com/bands/grubbs.html 
 
Wed July 2nd:          
All Day Everyday by Esther Leslie
This mini-radio lecture in high-flown scientific language backed by quotidian sound effects is an exploration of the everyday as lodged in the microworlds of domesticity and the macroworld of the cosmos, directed by SM Eisenstein and montaged of Marx's Capital and Joyce's Ulysses.
Esther Leslie is Professor of Political Aesthetics, Birkbeck College, London
http://www.militantesthetix.co.uk/
 
Wed July 9th:           
Doors: Through and Into: Brooklyn: Winter ‘07-8 by Rick Moody & Laura Vitale
Inspired by Sun Ra’s Door Squeak piece from 1967, Doors: Through and Into is a sound collage constructed from the multifarious doorways of Brooklyn.
 
Bathroom doors, garage doors, elevator doors, subway doors, doors on municipal buses, car doors, apartment doors, doors to various appliances…
 
In addition to the doors themselves, Rick Moody and Laura Vitale present the passage between spaces, from public to private and back again, always through the lovely, musical thresholds that are a regular part of everyone’s daily fare.
Rick Moody is a novelist and short story writer.
Laura Vitale is a NY-based sound artist and radio producer.
 
Wed July 16th:
Everyday Indeterminacy by Catherine Dyson & Martin Williams
In pastiche of John Cage & David Tudor’s Indeterminacy, Catherine Dyson reads a series of everyday yarns at a rate of one per minute, accompanied by a series of minute-long accompaniments by Martin Williams, each component recorded with no knowledge of the other.
Catherine Dyson is a writer and theatre artist.

Lest WE forget

On Richard Sambrook's blog today:

In Memorium

Blogger issues sorted

So now I have no excuses for not keeping you up-to-date here ;-)

Blog difficulties

I'm still having difficulties with anything under https://google.com, so my blog posts will continue to be irregular – sorry!

Beginnings (sort of)

A recent post to the Radio Lab blog reveals the first ever piece made by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich.

It rather wonderfully reminded me of a piece I made myself.

This is the item I made for London Huayu Chinese Radio, with another volunteer, Jia Nuo. It was her first ever radio piece.

The first voice you hear is CD host Chen Li, then the corny (pre-presenter-training) me, then Jia Nuo.

Have a listen.

I'll provide a text translation if someone asks for it.

I was working in the BBC World Service at the time, so it wasn't a challenge to get the sound effects, and in the wondrous Bush House Grams Library: "I'd like some 16th century Spanish court music please".
"Sure there you go"

I think I may have recorded the coins myself though.

I admit there is a corniness to it – intentionally, really. Because this is informative radio for immigrants – and we reckon that's not a space for Ira Glass' Big Ideas.

Ok so Ira Glass and This American Life producer Julie Schnider both said the proto-Radio Lab was awful. Whaddya think?

Poem by TS Elliot, To Walter De La Mare

In my head-in-the-clouds mood of late, I spent time before and after some shifts in the library in Radio New Zealand. Among the books is a collection of TS Elliot poetry, and one in particular struck me. It's called To Walter de la Mare.
Not meaning to infringe copyright, I'll just quote some of the parts which I think talk perfectly to those of us in radio:

When the familiar scene is suddenly strange
Or the well known is what we have yet to learn,
And two worlds meet, and intersect, and change;

…

By whom, and by what means, was this designed?
The whispered incantation which allows
Free passage to the phantoms of the mind?

By you; by those deceptive cadences
Wherewith the common measure is refined;
By conscious art practised with natural ease;

By the delicate, invisible web you wove –
The inexplicable mystery of sound.

Leaving RNZ

I've left Radio New Zealand: it's been fun!

T'would be silly to start naming the names of who I'll miss, who's been good to me – they are a lovely bunch. I've fulfilled most of my goals in Radio NZ, which is most satisfying. I've made features with Jack Perkins, I've seen Sadie in action – unfortunately not had the chance to learn how to use it – and I've worked in Radio New Zealand International! Getting back on shortwave was fab I have to say.

I must also admit that for about the last week in RNZ, I was getting into a more features frame of mind. Shame every shift I did was news then! So I managed to use phrases like "kneck and kneck", and, I suspect, put through a few more, well, "entertaining" stories than usual. It's not much of a revelation to say I'm more of a features man than news.

In the two weeks since I left, I've been travelling around New Zealand's South Island. It's been a surprise to find how there is no FM coverage of Radio New Zealand in many of the tourist settlements, and only poor mediumwave – sometimes none at all.

