Radio Chthulucene 87.9 FM

The radio is always in the background: that’s what I was thinking about today, as I listened to Marco Werman divulge to us his musings on working with the medium. His passion—his seemingly innate affinity for the form, for working with sound, with language, with voice—startled me. While for previous generations the radio has served as the dominant information source, in my life “the radio” refers mainly to Top 40 hits, or whatever I hear playing twenty feet above me while I walk the aisles of Vons. The radio is what my parents play in the car because they don’t use Spotify or own an aux cord. The radio is automotive repair advertisements, grocery store jingles. It is music I don’t like. It is Jim Rome.

The last thing I want to do is sound like the worst Gen Z’er imaginable. I know that, in reality, the radio is so much more than all of these things. (And I don’t actually look down on my parents for making use of it.) But given the state of media nowadays, what with the rise of music streaming services and X becoming a primary source of news, radio has simply backed into the shadows. The radio has been playing my entire life; but it is always just part of the background.

For the first time today, listening to Marco Werman, I actually began to seriously reconsider my position on the medium. I sat there wondering why I hadn’t devoted myself to language-learning, become a polyglot, and pursued international radio journalism, so that I might one day be as successful and fulfilled as he seems to be. His ardor for radio really shocked me. I began to understand radio as a powerful form of communication and a formidable artistic container.

Marco uses sound on his program in a very beautiful way. In the background as he describes the river past Timbuktu you can hear the water running, and the speeding car on the dirt road as he drives out to Ali Farka Toure’s village. He is tactful with his inclusion of lingual elements, oscillating between local tongues and descriptive speech. Quotes are succinct and impactful; he does not waste a second of air time. 

When I consider my own project going forward, there are a host of sound elements I now feel interested in including. I had not considered background noises like water, or a vehicle. Now I think there are many that could fit into my piece. A lighter catching. The sound of water bubbling. Sink tap. Pots clanking. I want to be judicious about these choices, though, the way that Marco is, so as not to overwhelm the audience. There is a happy medium between ambience and overload; and I hope to find it in my work.