ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
“Preserving audio memories – A discussion about the prospects and demands of free radio archives”
The plenary discussion takes as its point of departure the notion that ever since their inception, non-commercial radio stations, community radio stations, their programmes and their features have often only been partially documented. The archiving and naming of radio broadcasts is often simply forgotten, put off as an additional burden or is the last thing to be done in the everyday work of a radio station. Against this background, nearly every community radio station in Europe has developed its own structures and tools for storing the content of broadcasts. Even in the days of video cassettes, mini disks and CDs, the principles on which numerous hours of broadcast programmes were kept and stored depended on the individual designs of radio producers and technicians – everyone creates extensive media data records – to a great or smaller degree – in order to identify the audio material. What are the consequences of this unstructured form of archiving and what will we remember of the history of community radio in the future? Which (existing) structures have been developed in practice and which have proved their worth? Which archive structures are compatible with the idea of community-based radio stations? What opportunities does organised tagging and storage offer – maintaining the programme archive of community radio stations?
This discussion is widened by the possibility of online archiving, something which is primarily regarded by many members of the radio community as a tool for communication and sharing. However it has become clear, at the very latest since the Internet archive archive.org was founded, that the Internet can be a relevant storage site which not only stores data in a passive fashion, but sets it in motion by promoting and encouraging as much sharing as possible. The free radio stations are faced with the challenge of interacting anew with this tremendous virtual opportunity within their communities and of rethinking their radio stations within the medium of the Internet. What new questions do the community media face as a result of the intensive and omnipresent use of the Internet at the present time? Which new forms and means have the communities already created?
Speakers:
Ingo Leindecker, cba.fro.at, Radio FRO
Ralf Wendt, Portier freie-radios.net and Programme Coordinator of Radio CORAX
Dagmar Brunow, Universität Växjö, Sweden
Joost van Beek, Central European University Budapest, Hungary
Moderation: Stephanie Scholz, Radio CORAX