The Goon Show

Just a bit of rockabilly to start this post.

Oh yeah, and the title of this post refers to the radio show that Peter Sellers starred in before moving on to movies. I thought it was clever...

This lecture wasn't a typical lecture, we didn't actually have to be on campus to attend. But I still had to be there, and had two hours of nothing to do because of it. Getting back to it, this lecture was an audio file on Blackboard.

This week, Carmel interviewed two radio hosts from ABC Local Radio: Richard Fidler and Steve Austin.

Before moving into radio, Richard had been a performer in comedy groups and even ended up on TV. He sort of stumbled into radio by accident and is glad that he did. Richard finds radio to be much more intimate than other mediums, particularly TV. He finds that radio doesn't talk at people, (good) radio more feels like a voice in your head amongst your thoughts. Radio also tries to make people feel included. Richard interviews many people on his show and says that the key thing is to let the talent lead the conversation, as this makes it feel natural. People feel included by this because they're following thoughts rather than specific questions from the host. Giving the talent space to take the conversation where they want it to go also makes the interview more real. Rather than a series of pre-prepared questions, letting a conversation flow naturally gets more out of people.

Steve trained to work in TV and radio journalism after a long time struggling to think about what he wanted to do with his life. Steve thinks that radio is about being yourself, as people are driven by emotions and life experience that they express when they're being themselves. According to Steve, this is why radio is very human, because people connect with emotions and experiences subconsciously. Steve thinks that to be successful in radio you need to think about others, mainly your audience, and focus less on yourself. He also thinks that by building respect you can pursue the answers that you want rather than force them out of people. Steve says that listening implies respect, which seems to be why (good) radio is so intimate.

Now there is a point to this...

This is a song about love and intimacy between two people. But it uses radio as an analogy for intimacy which reiterates what Richard and Steve were talking about. More importantly, I'm deeply and madly in love with Regina Spektor and just had to put her in one of my posts.

Like newspapers, people have suspected whether or not radio will survive amongst new technology. According to Richard and Steve, it most certainly will. They think that radio is grabbing every new technology and utilising it in order to blend into this tech savvy world. Also radio doesn't marginalise different generations of people with technology, radio tries to be contemporary with as many people as possible. Technology is just one of its means to do so. They also think that radio has a very strategic advantage over other mediums. Radio can be put on in the background while people are doing other things. It allows people to be informed about news and current events as well as connect to human experience. People are able to do this while getting on with their lives, which are becoming increasingly time poor.

And to end, here's some more Regina <3