Radio Relations: Policies and Aesthetics of the Medium Edited by Grażyna Stachyra, Tiziano Bonini and Madalena Oliveira Radio Relations: Policies and Aesthetics of the Medium Edited by Grażyna Stachyra, Tiziano Bonini and Madalena Oliveira This book first published 2018 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2018 by Grażyna Stachyra, Tiziano Bonini, Madalena Oliveira and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-1348-3 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-1348-8 Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Tiziano Bonini, Madalena Oliveira and Grażyna Stachyra Part 1: Radio Broadcasting Aesthetics and Sound Decoding Practices Chapter One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Sound, Silence and Identity Seán Street Chapter Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Music/Radio: The Radio Feature as Musical Composition Ben Horner Chapter Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Narrative and Voice Katharina Smets Part 2: Audience Behaviours and the Programmes Design in the Context of Cultural and Technological Change Chapter Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 New Challenges for Radio Broadcasting in the Digital Era Enrico Menduni Chapter Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Radio and Audiovisual Design: The Incorporation of New Technologies by Radio Programmes Through a New Process Workflow Daniel Gambaro Chapter Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Women’s Role Models in Radio Broadcasts. A Comparative Analysis Using Polish and British Examples Ewa Nowak-Teter VI Table of Contents Chapter Seven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 The Theory of Parasocial Interaction (Intimacy at a Distance) in Communication Practices of Contemporary Radio Grażyna Stachyra Chapter Eight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 CBC Radio Current Affairs: Two Etnographies and Questions for the Future Graham Cook Part 3: Radio Broadcasting Policies and Social Transformations Chapter Nine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 In the Interests of Pluralism: The Regulation of Privately Owned Local Radio Stations in France Maria Holubowicz Chapter Ten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 The Commitment to Solidarity on Spanish Public Radio: The Case of the Programme “Solidaridad” on Radio 5 Carmen Marta-Lazo and Patricia González-Aldea Chapter Eleven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Pirates on Air – the Programme of the First Private Radio Stations in Poland from the Early 90s Urszula Doliwa Chapter Twelve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 History on Air: Relationship Between History and Radio in France (1945–2014) Céline Loriou Chapter Thirteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 The Origin of the Introduction of Popular Music to Polish Radio Broadcasting in the Polish People’s Republic (1950s and 1960s) Artur Trudzik Chapter Fourteen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 “Drifting to the Red End of the Spectrum”? The BBC External Services’ Central European Department and the Helsinki Final Act, 1973-1980 Stephen Westlake Author Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Introduction Tiziano Bonini, Madalena Oliveira and Grażyna Stachyra The main theme of the book – Radio Relations condenses what radio actually is: a medium created to connect two different places at a distance, and therefore, a relational and involving medium. Subtle but pervasive, simple but graceful, unpretentious but suggestive, radio is about creating affective relations – either between listeners and the world or between listeners themselves through the emotions suggested by the spoken word. The word relations is conveniently plural. It suggests the idea that radio is both an economic activity – related to technology, production, working routines and business – and a cultural industry – related to aesthetics, art, social interaction, education and politics. The word relations is, on the other hand, deeply dynamic. Sociologists use it to refer to what is vibrant and interactive. So it also suggests the idea that radio is still a pulsating sector, resilient at least. The word relations is, likewise, relevantly human. It not only means causal associations (in the way the word functions in the field of biology and the natural sciences) but also emotional engagement. It suggests, therefore, the idea that radio appeals to personal commitment and can reinforce a sense of community. In 2017, the World Radio Day emphasised that “Radio is You” by stressing that “radio is still the most dynamic, reactive and engaging medium there is, adapting to 21st century changes and offering new ways to interact and participate.” UNESCO also acknowledged that “where social media and audience fragmentation can put us in media bubbles of like-minded people, radio is uniquely positioned to bring communities together and foster positive dialogue for change”. The diversity of these analytical perspectives from which the sender-receiver relationships in radio can be analysed, reflects interdisciplinary and unconventional paths in the analysis of the content of radio broadcasting. That is why chapters in this book are different in nature: In our first part, Radio broadcasting aesthetics and sound decoding practices, we present three chapters. Human beings as transmitters and re- 2 Introduction ceivers, “constantly looking to express themselves in relation to what surrounds them”, interacting as co-performers in a sound work, is subject to analysis by Seán Street who applies the perspective of sound as the continuum to his research. The Author shows how we give in to the sound even involuntarily. In a moving and poetic way Street describes the sound around us and the sound of ourselves. The radio feature as musical composition is examined here by Ben Horner who gives the examples of the conceptual and phenomenological similarities between musical and radio feature compositional practice, and uses this basis to highlight the discrete nature of research work in these areas. Based on Andrew Crisell’s framework of the four ‘codes’ of radio – speech, music, sound and silence – relevant and comparable pieces are highlighted and explored here. As the third chapter of this section Katharina Smets dedicates her own research to connections in building the audio story. Her idea is to define a narrative through characters acting. Smets describes a personal search for new ways to tell audio stories marginalizing the issue of threads and using both journalistic and artistic tools. Confronting statements of scholars with her colleagues podcasters experiences and own practice she uncovers new storytelling possibilities and reveals “fresh narrative ground not yet cultivated”. The second part titled Audience behaviours and the programs design in the context of cultural and technological change is opened with Enrico Menduni’s chapter written as a keynote speech for the Radio Relations ECREA Conference, held in Lublin in September 2017. Menduni aims at reconsidering the history of radio under the frame of a cultural analysis of its many technological changes. A cultural history of radio and its main features as the first of real time, ubiquitous and