March 17, 2013
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! To honour the land of my family and my birth, let’s look at the first radio broadcasts in the Irish Free State. The Irish public broadcaster, now called RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann), first broadcast on January 1, 1926. You can hear that first broadcast on RTÉ’s website. It’s a neat clip, despite being rather crackly, and in Irish. The broadcast features Douglas Hyde, the future President of Ireland and a scholar of the Irish language.  Then listen to Jimmy Mahon talk about his experiences in the early days of Irish radio.  “We had an amplifier, a huge bloomin’ thing… We had to hire a microphone if we had anything special. We had to hire a microphone from Standard Telephones. An inspector had to go for that, they wouldn’t give it to the ordinary Joe.” Then have a Guinness! (Or at least have a pack of Tayto and some Cadbury Buttons.)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

To honour the land of my family and my birth, let’s look at the first radio broadcasts in the Irish Free State.

The Irish public broadcaster, now called RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann), first broadcast on January 1, 1926. You can hear that first broadcast on RTÉ’s website. It’s a neat clip, despite being rather crackly, and in Irish. The broadcast features Douglas Hyde, the future President of Ireland and a scholar of the Irish language. 

Then listen to Jimmy Mahon talk about his experiences in the early days of Irish radio. 

“We had an amplifier, a huge bloomin’ thing… We had to hire a microphone if we had anything special. We had to hire a microphone from Standard Telephones. An inspector had to go for that, they wouldn’t give it to the ordinary Joe.”

Then have a Guinness! (Or at least have a pack of Tayto and some Cadbury Buttons.)

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Filed under: Ireland RTE public broadcasting public radio Irish Free State Irish language St. Patricks Day radio Tayto 
February 20, 2013

Have you guys seen Pontypool?

It’s a Canadian zombie movie set in a small-town Ontario radio station. And it’s as great as that sounds. (Which is really great!)

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Filed under: pontypool zombies Canadian film radio small towns 
February 19, 2013
This is the big, weird, wild, awesome building in Paris designed by Henry Bernard to house public broadcaster Radio France. Film-maker Nicolas Philibert is releasing a documentary about the ins and outs of Radio France and the people who work there, appropriately titled La Maison de la Radio. See some stills from the movie here Read Variety’s review here Listen to Radio France here

This is the big, weird, wild, awesome building in Paris designed by Henry Bernard to house public broadcaster Radio France.

Film-maker Nicolas Philibert is releasing a documentary about the ins and outs of Radio France and the people who work there, appropriately titled La Maison de la Radio.

See some stills from the movie here

Read Variety’s review here

Listen to Radio France here

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(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: radio france maison de la radio paris henry bernard nicolas philibert public broadcasting public radio radio documentary 
January 28, 2013
Thread: an app for capturing stories

The Knight News Challenge has awarded $330,000 to an oral history app called Thread.

In a thank-you speech, Thread co-found Kacie Kinzer explained the impetus for creating the app, saying “Everybody has these stories, every body has stories big and small—significant and mundane—that shape their families, shape their understanding. Our families, in some ways, are our stories.”

Kinzer says the project came together out of an “urgent sense of need and personal goal of capturing these family stories.” 

She and the other founders want the technology to be simple to use and as unobtrusive as possible. Sticking professional-grade recording tools in your mom’s face can take her out of the moment and she might tell the story of her 30th birthday surprise party like she was telling it to some stranger. 

I’m not totally sure how a mobile or tablet app will fix that problem. A recorder’s a recorder’s a recorder. Right? Though I suppose using a ubiquitous tool like an iPad could mean it’s that bit easier to ignore. And that’s the goal of Thread, from what I can see: ignore the technology and focus on replicating the natural rhythms of telling stories at the kitchen table. 

Sounds good. 

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Filed under: thread oral histories audio stories radio knight news challenge nieman journalism lab 
January 24, 2013
"Act like the world is full of invisible microphones."

