UNIT 1. Radio broadcasting: the basics
INTRODUCTION
Society has increasingly relied on images created by others to give form and definition to the
world in which all live
• Rediscover the power of human imagination: What’s the essence of human
imagination? It is a multisensory experience
· understand different ways of listening
· explore the concept of the “theater of the mind”
· understand the importance of audio design for radio
• Comprehend the language of radio and its elements to make the most out of the
communicative capacity of radio
WAYS OF LISTENING
• Hearing (oír) ≠ listening (escuchar)
• Modes of listening (Chion –Schaeffer-)
· Causal listening: has to do with identifying the sound
· Semantic listening: understanding the sound
· Reduced listening: trade of sound itself
They overlap and combine
Listening with the ear can’t be separated from listening with the mind
THE THEATRE OF THE MIND
The power of silent film as “mute” medium
Generate the missing “visual” details within the scene
Radio lacks the multi-channel characteristics of other audiovisual media relying only on the
elements of sound and silence
This “blindness” is both the weakness and strength of the medium (Arnheim; Radio: the art of
sound – 1936)
An effectively designed audio work may facilitate a listener’s integration of life-based
experiences into a “movie” created within the ‘theater of the mind’
Each individual becomes his or her own movie director
Good audio production design can expand
human experience throughout the multi-
sensory image building capability of the
mind
