'What comes out of the loudspeaker'

KEEBLE McFARLANE

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Our calendar, it appears, contains not only the days of the week and the dozen months, but also denotes almost every one of the year's 365 days to honour something or other. This week, we added a new "day" to the list. In case you haven't heard, last Monday was World Radio Day - the first of what its creators hope will be an important addition to the calendar. World Radio Day was declared three months ago by the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation, better known as UNESCO.

We have been hearing for decades about the imminent death of radio. First it was television, which was going to dominate the media scene so completely that it would squeeze out its forerunner radio, as well as newspapers and magazines. There is no doubt that television has indeed become a dominant force in the media world, but radio is still here, and even though declining in reach, print is still holding its own in many places.

Magazines, in fact, were the first part of the media to feel the impact of television. As a youngster I consumed glossy magazines like Look, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, The Illustrated London News, not to mention specialist publications about science, agriculture and horticulture, aeroplanes and cars. The picture magazines published general interest articles. They also carried comedy, literature and wry commentaries about obscure events and experiences. Television took over many of those subjects, leaving magazines to specialise - in bodybuilding, diet and exercise, cooking, sports, apparel and really narrow specialties such as pets and weddings.

Radio, too, adapted itself to the brave new visual world, concentrating on music, news and general information. There are also areas where only radio will work. You can listen to the radio in a sweat shop while you stitch endless seams of blue jeans, sweat shirts or undergarments. You can drive everywhere with the radio to keep you company. A blind person can keep abreast of everything through a trusty radio companion. I have personal experience of this, as my mother was blind for the last 40-odd years of her long life. I had given her the most up-to-date radio at the time - a Philips nine-transistor shortwave portable set so that she could keep up with JBC and RJR as well as her favourite religious programmes coming from Quito, Ecuador, on HCJB. She had strong likes and dislikes among the broadcasters, and acted as my secret editor, telling me when I sounded good and when I didn't.

Today, we are hearing once again a new wave of those "radio is dead" proclamations, but those come only from well-off places where people have a multiplicity of electronic gadgets and platforms on which they obtain and share information, images, gossip and vast amounts of trivia. What those predictors of doom fail to remember is that all those devices are forms of radio! Today's most advanced cellphones contain up to six distinct radio devices - to transmit and receive signals from cell towers; to hook up with Bluetooth devices; to connect to WiFi; to link to the Internet and to receive co-ordinates from GPS. We use radio to talk via cordless phones, to go online from a laptop computer or speak via cordless microphone at a theatrical event. Coming full circle, some cellphones now sold in poor countries come with a built-in FM receiver.

We have to bear in mind that 65 per cent of the seven billion people who inhabit this planet have no access to the Internet, but do have radio, which is available to 95 per cent of the world's population. The Spanish delegates who proposed World Radio Day note that radio is a low-cost medium admirably suited to reach remote communities and the vast numbers of people who are illiterate, poor or disadvantaged. Radio also has a strong role during emergencies and disasters, when the sophisticated systems we rely on are laid low by storms, earthquakes or floods. But they also note that as many as a billion people still have no access to radio.

The biggest growth in radio is in community broadcasting. This is not the formal kind of radio many of us grew up with, having polished programmes with announcers who filled the airwaves with orotund phrases. That kind of radio is one-way - they present, we listen. Now, with the absolute explosion in inexpensive cellphones, listeners are partners in programming, telling the broadcasters their conditions, wants and needs.

From the highlands of Papua New Guinea, the rice fields of Cambodia to the hardscrabble communities of Malawi or Uganda, small, uncomplicated, inexpensive low-powered radio stations keep people up to date on a bewildering variety of topics. Farmers who notice something wrong with their chickens can call in to their local station and describe the problem. The station calls up a veterinarian who talks to the callers on air and diagnoses Newcastle disease, which can then be treated. Village women in Nepal use their community broadcasts to discuss everything from harmful cultural practices such as being shunned while having their periods to an increased role in local politics. Women in Latin America can explore methods of fighting domestic violence and gaining access to the justice system.

Wilmot Perkins

It is indeed ironic that the first World Radio Day was observed a few days after Wilmot Perkins died. I don't need to tell anyone of the iconic place he held in the medium. Like many other popular broadcasters in Jamaica, he very quickly grasped the importance of the connection between the telephone and the radio, and exploited it to the fullest.

I met Perkins when I joined the Gleaner 53 years ago. He was a general assignment reporter who even then was a cut above the others for his intellectual inclination. One day, after a discussion about some obscure point of literature, Perkins left the newsroom on Harbour Street and strode up to a bookstore on King Street, where he picked up a copy of the Lays of Ancient Rome, by 19th century British poet, historian and politician Thomas Macaulay. Perkins couldn't wait to dive into the book, and I recall walking along King Street in front of the high court buildings where a row of trees shaded the sidewalk. There was Motty, taller than the rest of us, his head surrounded by leaves, engrossed in the Lays, oblivious to the cars and people going by.

He was an irascible fellow who, sadly, had a habit of haggling over a subject ad nauseam, rather like a persistent dog gnawing at a bone long after the meat was gone. But he was certainly unforgettable.

Les Galbraith

Regrettably, I have one more media-related death to report. My old friend, Les Galbraith, legendary electronic wizard who helped pioneer the music business with his solid, reliable amplifiers and other equipment, died last weekend at the age of 87. He had spent the last few years in central Florida to be close to his children. Gally, as we knew him, was the epitome of a gentleman who treated everyone with dignity and respect. Condolences to his wife, Inez and the rest of the family.

Edward R Murrow

The pioneering American broadcaster, Edward R Murrow, had a phrase to describe radio, this dynamic, ever-adaptable medium - a phrase which both Motty and Gally, in their own ways, understood: "In radio, the only thing that matters is what comes out of the loudspeaker."

keeble.mack@sympatico.ca

Do/Would you disclose details of your salary with your spouse?
	Yes
	No

View Results
Results published weekly in Sunday Finance

Username:
Password:

Water woes to affect sections of St Catherine and the Corporate Area

'What comes out of the loudspeaker'