— And other advice for radio makers new and not-so-new at Transom

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Filed under: Transom radio j-school learning 
January 20, 2013
Cornell University: World’s largest natural sound archive now fully digital and fully online.

cornelluniversity:

“In terms of speed and the breadth of material now accessible to anyone in the world, this is really revolutionary,” says audio curator Greg Budney, describing a major milestone just achieved by the Macaulay Library archive at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. All archived analog recordings in the collection, going back to 1929, have now been digitized and can be heard at www.MacaulayLibrary.org

“Now that we’ve digitized the previously archived analog recordings, the archival team is focusing on new material from amateur and professional recordists from around the world to really, truly build the collection,” Budney said. “Plus, it’s just plain fun to listen to these sounds. Have you heard the sound of a walrus underwater? It’s an amazing sound.”

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Filed under: radio archives cornell university Macaulay Library sound art audiofiles 
January 3, 2013
"Broadcasting, as audio ad genius Tony Schwartz told me insistently, is ‘not a medium of information; it’s a medium of (emotional) effects.’ That must go for most interviews, most conversations. It’s not those facts and figures that sink deep so much as the excitement and passion, boredom or hypocrisy they’re pitched with. Studs Terkel celebrated ‘that fabulous instrument, vox humana.’ Voice came first, in evolution and to everyone in childhood; and voice is still freighted with endless key signals of connection. So use the hell out of it."

— That tip and nine more from broadcaster Chris Lydon over at Transom

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Filed under: radio journalism interviewing Studs Terkel Transom.org broadcasting Chris Lydon 
December 31, 2012

laphamsquarterly:

Important Lincoln moment you guys!

nprfreshair:

150 years ago today, on December 31, 1862, President Lincoln decided to go forward with the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s an anniversary worth pausing to consider. Here, then, is an audio montage of the voices of former slaves speaking about their experiences to the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. It was put together by producer Eric Mennel for the radio show BackStory with the American History Guys (my alma mater) for a show they did devoted to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Here, too, is an interesting piece — “On America’s Most Important New Year’s Eve, Lincoln Found Our Better Angels” — by David Shribman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Fresh Air interview with Tony Kushner about his screenplay for Lincoln.

And the FA interview Adam Goodheart on the Civil War.

-Nell

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(Notes: 235)
  
Filed under: Lincoln radio Emancipation Proclomation 1930s history Civil War 
December 21, 2012

Gizmodo is highlighting a “make your own radio” app called Mixlr. 

I don’t understand yet how to broadcast your own stuff, but hearing other people’s “stations” is enough reason to enjoy the app.

So far my favourites are BBC2 and some station that I thought was about Jesus but now I am pretty sure is about Satan. They’ve played some scripture-like spoken word bits, then a documentary about Hitler and the S.S.’s experiments with the occult, a doc about Russian witch-guy Rasputin, and then something about Alestair Crowley, the Beatles’ favourite satanist.   

Connecting to weird random world on the radio is one of the reasons I love the radio, so thank you Mixlr.

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Filed under: radio apps radio mixlr Rasputin Boney M BBC2 
December 20, 2012
broadcastarchive-umd: Before Simon Cowell, there was Major Bowes! “Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour (1935-1946), American radio’s best-known talent show, was one of the most popular programs broadcast in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. It was created and hosted by Edward Bowes (1874–1946)… “Each week, Bowes would chat with the contestants and listen to their performances… Bowes was known for his quick dispatch of untalented performers by sounding either a loud bell (similar to that used to denote the end of a boxing round) or a gong (thus inspiring a later series, The Gong Show, 1976-1980).” - from WIkipedia

broadcastarchive-umd:

Before Simon Cowell, there was Major Bowes!

“Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour (1935-1946), American radio’s best-known talent show, was one of the most popular programs broadcast in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. It was created and hosted by Edward Bowes (1874–1946)…

“Each week, Bowes would chat with the contestants and listen to their performances… Bowes was known for his quick dispatch of untalented performers by sounding either a loud bell (similar to that used to denote the end of a boxing round) or a gong (thus inspiring a later series, The Gong Show, 1976-1980).” - from WIkipedia

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(Notes: 3)