a few loose thoughts on OW,


mother radio and the future of the feature in the usa




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Welles was a master in the realm of another another "s" word,coupled to the erotic microphone:




The Art of Seduction.




Seduction was at the root of OW's particular brand of showmanship. it was a "show" that was based on luring, circling, enticing, and then CAPTURE, the moment of getting hooked.




Hooking is the opposite of Punching, the strategy of the compressors and maximizers.




The microphone is highly erotic, and so is the ear, the opening that winds through a labyrinth, then conducted through the entire nervous system.




The ear is FAR more a site of eros than the eye, which is, after all, a very tough nerve to seduce.




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the abandoned mine:




welles loved to reach a big audience, and he loved to be in the "spotlight" medium --- he knew that the mine was abandoned for a purpose, as if the mineral being mined there had suddenly become worthless. So he took off the headlamp and bought a light meter.




What does it mean that radio (speaking here in the usa) is the only mass medium that does not even bother to review or critique itself?




There IS no body of radio criticism, and without a critical language, an art form dies.






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Radio in the US is now EITHER the medium for second and third rate journalists, who are consigned to the oblivion almost as punishment OR it is the fast access medium for "joe hotdog from new jersey", the medium of suprapopulist rants and raves, fascinating for a moment, mind-numbing for an eternity.




meanwhile, the public broadcast alternative loses cultural ambition as it gains financial success. NPR, PRI and other public broadcast programmers offer little more than a faint echo banging about at the bottom of the mine: no shovel, no desire, no hunger to get deeper, or richer.




OW had a very early, very strong sense of this cultural oblivion: the radio he missed is the radio he MADE, not the radio that came later, and that persists today.




individuality, suspense, seduction, voice, personality --- these are the qualities of an Art of Radio. An art, alas, that may no longer have any cultural identity.




oh yes, we have the faint echos here and there. call it "radio art lite". and you do still hear the occasional lonely voice, the occassional half-hour of brilliance. but those gripping late nights, spellbound in front of the black box, seduced and haunted and spooked and moved by the strange voice of the hitchhiker and the like? I'm afraid on that count, OW was right: those times are gone.




not just an abandoned mine, but a mine that contains minerals, once considered to be riches, but that are now considered worthless. fool's gold. No market, no "currency", nothing to beckon fresh talent. I know, because I've tried, in countless sound workshops.


There are no young producers because they conduct a rational analysis and make the rational choice: NOT to go there.






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In short: in the usa, the spirit of the feature, all the qualities we look for and defend in a captivating program, will live on. But probably not on the radio. Or so Orson Welles would argue, I am convinced, if he were around today.




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Gregorious