Transmissions
The Lido Cafe
Charlotte Petts (UK 2024)
Produced by Charlotte Petts (UK 2024)
32 min
Charlotte has been intrigued by this place ever since she and her dog took refuge there from the wintery Worthing seafront to have a steaming hot pot of tea and a tunnocks tea cake. With its metal grills over the windows and a heavy door to strain open, it almost always looks closed, except for a little neon red 'Open' sign glowing in the gloom. Inside, there were mainly older people, sitting alone. It's part of an old lido complex, with a bandstand built in the 1920's jutting out into the sea, almost like a mini pier.
The tablecloths are chequered, you can get breakfast for a fiver and despite sitting separately, everyone seemed to know each other. One lady leaned over and chatted to her about her dog. It was just... friendly. She wanted to spend more time there, see what is was like in the warmer months and spend more time with the people that go there and the people that run it. And so she did. And she took her recorder with her.
Produced and presented by Charlotte Petts
XMTR Radio Hour Ep25 : A Field Trip to Edmonton
Social Broadcasts (UK 2023)
Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2023)
60 min / Episode 25 of 25
This show is dedicated to the joyful chaos that is Angel Edmonton in Enfield, North London. Once an industrial hub attracting factory workers and their families, the area has been neglected for decades as factories gave way to warehouses and social housing fell into decay. Today it's a multicultural crossroads undergoing massive redevelopment. Echoes of Angels produced by Social Broadcasts takes us on a trip down the main artery - Fore Street, guided by local residents and business owners.
Echoes of Angels a Social Broadcast by – Lucia Scazzocchio
Commissioned by Fore Street for All
Next we join Enfield People’s Theatre with local producer Soveks Lo behind the scenes of their latest production Bread and Roses - a community play recounting the 1915 Edmonton Rent Strike and the community action (led and won by local women) drawing parallels with the current housing crises.
Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio
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This is Chicago: Alley
Supraphonic Studios (US 2023)
Supraphonic Studios (US 2023)
7 min, Episode 10 of 18
In an undisclosed alley, a diver finds divinity among the dumpsters. Bada bing, bada boom! Who knew dumpster diving could be so lucrative?
This series of short audio portraits from Chicago draws from the long lineage of oral history recording in the city, perhaps inspired by the likes of Studs Terkel and the assumption that everyone has a story if you just ask.
Produced and recorded by Stephen Pate and Ashlie Stevens
Created by Supraphonic Studios
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Class Divide
Curtis James (UK 2023)
Curtis James (UK 2023)
30 min Episode 1 of 4
This series follows the lives of a family, one daughter and three sons from Whitehawk, whose stories will highlight what a massive difference a good education can make to life chances. Across the series families, teachers and education experts talk about the roots of the UK's education, segregation and subsequent attainment gap and why it’s so bad in places like Brighton and Hove.
Writer and presenter of the series Curtis James says: “I grew up in East Brighton and this podcast series has been in the making since I made my first radio programme in 1990. The stories I’ll be sharing are rarely told by people like us, and it’s important for people to understand where the issues are, so the city can begin to make things fairer. The ideal outcome from this series is that the good people of Brighton get together, work together, to ensure every child gets the support they need to learn and thrive. It’s going to take the whole city to support the education of all of its children.”
Produced and Hosted by Curtis James
Radio Ballad: The Travelling People (1964)
Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger, Charles Parker (1963)
Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger, Charles Parker (UK 1963)
59 min
This new revolutionary format - radio ballad (BBC) conceived by folk musicians Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, and the brilliant radio documentary maker Charles Parker in 1958, combining sound: songs, instrumental music, sound effects, and, most importantly, the recorded voices of those who are the subjects of the documentary. This had never been done before, and still sounds incredibly fresh today.
This ballad gives voice to travellers in the UK as well as the people who have a distrust or fear of this group. Note this was recorded in 1963 and some people featured are quite outspoken about their racist beliefs.
