Early Speech Synthesizer

Bob Fass documentary

Influential radio personality Bob Fass revolutionized the FM dial by developing a patchwork of music, politics, comedy and reports from the street, effectively creating free-form radio. For nearly 50 years, Fass has been heard at midnight on listener-sponsored station WBAI, broadcast out of New York City. Radio Unnameable documents Bob Fass’s eventful and controversial career, his involvement with some of the most gripping cultural movements of our time, while placing his story in a larger context of the struggle to keep free expression on the airwaves.

RADIO PHILATELY

Welcome to the website of RADIO PHILATELY related to the postage stamps of radio stations and broadcasting!

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" Like Victorian Baby Talk: Edison's Monstrous Talking Doll, circa 1890

Using miniature phonographs embedded inside, these “talking” baby dolls were toy manufacturers’ first attempt at using sound technology in toys. They marked a collaboration between Edison and William Jacques and Lowell Briggs, who worked to miniaturize the phonograph starting in 1878.

British Library Archival Sound Recordings

Explore 44,900 selected recordings of music, spoken word, and human and natural environments

Deafness in Disguise

Deafness in Disguise presents images, illustrations, advertising pamphlets, trade catalogs, patents, rare books and other material pertaining to mechanical and electrical hearing devices from the 19th and 20th centuries. Of particular focus in this exhibit are hearing devices that were designed for concealment or camouflage within everyday items.

The Alchemists of Sound

2003 Documentary on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop

RADIOPHONIC GALLERY

Peoples Temple Radio Codebook

Peoples Temple used coded messages in shortwave broadcasts between Jonestown, Georgetown and San Francisco, in part to circumvent FCC regulations on conducting business over amateur airwaves. In the first section of codes, for example, Peoples Temple cloaked its legal discussions – which were not permitted under its HAM radio license – with references to medical procedures.

To ensure that different radio operators understood each other, the Temple created a code book of aliases and cryptic phrases, the contents of which are published below.

Sound mirrors

A forerunner of radar, acoustic mirrors were built on the south and northeast coasts of England between about 1916 and the 1930s. The ‘listening ears’ were intended to provide early warning of incoming enemy aircraft.

First Sounds

First Sounds is an informal collaborative of audio historians, recording engineers, sound archivists, scientists, other individuals, and organizations who aim to make mankind's earliest sound recordings available to all people for all time.

Tony Schwartz

from NPR's On the Media
In his 84 years Tony Schwartz produced over 30,000 recordings, thousands of groundbreaking political ads, media theory books and Broadway sound design, invented the portable recorder, delivered hundreds of lectures and had full careers as an ad executive and a pioneering folklorist. And he did it all without leaving his zip code. Schwartz died in June and we offer a piece from the Kitchen Sisters, looking back at his life spent listening.

Henry Jacobs on NPR (2005)

Beginning in 1953, Jacobs hosted a music program for KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. The Folkways record label later released highlights from this show on an LP, Audio Collage, in 1955. His work represented a patchwork of skits, soundscapes and mock interviews.

David Jackson Shields "Selected TimeLine of Music and Media Technology"

1877 - Edison invents the cylinder "phonograph" used to record and playback sound

1877 - Emile Berliner invents the first microphone and sells the rights to Bell Telephone

Friedrich Kittler "The History of Communication Media"

What follows is on attempt to discuss the history of communication technologies - as far as this is humanly possible - in general terms. The objective is ultimately the outline of a scientific history of the media - an outline for the simple reason that media sciences is a new field of research which would not exist had it not been for the triumphal advance of modern information technologies.

Luigi Russolo " The Art of Noises"

This limited circle of pure sounds must be broken, and the infinite variety of “noise-sound” conquered.