Radio
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Radio is king!
That was the optimistic cry of the masses in middle of the 20th century. The live broadcast of the Hindenburg disaster, the Orson Wells dramatisation of "War of the Worlds" and the Coronation of George VI had shown just how dramatically the medium of radio could impact on human society.
Because Radio is an audio-only medium, it most closely follows the ancient tradition of storytelling by the elders round the campfire. It activates the imagination and motivates the nation.
The Golden Age of Radio
World War Two would be fought and won on the radio. Churchill, Roosevelt, Tokyo Rose and the Axis leaders all used Radio to communicate ideas to the masses. And the war news brought the horrors of conflict into every living room where all ages gathered together to listen as a family.
Popular music found access to the masses through radio. Every barbershop, main street restaurant and auto service garage had the local station playing. Radio was a medium for sharing news and information about local events. It was a community medium and a national one as well.
News, music, sports, the arts and drama all flourished in the Golden Age of Radio (1935-1960). The masses were exposed to more entertainment, information and culture in a single week than they might previously experience in an entire lifetime.
Today's pop music and sports industries owe their existence to radio. So do most symphony orchestras and quite a few actors. News might have made the leap from print to tv without the intermediate step, but the best news, the most in-depth news and the widest coverage of public opinion is still on the radio.
Other media
Books, and print in general, had pretty well dominated the thinking processes for a few hundred years. But print is an isolating and solitary experience, not like a tribal gathering at all. In fact, scholarly debate is carried on in a most peculiarly individualistic way.
Films,TV
The moving pictures of Film and Television totally overpower the imagination. They present a continuous visual narrative that includes close-ups (That wheel is about to fall off the wagon!) and other visual clues (white hats vs black hats) that prejudge our thinking for us. They don't encourage thinking, just personal opinions, and mass market attitudes.
Stage
The disruptive clutter of a stage and other visual trappings can, like film and tv, provide some emotional and intellectual impact. But Radio drama has more power than live theatre because it goes straight to our racial memories of the oral traditions that gave us our myths and codes and legends. And it does this without lights, costumes or make-up, or physical 'typecasting'.
New Technologies
Computers today try to combine print and moving pictures. So far they fail to do either very well. There is talk about 'convergence', completely missing the point that the oral tradition is ingrained in our cultural foundations. Our responses to the spoken word are almost instinctive. These will always outweigh the influence of other sensory input. Radio is still king.
WHICH IS THE BEST MEDIUM?
The question of which is the best medium has again come to the fore in the current debate about the H2G2 movie.
There are those who feel the book is a holy thing and should be left as such.
Others saw the TV series and want something 'better'.
Some point to the tragedy of a stage presentation of the Guide.
But everyone who has heard it seems to agree that the BBC Radio-Drama version was the best. Of course it was. Radio is king.
HHGTTG is a story. And stories are best told by the elders round the tribal fire in the cool of the evening. There is no need for pictures, props or special effects in a healthy imagination.
Radio is king.
Give me radio or give me ..radio!
Hear it here!
Cassette tapes and CD copies of the BBC Radio Drama broadcasts of HHGTTG are available from the BBC.
