{"id":7756,"date":"2013-11-29T10:16:31","date_gmt":"2013-11-29T15:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=7756"},"modified":"2013-12-09T14:09:31","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T19:09:31","slug":"love-radio-and-an-unsolicited-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2013\/11\/29\/love-radio-and-an-unsolicited-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"Love, radio, and an unsolicited argument"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Robert Ashworth<\/a>, Creative Commons, some rights reserved<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m usually a little shy to tell people that I think of radio storytelling as artistic expression. Because they\u2019ll immediately point to one of my straight news stories<\/a> and say, \u201cAre you kidding? Definitely not art.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the hypothetical critic would be correct, in this case. Let\u2019s say \u201cart\u201d entails complex meaning, creating something new out of raw materials, various interpretations, struggle, perhaps cigarettes, alcohol, and coffee, etc. These things don\u2019t really happen in the making of a news spot \u2013 with the exceptions of the coffee and a little writer\u2019s block.<\/p>\n

Creating news spots is a matter of craft and practice.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not always about getting information across as quickly as possible. In the making of certain mini radio documentaries, so much else happens. Listeners get transported through a tunnel of layered sounds, which paint a picture and tell a story. OPTIONAL: Like in this piece of sound art<\/a>, for example, whose content is also an argument for the form.<\/p>\n

REQUIRED: Now consider this, which is what I actually meant to be writing about. It’s a program called Love + Radio<\/a>. This is a storytelling program \u2013 just like your neighborhood This American Life<\/i> or The Moth\u00a0\u2013 but bolder. The creator, Nick van der Kolk, has a unique, film-inspired vision and technique for delivering sound and information. Nick describes his show as \u201ca very musically inclined, non-fiction radio experience.\u201d HowSound host Rob Rosenthal writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cAuteur\u201d or \u201cauteurship\u201d are not words you hear too frequently in radio circles. I\u2019m not sure why. It\u2019s mostly used in film when describing how a director\u2019s unique vision and style is evident in a movie. Think Hitchcock and Kubrick. But it could easily apply to radio producers like Kitchen Sisters, Ira Glass, and Jad Abumrad.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d add Nick to that list, too (along with his collaborator Brendan Baker). Listen to a \u201cLove + Radio\u201d podcast and you\u2019ll hear why. There\u2019s nothing like it in audio storytelling \u2014 the production style and the subject matter immediately say \u201cLove + Radio.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This idea of auteurship in radio, and L + R itself, are inspirations for me at the moment. I’ve done some experimental documentary stuff before, and I\u2019m starting to do more of it. You probably won\u2019t hear much of that on the NCPR airwaves, but I\u2019ll keep you posted here on All In.<\/p>\n

I recommend starting out with \u201cThe Man in the Road<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe Businesswoman<\/a>\u201d episodes of L + R. And that HowSound episode<\/a> I quoted is pretty fascinating, too. Warning: be sure to listen on decent-quality speakers or headphones, but not around young kids or the faint of heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m usually a little shy to tell people that I think of radio storytelling as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13969,1],"tags":[13958,685,13959,13961,13957,6131,13068],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7756"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7849,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7756\/revisions\/7849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}