As with all the articles from Michael Goldfarb, Chapter 5 combines pathos and data. I relive the times and feel there must be a way that we can move forward in this ongoing discussion
I love the idea of a "vocal hug." Yup, that is what my ears hear with NPR. There was an article in Ramparts that, if memory serves, blamed the "founding mothers" on moving public radio's political voice to the center. Of course, you can't comfortably ask the well heeled to give money if you are not ALWAYS nice to them. I fully appreciate the forgetting of names but in your defense, something you already know, is that he was a Reverend, which was all a kid needed to know. The former archivist in me is horrified that a recorded interview would get lost at a radio station. I know that early video tape was often recorded over but audio tape? There is the often ugly word deaccession. (interview by intern who "lost control" of the interview) I'd like to hear his comments.
Public radio has been appalling about maintaining its archive. For an institution that considers itself important to the nation culturally, it has been poor at making its work available. Pacifica used to stream a chunk of programming from the early days, but they ran out of money and now you have to pay them just to listen. NPR, the program maker, has an archive at U of Md. I don't know how complete it is. The local stations were short of money for so long I doubt any of them considered holding on to tapes. That was the case with WHYY. I called them a couple of years ago to see if they might have copies of stuff from 1968 and they thought I was calling from a mental hospital. But I have only myself to blame. I had a copy of that interview as well as the folk music shows I did that summer including interviews with Doc Watson and Joni Mitchell. Left them in a box with my parents. When My father died, I flew back to Philly for the funeral and my sister asked what I wanted to do with them. My luggage was over full with stuff and I asked if she could keep a hold of them. She stored them in her basement and inevitably there was a flood and they got thrown out with the other junk.
Forgive me if these are old news or obvious. In my little world it doesn't do anyone any good to imagine that we know what others know. Neither of the following go back far enough for that particular story so they're simply fyis. https://archive.org/ looks like many duplicates and, given how long the Internet Archive has been up and running, surprisingly limited to the very recent. https://americanarchive.org/ despite what it claims to be, it is pretty spotty.
Thanks, Rip. I had checked both before. In some ways I'm not surprised about the station not keeping tapes. Public radio was only just getting started, the first NPR prog, All things considered, wouldn't launch for another 3 years.
I am very disappointed that WBUR is not a participant in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. WBUR is where I first ran across your work especially several longer format things.
It is a general problem within the whole system but I'm surprised as well. For a long time they streamed the majority of my documentaries but now I find that the formats they used have not been updated and so it is very hard to get sound to play. You should contact them and ask where my work is.
I just sent a note asking for the audio. Thanks for the suggestion that I should have come up with on my own. Interestingly their search only offers ten items without an opportunity to see if there are more. It annoys me that their "archives" only lists very recent programs. There is a separate site for The Connection which can be found with their search but I don't understand why that doesn't qualify as archives. Oh wait, I do understand, how quickly 12 years of arguing with College Marketing, Development, and the Alumni office about what was appropriate for the college archives pages is forgotten.
As with all the articles from Michael Goldfarb, Chapter 5 combines pathos and data. I relive the times and feel there must be a way that we can move forward in this ongoing discussion
Thoughtful, reflective. Thanks
I love the idea of a "vocal hug." Yup, that is what my ears hear with NPR. There was an article in Ramparts that, if memory serves, blamed the "founding mothers" on moving public radio's political voice to the center. Of course, you can't comfortably ask the well heeled to give money if you are not ALWAYS nice to them. I fully appreciate the forgetting of names but in your defense, something you already know, is that he was a Reverend, which was all a kid needed to know. The former archivist in me is horrified that a recorded interview would get lost at a radio station. I know that early video tape was often recorded over but audio tape? There is the often ugly word deaccession. (interview by intern who "lost control" of the interview) I'd like to hear his comments.
Public radio has been appalling about maintaining its archive. For an institution that considers itself important to the nation culturally, it has been poor at making its work available. Pacifica used to stream a chunk of programming from the early days, but they ran out of money and now you have to pay them just to listen. NPR, the program maker, has an archive at U of Md. I don't know how complete it is. The local stations were short of money for so long I doubt any of them considered holding on to tapes. That was the case with WHYY. I called them a couple of years ago to see if they might have copies of stuff from 1968 and they thought I was calling from a mental hospital. But I have only myself to blame. I had a copy of that interview as well as the folk music shows I did that summer including interviews with Doc Watson and Joni Mitchell. Left them in a box with my parents. When My father died, I flew back to Philly for the funeral and my sister asked what I wanted to do with them. My luggage was over full with stuff and I asked if she could keep a hold of them. She stored them in her basement and inevitably there was a flood and they got thrown out with the other junk.
Forgive me if these are old news or obvious. In my little world it doesn't do anyone any good to imagine that we know what others know. Neither of the following go back far enough for that particular story so they're simply fyis. https://archive.org/ looks like many duplicates and, given how long the Internet Archive has been up and running, surprisingly limited to the very recent. https://americanarchive.org/ despite what it claims to be, it is pretty spotty.
Thanks, Rip. I had checked both before. In some ways I'm not surprised about the station not keeping tapes. Public radio was only just getting started, the first NPR prog, All things considered, wouldn't launch for another 3 years.
I am very disappointed that WBUR is not a participant in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. WBUR is where I first ran across your work especially several longer format things.
It is a general problem within the whole system but I'm surprised as well. For a long time they streamed the majority of my documentaries but now I find that the formats they used have not been updated and so it is very hard to get sound to play. You should contact them and ask where my work is.
I just sent a note asking for the audio. Thanks for the suggestion that I should have come up with on my own. Interestingly their search only offers ten items without an opportunity to see if there are more. It annoys me that their "archives" only lists very recent programs. There is a separate site for The Connection which can be found with their search but I don't understand why that doesn't qualify as archives. Oh wait, I do understand, how quickly 12 years of arguing with College Marketing, Development, and the Alumni office about what was appropriate for the college archives pages is forgotten.