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I was at a radio and digital technologies event at the BBC last week, and had the opportunity to speak with audio research engineer Anthony Churnside in the busy Radio Theatre cafe. As soon as we started to talk about what he does for a living, we ran into sematic difficulties.
What’s radio? What’s broadcasting? What’s quality? What’s an audience?
Anthony is at the cutting edge of what’s possible with sound – and pulls back the curtain on what’s in development. Forget 5.1 – 22.2 surround sound anyone?
- Published:
- March 24, 2012 – 11:01 am
- Author:
- By Dubber
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So here’s something I didn’t know – and I’ve been to Colombia: Kidnapping is so common in Colombia, there is a radio show aimed specifically at kidnapping victims. Family members ring in with messages and sometimes victims will listen late at night with their captors.
Kidnapping’s scary as all hell – and this episode of This American Life doesn’t make it any less scary – in fact, if anything, it makes it seem more real – but there are practical tips for what to do if you are kidnapped – and, of course, it wouldn’t be This American Life if they didn’t look at kidnapping from a number of different angles.
This is just one reason that this show is (to my mind) one of the best shows on radio in the world. And one reason that sometimes, I can’t listen all the way through.
Tagged: Colombia, TAL
- Published:
- March 4, 2012 – 2:33 pm
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- By Dubber
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This evening, BBC Radio 1 have started putting live video of the Official Chart Show online, and intercutting the in-studio presenter talk on webcam with pre-recorded video segments, as well as music promo clips that correspond to the songs playing on the radio.
It’s an interesting blend of audio and video media, and the production technology behind it is fascinating. It’d be a great show to be able to watch being made (not just through the cameras). They’re using the three fixed webcams in the Radio 1 studio, and vision-switching between live in studio content and what would traditionally be called VT (though of course, in television speak, that stands for “video tape” – which is not what they’re using).
However, of course, it’s being driven as a radio show, so presumably presenter Reggie Yates is triggering the music videos as he would the music tracks. All off the computer, I suspect, so firing off a video track is no more complex than firing off a song – but there’s lots of extra work being done by “the techie geeks” as he keeps calling them (which must irritate the crap out of them).
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Tagged: bbc, Chart show, Radio 1
- Published:
- February 26, 2012 – 6:49 pm
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- By Dubber
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I listened to a couple of different radio stations from Colombia over the course of the weekend, and it occurs to me that Latin America is one part of the world with a completely parallel popular music scene. While there was, admittedly, some crossover – Rihanna, specifically – nearly every song on the CHR station Radio Una and on the ‘love songs’ station Amor Estereo occupied a completely different world of familiarity, nostalgia and popularity.
Of course, as you’d expect, there was a Latin flavour to the music which is kind of appealing. I imagine that Reggaeton gets tiresome after a while, but if you’re not bombarded with it every day, then there’s a hipsway groove to it that’s quite appealing and a refreshing change to the four-on-the-floor beats of Katy Perry, Pink and the like.
Likewise, the love songs were salsafied schmaltzy numbers that occupy the same territory (and fulfil the same purpose) as many of the love songs you’d get on commercial radio in the UK – only with perhaps even more overwrought melodrama than a Westlife or Boyzone song with a dramatic key change in it. Or maybe it just stands out more in this context.
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Tagged: CHR, Colombia
- Published:
- February 26, 2012 – 5:22 pm
- Author:
- By Dubber
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