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…