However, contrary to the situation in some other countries, the commercial stations do provide coverage, where the state broadcaster doesn't.

Assumedly, they see the commercial benefits of local advertising and programming mixed in with the networked output.

Wouldn't it be fair to expect that enough people to constitute a "market" also deserve to be served by a service paid for out of taxes? I expect the RNZ response would be that the money is limited – it certainly is, and they do an exemplary job with that they have – and that providing the best possible content is a priority. It is available on DTH satellite over basically the whole country after all.

Can't access blogger at home!

Added to RNZI.com, it's just not working at home! So I have to use a proxy…

London Huayu on the Olympic flame in London

If you want to hear what it was like on the ground in London when the Olympic flame visited, then London Huayu Chinese Radio's page is excellent.

The blue text in the middle is a selection of audio links.

Some of it is lovely, some of it is sad.

There are no pictures of Konnie Huq but it's still worth a listen!

Antarctic hydrophone

Forget my paltry attempts with a hydrophone – this is awesome!

PALAOA - Transmitting live from the Ocean below the Antarctic Ice


Overview PALAOA area
You can listen to the underwater sound of the Antarctic Ocean with a delay of a few seconds here.


Please note, this transmission is not meant for entertainment primilary, but for scientific research. It is highly compressed (24kBit Ogg-Vorbis), so sound quality is not perfect. Additionally, sounds may be very faint. The amplifier settings are a compromise between picking up distant animal voices and not overcharging the system by nearby calving icebergs. So please beware of sudden extreamely loud events.

Providing an acoustic live stream of the Antarctic underwater soundscape is a formidable challange. After all, more than 15000 km lie between Antarctica and our institute in Germany. Underwater sound is recorded by means of two hydrophones by PALAOA, an autonomous, wind and solar powered observatory located on the Ekström ice shelf (Boebel et al., 2006). The data stream is transmitted via wireless LAN from PALAOA to the German Neumayer Base. From there, a permanent satellite link transmits the data to the AWI in Germany. A constant hiss pervading the signal is the natural, isotropic background noise made audible here through the use of ultra sensitive hydrophones. Additional broad band noise caused by wind, waves and currents adds to it on occasion. Due to the limited bandwith of the satellite link, jamming of the WLAN link due to storms, or energy shortage, the connection might temporarily be down or scrammed. In this case, please dial in later!

The Takeaway – new US morning Current Affairs show

A new breakfast news show goes on air three weeks from now.

As the news release says:

New morning drive news program to be produced in editorial collaboration with The BBC World Service, The New York Times, and WGBH Boston

There's a full FAQ that's worth a read. Here's one snippit:

The Takeaway will be broadcast live, rather than featuring pre-recorded interviews and long pre-produced features.
It will deliver all the journalistic depth and excellence that WNYC listeners expect, while offering a dynamic and conversational tone.
It will feature two hosts talking together live in the studio, interviewing guests and responding to listeners on-air and online. Listeners will hear the day’s news and cultural stories — as they are happening — with live reports from the field, along with commentary and analysis from a range of contributors around the table and around the world.

They're promising lots of listener interaction too.

I'm looking forward to this, and I'd love to see behind the scenes too!

Tibet etc

I try not to go on about nationalism here – because if your memories of teenage life in Ireland involve going to peace rallies with strangers in town, and the shock – hundreds of kilometres away – of the Omagh bombing, then you'll probably not think nationalism is the best thing ever.

Anyway, good aggregative blog post on nationalism and media, in China, from Cam at Zhongnanhai.

Complaints to Radio Lab

A recent interviewee of Radio Lab's has contacted them to complain about… um…

Actually I think he just wrote in to grumble. Maybe he was having a tough day or something. Part of it was grumpy-old-man stuff "they put music under someone speaking that's dreadful". Another part was something I have more sympathy for. It's the misalignment that sometimes happens between academics and broadcasters. Ok so let's discount the trivial aims and staff that (not to put a tooth in it) are too common in TV. Let's stick with radio.

Plenty of academics hate having their work edited, they hate having their stamp removed. And a colleague being media-friendly can be a handy outlet for academic snobbery.

But we love them all the same!



And my do I love Radio Lab.

Have a look at the comments.

