London calling (but you don't have to answer if you're busy)

I am, with this post, confessing my full-fledged nerdiness to the world.

(As if there was ever much doubt, I know . . . )

One of the things that has kept me occupied of late (other than bidding a tearful farewell to the citizens of Pine Valley, the most interesting town in Pennsylvania, closely followed by Llanview) is my latest podcast, "The Sounds of Shortwave Radio, Part 1," which you can listen to or download by visiting here.

While I've only done a handful of podcasts so far, this was by far the more difficult one to create, for a number of reasons, pretty much all of them out of my control.

For one, I picked a rather obscure topic--the interval or tuning signals (sometimes known as signature tunes) used by international radio broadcasters during the 1970s and '80s. I know, I know--but believe you me I've certainly seen more obscure (and, I might add, far less interesting) thesis and dissertation topics in my time. Lucky you, my creative output involves not even one reference to "epistemology" or "sub-altern studies."

The challenge here was that while I knew some of the tunes in my head, I didn't know the songs they were based upon--or even whether they were based on anything at all. Maybe they were the Casio musings of some frustrated, wannabe-cruise ship performer that had sidelined into a career as a radio technician. How should I know? Even with a Wikipedia page and the World Radio TV Handbook as able assistants, I still had to do a lot of research to uncover the facts.

For another, to get around my lack of knowledge about the actual songs most of the interval signals were based on, I was just planning to snag some mp3s off the internet and play those tunes in the podcast, along with some other, radio-related music. Pretty simple and given that these were 30-second tunes used by mostly public broadcasters 20, 30, 40 years ago, I was sure, if I could find them, there would be no problem employing them in my podcast.

Ha bloody ha. I could definitely find them (at the bottom of this post, you'll find some links to explore on your own *and* send hate mail to the site owners on my behalf), but most if not all were locked down so tightly for copyright purposes. And not by the copyright holder, the person or institution that created the tune, but by the person or persons who made off-air recordings of the signals.

Admittedly, copyright law is confusing, and far be it from me to argue anyone's logic, although any casual examination of the doctrine of fair use would probably stand mostly in my favor for re-using your work--especially when "your work" consists of sticking a tape recorder next to your radio speakers sometime in 1977!

Besides, even if my fair use arguments don't sway you or the powers-that-judge, there are a number of Creative Commons alternatives available to help share "your work" and gain attribution for it.

You're welcome!

Of course, I didn't realize I couldn't add these works to the podcast until after I wrote the script. So I rewrote the script, only to find that, when recorded with music, the whole thing stretched to nearly two hours in length. (What, me wordy?) Which just seemed cruel and unusual for all of us. So that resulted in a third rewrite and a re-recording of much of what I had already done.

All that aside, I had my usual "local" issues to contend with--the freight rail line that runs near my apartment, for starters, along with the playing-basketball-with-concrete-planters approach to life of my upstairs neighbors' two miniature, thug-based lifeforms.


Nonetheless, the podcast is done, and there is, as far as I can tell, a minimum of floor stomping, crying over time-outs, and bowling with the family cat and fine china going on in the background.


I do suffer for my art, such as it is. Hopefully you'll be able to overlook the bloodstains and the empty pill bottles to enjoy what you can of it.

* * *

Some places on the internet to hear actual interval signals and signature tunes:

• Interval Signals Online: http://www.intervalsignals.net/

• Kurzwelle Historisch ("Historic Shortwave" is my rough translation): http://www.kurzwelle-historisch.de/

• Interval Signal Database: http://en.intervalsignals.org/db/index.php

• Interval Signal Library: http://www.kawamura-photo.sakura.ne.jp/bcl/

* * *

Signals to listen for--a few of my favorites; focus on those used during the 1970s and 1980s, my "golden age" of shortwave listening:

• All India Radio

• BBC Caribbean Relay Station, Antigua ("Oranges and Lemons")

• Kol Israel, the Voice of Israel

• Radio Australia ("Waltzing Matilda" and the cackling of a kookaburra)

• Radio Bangladesh

• Radio France Internationale (the children's song, "Nous n'irons plus au bois")

• Radio Moscow ("Moscow Nights")

• Radio Norway International (a folk tune from the Hallingdal region; also featured in Symphony No. 1, "Towards the Mountains," by Eivind Groven)

• Radio Polonia ("Revolutionary Etude" by Frederic Chopin)

• Radio RSA: The Voice of South Africa (Apartheid bad! "Ver in die Wereld Kittie" played on the guitar and the chirping of the boemakierie good!)

• Radio Sweden (different ones were used in the 1970s and more contemporary times--both have, to me, a haunting, "Nordic" quality about them)

• RAE: Radiodifusión Argentina al Exterior

• Spanish Foreign Radio/Radio Exterior de España

There are others, but this is a good, under-2-hour start.