Partly because of speechification, and partly for work reasons I've been thinking a lot recently about how radio might, and should, change. One of the great and exciting possibilities it seems to me is for radio to show more of its working, to let you peek behind the scenes a little. iPM is doing that very well, and Pods and Blogs (and presumably the presence of Chris Vallance doing both programmes is not a coincidence) but I also have to say hats-off to WNYC's RadioLab for what they're doing with their podcast.
They're not on air at the moment, they're working on series 4, but they're still podcasting, letting you hear some of what would seem to be raw material for the shows they've got coming up. Interviews, features etc. They're not finished and polished with the same Piers Plowright meets Art Of Noise sonic intensity of their regular shows but they're still great little listens, and they maintain your relationship with the show while they're off air. This tiny little feature on what composer David Lang did when asked to write music for a morgue is a perfect, and touching example.
It's a little different to what you're talking about, but I'd definitely check out stickam, it's a kind of social-networking-with-webcams affair, a lot of people have set up their own web radio where they play music and present just like a regular station but you can watch them at it live as well - kind of an extention of the bbc studio webcam I guess
Posted by: Tom | February 05, 2008 at 06:51 PM
Radio is soooo amazing. I got completely lost recently, following some of your links to the random phone booth shows. I often think of the voice of that woman who didn't want to talk to the presenter, and then eventually told the story of her dead parents. Such a big drama, in such a small, fragile recording.
I hope that the audio medium will survive. It forces us creatives to think on a deeper, more intuitive and more special level.
Slightly off-topic, but there you go.
Posted by: Leon Jacobs | February 10, 2008 at 02:02 PM