One in particular put it well, I thought:

I’m a Czech women, musicologist, musician, and for 20 years, a former radio executive producer-author at the French public radio station (France Culture) in Paris. I came in US recently, for my husband’s work. I listen to KPBS and NPR very often, every day; I love radio, I need it. Here in US, I try also to learn English by listening to it. In a very general way, I appreciate considerably the quality of NPR/PRI/KPBS shows. I pitched incidentally upon this particular program, my attention was immediately caught, I stayed with it until the end and - I was literally enrapt: I didn’t know until this moment that it was possible to do & to present such a good, fine, sophisticated radio work in this country. I wanted to know more about the Radio Lab I had never heard before.
Then I discovered this unbelievable letter from Mr. Fox. First I thought I had made a mistake… This is the reason I dare to write you, to express my thanks to the authors of this excellent radio piece (almost a sort of Hörspiel), and to give my contribution to the discussion.
The main (only real) issue here is, in my opinion, the question of a common preliminary agreement. If the purpose and the way of intended use (editing, fragmenting, contextualising) of the interview was exposed and explained to Mr. Fox before his interview, there is no reason to complain. So my question is, was it explained to him beforehand ?
In any case, his reaction is completely inadequate, ugly, obnoxious.
Thank you for your attention.
Daniela Langer

Yes, I think this is almost a sot of Hörspiel, but it's more than that, as it's a different genre. Radio Lab has broken the moulds. It'll be remembered. I'm well-chuffed to be of its generation!

Oops!

Just now I accidentally deleted my iTunes library, so when I re-loaded the files, the played tatus of my Podcasts was reset – this just a week after I backed-up and deleted the first five months worth. So the figure would be higher, but…

Radio Taiwan International Cyber Museum

This is really cool! Lot's of interesting technical stuff (in Times so not very easy on the eye unfortunately), cool design, and a really funky play studio – some parts are more entertaining and intriguing if you can speak or read Chinese – they seem to have a bit of a Chairman Mao thing going on there – well I suppose it is a museum.

Anyway, it's really cool!

The Radio Taiwan International Cyber Museum.

I feel like such a fraud.

When I lived in Auckland, I would watch the Pheonix News & Info bulletin relayed in the evenings on WTV's terrestrial Chinese channel. It felt nice and homely – not that I'd ever watched it before*, and sure, the political stuff was… not very inspiring. But I quite liked the presenter. And ok she was cute but I did convince myself that was just a small part of it.

I thought though that I was also assessing her as a news reader, based on her sense of authority, how engaging she was, her presence, and the stodgier qualities like voice and diction.

But it would seem I was deceiving myself.

Oh, the presenter's name? Jiang Xinrong. Didn't mean anything to me. But maybe it should have, given that in 2003, she (aged 19) became the first ever Miss China.

And here's a nauseating TV show including her, in her diamond tiara, saying how winning a beauty contest changed her life.

Ok so I just based it on cuteness. Poo.


* Never say never. I think it was on one of their bulletins on Pheonix CNE, when in Ireland, that I learned about the Hemepl Hempsted fire in December 2005 – together with a Chinese speaker from London, that took us off guard I'll say.

The Diary of Leanne Wolfe

Gut-wrenching documentary from December.

It's wonderful. I hope it wins awards.

It's on the RTÉ website here.

It's the diary of a girl who was bullied.

My own time being bullied seems very meagre now.

Mark Mardell and complaints

Revisited. He's doing, again, what I consider to me model responses to complaints to the BBC. Lord knows they get a ton of them – when I was there on a quiet late shift I'd go through the listener logs on the intranet for a giggle. It's interesting to see how people can love and loath the same things, and enlightening. But it can get tiresome sometimes too, the things people complain about. I mean, I try to listen to six hours of radio a day, but I still
know I can't say "you didn't cover this"!

Anyway, well done as ever Mr Mardell.

Fab podcast

Facebook is funny. I waste my non-working life on it. So sometimes, just to spite Facebook, I waste my non-working like on the Public Radio Exchange, which is far less of a waste.

So doing I've just stumbled on a fab podcast. The I Hate Poetry Hour Half Hour, and related funny stuff.

I've only heard a little bit, and with my unlistened podcasts up around 150, I really shouldn't add more. But this is great – it's a nice change to return to the "early days" of podcasts, when I can hear podcasts that aren't regular radio or corporate programmes.

Okay I'm possibly being a bit harsh on Nature Stories, Nature, and Open Source. I like them all (that's why I subscribe to them, duh), but they are more or less branded, I guess, in contrast to the "it's just me" early days.