personal medium were correlated by Menduni with multiplication of contemporary communication aided by activating the listeners to become co-creators of the medium. Daniel Gambaro introduces the concept of Audiovisual Design. He describes it as a workflow of processes for planning , production and analysis of radio programmes under the light of new technologies of communication. This methodology results from the crossing of theories from Audience Studies and Computer Sciences, more specifically Human-Computer Interaction. Gambaro assumes that communication studies alone are not sufficient to fully explain the audience’s behaviours in relation to the digital media environment. Audiovisual Design is presented here as a viable tool both for producers and researchers of convergent radio. Ewa Nowak-Teter researches ingredients of women’s role models presented in radio discourse, and ask the questions what these ingredients and perspectives tell us about women’s role models in Western and Eastern European contexts, especially by selecting female issues and communication perspectives applied in radio communication. With empirical data (2016) from women’s radio broadcasts in different parts of Europe: Woman’s Hour Introduction 3 of the BBC Radio Four and Matka Polka Feministka of Polish Radio Channel Three Ewa Nowak-Teter brings closer the world experienced, shared and communicated by women in radio broadcasts In a chapter dedicated to the theory of parasocial interaction (intimacy at a distance) in communication practices of contemporary radio Grażyna Stachyra uses the theoretical framework introduced by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl to juxtapose the conclusions of the originators and followers of the theory of “intimacy at a distance” with the opinions of public radio presenters on such relations expressed in in-depth interviews. The article attempts to answer how contemporary public radio enters into “parasocial interactions” with the audience and whether “intimacy at a distance” takes place in radio. The ethnographic studies of two Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio current affairs programs, one in the early 1990s and the other in the early 2000s is taken into account by Graham Cook, who attempt to answer the question how internalized journalistic values shaped the workplaces and program content. In both cases, the workplaces were gendered and racialized, and this was also reflected in programming. Cook reveals the idea of future studies of CBC Radio current affairs that should look at how radio producers deal with contemporary resource constraints. In the third part, Radio broadcasting policies and social transformations, we present six chapters. The section opens the research dedicated to the regulation of privately owned local radio stations in France. Maria Holubowicz shows here the principle of pluralism as the key factor in the process of selecting candidates for frequencies for local radio stations by the Territorial Audiovisual Committees. Holubowicz’s aim of research is to show pluralism “in the making” bringing to light procedures and “the art of doing” that enables this principle to be effective in compliance with applicable law in the domain of radio media. The commitment to solidarity on Spanish public radio is taken into account by Carmen Marta-Lazo and Patricia González-Aldea, who attempts to answer the question how the programme “Solidaridad” on Radio 5 reveals the idea of social commitment thanks to the various activities by NGOs or one-off actions, which are valuable in our society, because of catastrophes, floods or cataclysms. Marta-Lazo and González-Aldea show that nowadays this practice tends to be used to achieve certain results, e.g. “solidarity marketing”, which links the image of a company and does not contribute to either raising awareness or changing minds. From the chapter by Urszula Doliwa we can find out about the status of private stations in Poland in the early 1990s, which broadcasted illegally, mostly because of the lack of a legal framework. Doliwa studies the time frame set by the dates – June 4, 1989, when there were the first semi-free elections to the Polish Parliament and 1994, when the first radio licences were issued. Her aim is to show that local private radio stations in Poland began 4 Introduction functioning as non-commercial and community oriented and were similar to some extant to pirate radios operating in the 60s and 70s in Western Europe. Céline Loriou researches why history programmes regularly broadcasted on French airwaves since the end of the 1940s, are far from identical. Loriou offers an overview of these programmes, classifying them by formats and showing that the approach they favour, ranging from academic history to anecdotal history, is often influenced by the identity of their producers, who come from various backgrounds. After briefly analysing these programmes, the chapter discusses the impact of these forms on historians, listeners and radio stations. Artur Trudzik poses the question about the origin of the introduction of popular music to Polish radio broadcasting in the Polish People’s Republic (1950s and 1960s). He highlights that during the era of the Communist regime of Poland the ideological dogmas based on the depreciation of the capitalist world and the justification for the superiority of socialism deprived the trends in culture, art and music emerging in the West of the right to exist in the press, radio or television. However, in the Polish radio broadcasting (4 programs of the Polish Radio and the Scout Radio Station), practically from its beginnings, attempts were made, and later fights were fought to find a place in the ether for music considered harmful, i.e. in the first stage of rock’n’roll (big beat), jazz, and then rock and its variations. The last part of the book ends with Stephen Westlake’s research. He describes the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 as an inspiration to the formation of transnational networks of human rights groups which arguably contributed to the collapse of Communism in Europe and the end of the Cold War, and the role of the BBC External Services (BBCXS) in both contributing to and reflecting this transformative process. Westlake analyses the BBCXS Central European Department’s audience research and policy material to establish what they can reveal about how the Helsinki Accords, and the movements which they informed or inspired, were received, understood, and responded to, both within the community of the BBCXS itself, as well as among its listeners within the Communist states of Central Europe. The technological capabilities and the cultural context of communication requires a different intensity of activity on the part of the listeners and constant flexibility of the broadcaster. Communication in radio as a multifaceted issue has encouraged us to analyse its many dimensions. This book is evidence of the discursive diversity of a medium which remains at the margins of academic debate, in particular where qualitative analysis is concerned, and is beyond the focus of most researchers. We hope you will find interesting the chapters presented here as they show radio’s capability to communicate to people realising the essence of Ong’s “secondary orality”.