Is Radio the Future?

When I was a child in the UK, I remember two kinds of shows distinctly. There were children’s programmes on TV  like Andy Pandy and The Flowerpot Men which, in hindsight, were questionable as to whether drugs had played a part in their creation, and then, on the radio, there was The Goons.  

At the end of the 2nd World War the world had a very collective desire to ‘Not do that again’, but conflicts continued, and many people, including my father, still had to deal with being in violent conflict zones. The British reaction to this was to produce the zaniest, most abstract and brilliant comic humour the world had ever seen.

TV was not yet the force it would become, and most people still only had access to a radio and, in the UK, shows like Round the Horn and The Goon Show (a direct precursor to Monty Python) became essential listening and shaped an ability to laugh at the craziest of things. In a way an essential of surviving the horrors of war.

Then TV arrived like a tsunami of visual assault. It fed the greatest desires of the world for communication and, by default, the by-product of marketing. From then to today we have been addicted to the audio-visual medium and its transformation into an all-accessible internet platform.  

A lot has been said about the positive and pernicious influence of television and now, social media, but somehow there has remained a place for audio-only entertainment. Now we call it podcasts but really this is just a repackaging of an old idea that has been robbed of a lot of its value. Whereas podcasts serve as a vehicle for individuals, old school radio provided a service with an endless well of innovation, broadcasting comedy shows, quiz shows, mystery theatre and on and on.

New Harmony radio is built on the latter idea. We may not have the budget yet to do drama shows but we have big ambitions of bringing back the idea of radio being funny, quirky, informative and having a real relevance to the people in the community in which it exists. Our community has more interesting people in it than I can probably ever interview or chronicle. In the end everyone has a fascinating story to tell. We all can relate to someone’s struggles and successes more than the artifice of remote influencers and stars.

So, is radio the future? I believe it is a future, and one that can outlast and be more intimate than all the great avalanche of social media and streaming TV can ever be. So, we will be defiantly unwilling to seek popularity for profit. We will always look to create quality that appeals to anyone but especially to our great local community in New Harmony, Indiana. We will play great music but not shy away from playing challenging music either. We will interview pets, read poetry, chase dreams and try things that were never meant for radio, just to see if they work.

This is a journey of curiosity and faith, and we want to take along anyone who thinks that sounds like fun.

If you like the sound of that, please hitch a ride.

Colin