Posted by: Barry Rueger on May 22, 2007 09:52 PM | Comments (0)

This weekend I will attend the Radio Without Boundaries conference, arguably the apex of the Deep Wireless Festival. In a strange way it will be like returning home after a long trip.

Back in 2003 I was part of the group that created Transmissions sans Frontières, the first Radio Without Boundaries conference. TSF followed on the heels of the first Third Coast Festival in Chicago in 2001. Like Third Coast the focus was on radio, but with a strong streak of experimental and boundary pushing work that (during Third Coast's first year) went well beyond the National Public Radio influenced works heard in Chicago.

What we discovered was a community of producers and listeners who craved works like those presented. People who saw in radio possibilities that went far beyond what they were hearing on commercial radio, the CBC, and NPR. People who either already knew of visionaries like R. Murray Schafer, Peter Leonhard Braun, and Willem de Ritter, or new listeners who just knew that radio was something more than what they were hearing.

We pleased some people, we challenged and confused a couple, and we sent everyone home with new ears and new attitudes. We brought together CBC types, NPR types, pirate radio types, artists, critics, and fans, mixed them all up, and watched the sparks fly.

That conference in many ways paid homage to some of the people who shaped my radiophonic sensibilities - Hank Bull and Patrick Ready, whose weekly HP Radio Show was one that was never to be missed, and to the late Howard Broomfield, who approached sound with a reverence and exuberance that has remained unmatched.

Life being what it is, I haven't really been able to attend Radio Without Boundaries since that first year, even though I've had the pleasure of managing the New Adventures web site for many years. In some strange fashion I have lived vicariously though the pictures and biographies and listings that I posted there.

This year I was asked to be part of the team liveblogging the last week of Deep Wireless. I consider that quite an honour.

I have always seen myself as more of an observer of art than a participant - and yes, I should change that - so I take this as a challenge to immerse myself in the works and people, and to reflect to the Transom audience the essence of Radio Without Boundaries.

I am thrilled.

A month or so back I was thinking about my love affair with radio, and was able to trace it back even further, to one radio program, and one DJ. I wrote about him on my own blog, and since than have found out that although he has traveled half way around the world, and has had at least a couple of careers, he's still making radio.

So as I head into this week I dedicate it to Bob Gourlay, and the hours that I spent listening to his show, the Crystal Sound Barrier.

Addition 05/24: Nadene reminds me that not only did I attend in 2004, I also provided technical services. It all seems so long ago..... although I do have some vivid memories of Gregory Whitehead promising me a beer.

More from Deep Wireless 2007 :
« New Adventures & Me | It Is to Laugh (and perhaps have a pint or two and sing a song) »