refLECTURE V: "Good Vibrations"

As someone who seeks 'useless' knowledge (though possibly useful in pub quizzes), knowing that I was having a lecture on sound reminded me of my recent(ish) endeavor to find out how sound works. (I say endeavor, I mean Youtube suggested it to me.) Admittedly, it's probably not something a lot of people think about, but I figured its suiting to the topic. Call it background knowledge. Let Charlieissolike teach you the magic of sound, as he once taught me (and the other two and a half million people who watched this video).

Now that you've endured enjoyed that, (or just skipped the video and kept reading), it's time to talk radio. As form of mass communication, radio manages to create a level of intimacy unattainable by television or print. Maybe it's to do with use of once sense, hearing. There's more to sound than just noise. You can hear emotion. "It's hard to lie on radio", much easier on television, visuals can be distracting.

Radio is all about conversation. Whether it's between hosts, through interviews with guests, phone-ins with listeners; the art of conversation is ever present. And radio invites listeners into what would otherwise be considered private and excluded activity; hence it's intimacy. When the interviewee becomes so relaxed, and comfortable with the conversation between the host... now, that makes for good radio. (Thus the importance of not having a good cop, bad cop prosecutorial interviewing style.)

To keep an audience engaged, its more than just content. There's annunciation and tone to consider. But perhaps the most powerful tool in radio isn't sound, rather SILENCE. How ironic.

Radio has changed dramatically since its early days. Once for the family, now for the individual. Once all consuming, now for multitasking. Once for plays and drama, now for ads and music, and did I mention ads. There's podcasts for every niche. And then we have digital radio... well, only very few of us. Regardless radio in all its forms still constitutes a large portion of our media intake. Who ever said video killed the radio star?

This lecture was preaching to the converted. As an avid listener of local, national, and international radio and podcasts; commercial, public service, community; I don't discriminate, I listen to all. Radio is an art. Give it go. All you have to do is lend it your ears.

                          Clicky Clicky
       Click to Listen                                                                                       Yo, Listen Up