Producer: Charles Parker
Music: Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger
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The Solitude Trilogy: The Idea of North
Glenn Gould (CA 1967)
Glenn Gould (CA 1967)
56min Episode 1 of 1
A visit to the archives with Canadian pianist Glenn Gould's landmark radio documentary, The Idea of North, first aired on CBC Radio in 1967.
In his boldly experimental program about the Canadian north, the pianist used a technique he called "contrapuntal radio," layering speaking voices on top of each other to create a unique sonic environment situated in the space between conversation and music.
The North provided Gould with an ideal subject matter for exploring the condition of solitude.
"hybrids of music, drama, and several other strains, including essay, journalism, anthropology, ethics, social commentary, and contemporary history."
The densely layered radio pieces presented a real challenge to audiences at the time, and they still do. Yet their enduring cultural impact — a rare feat for radio programming — speaks to the inspired balance of music and meaning that Gould was able to achieve.
Composed by Glenn Gould
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Tales of the Town: The Great Migrations
Delency Parham and Abbas Muntaqim (US 2022)
Delency Parham and Abbas Muntaqim (US 2022)
34min Episode 1 of 12
The first epsiode in a 12 part grassroots series telling over 100 years of Oakland history. There’s over 30 interviews, from elders, ancestors, and peers, that tell the tales of the town. The series starts with the 1st and 2nd Great Migrations that brought Black Southerners in influx to the Bay Area - looking at the circumstances that made these people travel across the country in search of “freedom” and opportunities and the struggles they encountered upon arrival.
Produced and hosted by: Delency Parham and Abbas Muntaqim
Audio Production: Maya Cueva
Doing Bird
Steve Urquhart (UK 2022)
Steve Urquhart (UK 2022)
20min Episode 1 of 2
Inmates at HMP Perth engage with archive birdsong and oral history recordings from the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club in a unique, creative audio art collaboration. Peesweeps meet hip hop beats, grouse unlock coded prison language, and an unhatched kestrel chick provokes philosophy.
Engaging with Scotland's archive birdsong recordings encourages the men to recall positive memories, to spark creativity, to reflect on the purpose of prison, and to re-evaluate their connection to the world beyond prison walls. They also think deeply about the accessibility and value of oral history recordings, and about who gets to be involved.
Produced by Steve Urquhart
‘Doing Bird’ is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.
Tape Letters: A Cassette Tape Love Story
Modus Arts (UK 2021)
Modus Arts (UK 2021)
15min Episode 3 of 6
Tape Letters shines a light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tapes by Pakistani migrants who settled in the UK between 1960 and 1980. In this six-part documentary we listen to first-hand accounts of these migration stories through original recordings, interviews with their Britain-born families and commentary by Tape Letters founder and director Wajid Yaseen.
This episode features a special story of a soon-to-be-married couple, who got to know each other more deeply and fell in love entirely through sending cassette tapes to each other between Pakistan and the UK for over 5 years. Telephones were usually expensive and not private, which is why cassettes were their chosen method of communication. We also discuss the retention and loss of cassette tapes, and therefore stories, over the years as people either held onto tapes for sentimental or evidential reasons or threw them away as they simply looked to do some spring cleaning.
Presented by Wajid Yassen (Modus Arts)
Production and Sound Design Oliver Sanders
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Radio Ballad: On The Edge (1963)
Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger, Charles Parker (1963)
Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger, Charles Parker (UK 1963)
59 min
This new revolutionary format - radio ballad (BBC) conceived by folk musicians Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, and the brilliant radio documentary maker Charles Parker in 1958, combining sound: songs, instrumental music, sound effects, and, most importantly, the recorded voices of those who are the subjects of the documentary. This had never been done before, and still sounds incredibly fresh today.
This Radio Ballad explores the lives of teenagers in the 1960’s with voices of young people from all over the UK. If you’ve seen C’mon C’mon where Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny a radio journalist touring the US to talk to teens, this piece sounds even more ahead of its time.