Posted by: Barry Rueger on June 5, 2007 11:09 PM | Comments (0)

Following Deep Wireless I traded messages with Gregory Whitehead, examining some of the themes that emerged from his presentation. The following is adapted from that exchange.

Gregory,

Thank you again for a wonderful performance yesterday. The Big Sloppy rings true to me.

If the truth were known, very little at radio conferences has thrilled me in recent years.

Some of that no doubt comes from hanging out with the American crowd, who still see This American Life as cutting edge. Even Outfront, which again has been a darling in radio circles, seems often to be doing the same thing over and over.

Little by little I have been putting pieces together, trying to figure out why there is so little on the airwaves which seem to be worth the investment of my time.

After Sunday two important threads emerged.

The first of course came from Heidi's talk about Co-op Radio in the eighties. I vividly remember those days, and the people who threw caution and convention to the winds and tried whatever looked as if it might be an interesting project. The attitude really was one of "Let's push the medium as far as we possibly can."

These were also people that appreciated that they were working very specifically in radio, and that the medium had attributes and an aesthetic which would be and still is different from working in just audio.

(A point which I think is lost on many people still.)

It's astonishing that she would raise names like Patrick Ready, Hank Bull, and GX Jupitter-Larsen mere days after I had discussed these same people in my inaugural blog post. Whether you call it synchronicity or mere coincidence, it cannot be ignored.

Your comments about "branding" really did hit home. Is that the issue? That so many artists and producers are so busy marketing themselves that they lose sight of the need to keep Art at the forefront?

Thinking back to Deep Wireless, almost every person in that room has a web page, many have blogs, and at least in Toronto the bulk of people seem to have disappeared into Facebook or MySpace.

And yes, people are re-creating themselves as brands. Just as so much
radio in the US wants be the next TAL or Prairie Home Companion, many
of these people begin their work by asking how they can fit within the
narrow confines of what public radio will accept.

You described it as “branding”, but I see it as self censorship, which is one of the things that always fascinates me about the American people. While living in the U.S., especially after 9/11, it amazed me how so many people can simultaneously believe that they are afforded Freedom of Speech, while carefully moderating what they will say on a great many topics.

And increasingly self censorship in radio is wrapped in the need to present yourself in a persona that fits established conventions.

Could these young producers and artists function in an environment like
Co-op Radio of the eighties? What would happen if you told them "here
is an hour of airtime each week. There are no rules." How would they adapt if you placed them in an atmosphere where you were judged solely by your work, not by how you present yourself on the Internet and during sales pitches?

(And yes, I know that not all that was created back at Co-op radio was brilliant or even listenable, and that some of it was downright dull, but that's the point - you take chances, and trust that some of them will create beauty and insight.)

At the end of the day what I am looking for is radio that shocks, that challenges form, that demands that I sit up and listen. I want to hear people who do more than transmit cools sounds, who play with the essence of the medium, who embrace RF radiation as their instrument.

Thanks once again, and keep reminding people of all of the things that
they dare not ask themselves, but which they always appreciate after
the fact.

Yours,

Barry

More from Deep Wireless 2007 :
« Everything I know about transmitters I learned from pirates . . . | Third Coast 2007 »