A Museum of Sound

Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A journey back to the very beginning of recorded sound and the strange, random, beautiful things people captured more than a century ago. We recommend listening with headphones.

On January 1st, 2022 all audio recorded before 1923 is entering the public domain because of a new law, the Music Modernization Act. Archivists around the country have been digitizing thousands of old records, tinfoil, and wax cylinders that few people have ever heard.

We hear one of the first recordings ever made, dated 1853. We then visit with Thomas Edison and his phonograph invention, which etched sound into tinfoil. There are amateur home and field recordings, instructional tapes, and commercial music. And then there’s Lionel Mapleson, the grandfather of bootlegging, who spent years recording the Metropolitan Opera from every possible vantage point.

Today’s episode is a collaboration with Sam Harnett and Chris Hoff of The World According to Sound. A live audio show and online listening series. Their next performance is January 6, grab your ticket today.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I want to tell you about another podcast we love.
0:02.7	The folks at Brooklyn Public Library just launched a new podcast series called Barrowed
0:06.8	and Band.
0:08.3	Over seven episodes, the hosts tell the story of America's ideological war with its bookshelves.
0:14.0	The series explores how and why books are being removed from library shelves across the
0:18.0	country today, and what people are doing about it.
0:21.0	We hear from students, teachers, and librarians, and the writers whose books have become a political
0:26.2	battleground.
0:27.6	You can subscribe to Barrowed and Band wherever you get your podcasts.
0:34.6	From PRX.
0:37.2	From PRX's Radio Topia, this is Radio Diaries, I'm Joe Richmond.
0:41.8	This year as a pandemic project, I pulled out an old suitcase that had not been opened
0:46.5	in years with full of cassette tapes that I recorded in my 20s.
0:51.1	My college radio show, a love song to an old girlfriend, and this one.
0:57.1	Hi, it's me again.
0:59.1	It was the first recording I ever made on my first ever tape recorder.
1:03.1	It was 23 on a solo cross-country road trip.
1:07.1	I'm in downtown Memphis, just finished eating a bunch of ribs, having a couple beers,
1:12.0	playing a little pool.
1:13.8	And what do you know?
1:14.8	It's five minutes after midnight.
1:16.9	I was driving back roads, sleeping in parking lots, or camping in the woods, playing
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Radio Diaries & Radiotopia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Radio Diaries & Radiotopia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.