Forsíða
Frumsamið
Efst á baugi
Tenglar
Jón Heiðar

Blogg

Internet saves the radio star
27. October, 2002

I always seem to be missing out on quality radio programming. Either the schedule for the material I am interested in does not suit me or I forget to check the listings for the reruns. In any case finding the thirty minutes of peace to listen to a good radio programme are hard to come by.

After all, you can't pause the programme when the phone rings or your child needs attention. The answer to this could, of course, be that I would be able to listen to radio programs when it suits me (for a reasonable fee, of course). Most radio stations now broadcast their programming online and it serves to make their programming available world-wide. Perhaps the next step is offering radio on demand, where users can access and search a comprehensive libraries of radio content belonging to one or more station or even individual producers.

All that wonderful stuff just lies there
The BBC allows users to listen to recent programmes online but I believe that the radio stations can do a lot better and reach audience who simply do not have the time or the inclination to follow pre-arranged scheduling. One example of a radio station that could benefit enormously from is the Icelandic state run national radio, RÚV. It is by far the biggest producer of quality radio content in Iceland and already it offers some of its recent programmes on its web-site. I have produced some twenty radio programmes for RÚV and in the progress I got to know the wonderful library of vintage radio programmes which is stored at RÚV´s library on large reels of magnetic tape that look increasingly frail as they get older. These tapes date back to the fifties and contain hours and hours of classic material, be it music, entertainment programmes, plays, educational programmes, readings from famous literary works and so on and so forth. And while the ever-helpful library staff will help you to find what you are looking for, the tapes are hard to handle and of course they can't be taken out of the library. So this material is inaccessible to most. And like it or not, it is eroding along with the magnetic tape.

Who said it was easy?
The cultural and educational value that could unlocked from this back catalogue placed online and made accessible for users is tremendous. If it is done right the cash strapped RÚV, and such producers of quality radio material could find themselves a new source of revenue and save a whole lot of cultural gems in the progress. Moreover, this could give these institutions a new sense of purpose. The benefits of creating an online library of RÚV´s back catalogue can include:

• Increased availability of quality of new and vintage radio programming
• New source of revenue for radio stations
  • This is especially relevant for cash strapped public broadcasting stations who own the best material anyway
• Better service to an audiences that value personalisation and convenience
• An incentive to digitise and thus preserve older material that is currently stored on fragile magnetic tape

Let's not fool anyone, organising and digitising a half a century worth of back-catalogue will be hard and expensive work. The storage space for all this material is not free, far from it (although prices for digital storage are falling fast). Barriers to usage might include the lack of a convenient payment system for users and the limited (but fast growing) adoption of high speed connections. Some would object to pay for material produced by public service radio stations which are already funded by public money. Some vintage material will not be sought out by modern day consumers. Last but least copyright issues may come up but one would assume that copyright-owners would realise that their work is worthless if it is not accessible. The convenience factor, the "necessity" factor (ie the need to preserve vintage material) and advances in Internet technology should prove a counterweight to all of these and other difficulties.