Speechification

The ‘Summer Season’ on ABC Radio National - for it is summer down here below the equator, hello! - essentially means a chance to repeat a load of old shows while everybody goes on holiday. Which is fine by me. This show’s had a little bit more effort applied, though. They’re lovingly compiled finds from deep, deep in the archive.

‘Scope’ was a magazine show, running from 1958 to early 1976, “under the guidance of ‘frequently-dishevelled, wild-eyed’ producer, Donald Ingram-Smith” it says here. Each week tackled a particular theme, and rather delightfully this show from 1967 focused on ‘Communication’ itself. Stand by for lots of rapid-fire cut-up fragments, talk of Telstar, the bleep-bloop of barely digital computers, and some great, groovy library music. These semi-nostalgic ‘reviews’ are set up by one of the show’s original presenters, Barry Anthony, who has an absolutely corking radio voice (here, simply drenched in reverb for maximum effect). Honestly, it’s so dated that you wander whether it is in fact some kind of elaborate hoax. Let’s assume it isn’t. It both serves as self-parody and is good value either way.

The Night Air: Reviewing Scope: Communication (mp3)

This entry was posted by by dan on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 1:03 pm . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.