This was supposed to be saying "hey listen to this podcast" but instead it's become a piece about how to me, podcasting and YouTube etc is more a way of accessing content from established providers, rather than a way of seeing the great creativity of all those "users" on the web.

And this only two days after I told myself to stop using the internet when half asleep, as it just causes trouble… sigh.

Back to Spent Cattle and the I Hate Poetry Hour Half Hour (I like saying that).

He puts music in it, which switches me out. Not being musical, I never got Flight of the Conchords or the Mighty Boosh when they went all musical. Went over my head. Missed out on being ahead of the curve there it seems. Who knows, maybe the World Service's Next Big Thing really has become the next big thing, and I haven't noticed. I can see it's a good idea though.

If you like brain-pushing stuff and tongue in cheek, check out The I Hate Poetry Hour Half Hour.

The wreck of the SS Penguin

I've had a busy couple of weeks – finishing a feature, and starting in Radio New Zealand International. RNZI is so fab – I'll perhaps write about it later. For now thought, I want to talk about the feature.

It'll be broadcast today, on Afternoons with Jim Moira (though it may be presented by Noelle again today).

In the middle of January, Diedre Wogan brought me on a tour of the graves of people who died in the SS Penguin, in 1909.

Anyway. It's the best piece I've done yet – and Jack Perkins even made me beam by describing it as "very good"!

It was edited by Gareth Watkins, of Access Radio as well as RNZ. A ridiculously nice man. And being a studio operator working on a feature in a big ol' Sadie suit, he is, needless to say, a magician. Gosh I love Sadie! I think Jack Perkins even has a poem of adoration to Sadie on his office wall.

As we were editing it, Diedre Wogan phoned me to ask when it would go out – what a coincidence! As she said herself, we were on the same wavelength.

It was the start of 12 days work for me, including a few news shifts in Radio New Zealand International – that was fab! Great to be back on shortwave. Shortwave + features = Connor in the groove. Incidentally since I replaced our wired router with a Wi-Fi one, I can't access the RNZI website. Very odd.

Anyway. HUGE thanks to Diedre, the Karori Historical Society, Gareth, and Phil who was watching as we edited (he's the fourth Phil I've met in RNZ. Like Steves in the World Service I reckon).

###
OK OK! So I'm over a week late! I'm not good at self-promotion. I apologise! Here it is, with my mistake in the cue – it should be the worst civilian shipwreck. I think I did write ninety-nine there though, not ninety.

More unfounded BBC-Bashing

I admit to being particularly interested in the work Mark Mardell does. He has a difficult role which he seems to relish, and that's a wee bit inspirational. I'm a fan.

And in this post he posts what I think is an uncommonly cogent response to criticism, by a BBC staffer.

I'm all with Mark Mardell on this one.

When an idiot acts like an idiot, and attacks you in the process, then reply. So well done Mark.

Some of his colleagues perhaps need to note though, that if they aren't able to reply as fairly to criticism as Mark Mardell does in this, then maybe the criticism is valid. Shock horror!

Radio Lab Blog

The best show on the radio has a blog, yay!

The things people complain about!

I'm not up to finding a polite way of framing this, from a group I am apart of:

BBC reporters going undercover as birders!

Today the BBC made no bones about using reporters disguised as
birders to get into Zimbabwe, illegally gaining access to areas off
limits to reporters. This behavior clearly raises the suspicion of
some government leaders against valid birders and other nature
enthusiasts. The BBC has endangered us all with their illegal behavior.

I have sent them the following letter:

"I was shocked and angered that you would have one of your reporters
masquerade as a birder to enter the country of Zimbabwe. Then, worst
of all, you published this openly on the radio. This clearly puts
all valid birders, nature photographers and recorders, and other
valid tourists at a new risk of suspicion and harm. As a nature
recordist and birder myself, I already fall under unwarranted
suspicion when I use my binoculars and recording equipment in out-of-
the-way places. Now you have validated the suspicions that should
have remained unfounded.

"You clearly owe a major apology to all the nature enthusiasts and
scientists you have now endangered. You also should make a public
statement that such behavior will never again be tolerated by your
reporters.


As you, as a nature recordists group, have now been affected, I
wanted to let you know.

Thanks,

Wow! Cool!

Very cool.

CBC Radio's Spark is making an episode on a wiki – not about a wiki, but by means of a wiki.

Exciting!

The Onion does Radio too!

Woo-hoo!