TY - JOUR

T1 - Unidentified Sounds

T2 - Radio reporting from Copenhagen 1931-49

AU - Kreutzfeldt, Jacob

PY - 2015/4/15

Y1 - 2015/4/15

N2 - This article investigates how urban spaces and its noises are approached by radio reporters in the first decades of public radio production in Denmark. Focussing on the period before reel tape was incorporated in production by late 1940es, I ask how urban space and urban sounds are heard, contextualised and conceptualised in an era of transmission. Observing that urban sounds until late 1930es are rarely heard in Danish radio compared to German and English broadcasting, I argue that an urban and auditory aesthetics incorporating noise, heterogeneity and unpredictability did not really develop in Danish radio until early post-war years. Yet I trace early attempts at managing noisy urban conditions and demonstrate how reporters experimented with available technological repositories and developed techniques in order to make sense in and through urban environments. Inspired by Michel Serres idea of the parasite I analyse such techniques as ways of distinguishing between noise and meaningful sounds, and ultimately show how such ventures constituted auditory responses to modernity and let organised sound enter the public sphere.

AB - This article investigates how urban spaces and its noises are approached by radio reporters in the first decades of public radio production in Denmark. Focussing on the period before reel tape was incorporated in production by late 1940es, I ask how urban space and urban sounds are heard, contextualised and conceptualised in an era of transmission. Observing that urban sounds until late 1930es are rarely heard in Danish radio compared to German and English broadcasting, I argue that an urban and auditory aesthetics incorporating noise, heterogeneity and unpredictability did not really develop in Danish radio until early post-war years. Yet I trace early attempts at managing noisy urban conditions and demonstrate how reporters experimented with available technological repositories and developed techniques in order to make sense in and through urban environments. Inspired by Michel Serres idea of the parasite I analyse such techniques as ways of distinguishing between noise and meaningful sounds, and ultimately show how such ventures constituted auditory responses to modernity and let organised sound enter the public sphere.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - urban studies

KW - sound studies

KW - radio studies

KW - radio aesthetics

KW - radio history

U2 - 10.1080/19376529.2015.1015858

DO - 10.1080/19376529.2015.1015858

M3 - Journal article

VL - 22

SP - 3

EP - 19

JO - Journal of Radio and Audio Media

JF - Journal of Radio and Audio Media

SN - 1937-6529

IS - 1

M1 - 1

ER -