Monday, January 2, 2012

SFFaudio Commentary

Of what use is public radio in a time of podcasts?

That is, other than providing the funding for programmes that can be podcast – is there any use for radio medium specifically?

I suggest there is.

BBC - Transmissions To Schools (1927 and 1928)

Beyond giving local news and weather, there’s a traditional use which could be used again. Consider these two 1920s BBC publications, pamphlets in the “BBC Transmissions To Schools” series:

Boys And Girls Of The Middle Ages by Rhoda Power with illustrations by Elinor Lambert |PDF|
Broadcasts on Mondays from September 26 – December 12, 1927 at 2:30pm

Boys And Girls Of Other Days by Rhoda Power with illustrations by Elinor Lambert and others |PDF|
Broadcasts on Mondays from January 16 – March 26, 1928 at 2:30pm

BBC, CBC and ABC Radio National do a tremendous job at providing excellence in public adult programming with an educational bent, but in terms of children it seems to fall very short

The above documents show how public radio broadcasting can help with education of elementary school children. I’d love to see some education programming of this sort, aimed at children, turning up on CBC radio, with PDF downloads and podcast feeds as a compliment to national broadcasts.

For more information on the use of radio in schools, BroadcastForSchools.co.uk

Posted by Jesse Willis

Resonance FM, a community based radio station in London, U.K., broadcasts perhaps the smartest comics podcast on the web, Panel Borders. Recently host Alex Fitch has been running a series exploring the influence of H.P. Lovecraft on comics. The first of this series I’ve heard popped up this morning when I went looking for a podcast about Neonomicon, an Alan Moore/Jacen Burrows graphic novel that I picked up late last year and am reading now. HERE‘s the episode.

I’d actually been going off Alan Moore, having been depressed at his continuing with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – but this title, Neonomicon, with a Lovecraftian theme, and the wonderful art of Jacen Burrows made me pick it up. And boy am I ever glad I did!

I’m only about 1/3 of the way through Neonomicon – and so far it is delivering exactly what I wanted, a creepily magnificent story with wonderful Jacen Burrows story art. Moore promises, in the interview, that the story delivers an ‘unflinching’ and ‘evasive-less’ quasi-sequel to H.P. Lovecraft’s The Horror At Red Hook.

I’m savoring every panel.

Here’s the official podcast description:

“Continuing our month of shows about H.P. Lovecraft, Alex Fitch talks to Alan Moore about his final graphic novel that isn’t part of the continuing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen narrative – Neonomicon – which has just been published, along with its prequel The Courtyard, as a graphic novel by Avatar Press. Both comics follow on from Lovecraft’s tale ‘The Horror at Red Hook’ and Alan discusses why he chose that story in particular to explore further, plus the origins of The Courtyard in an abandoned short story collection called ‘Yuggoth Cultures’, and examples of Lovecraftian imagery in his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen saga.”

|MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

SFFaudio

Day: January 2, 2012

Commentary: What use is public radio in a time of podcasts?

Panel Borders: Interview with Alan Moore about Neonomicon