Retuning the Dial: Rethinking the Relationship between Radio and New American Music

Significantly,the “wildest” of the three Web programs is broadcast from halfway around the world: Perth, Australia. Host Bryce Moore is refreshingly unabashed about the focus of the Difficult Listening Hour. He plays any music that “stretches the boundaries,” which sometimes means pieces that blur the line between classical and pop.

You have to tune in to the show live, so for listeners on Eastern Daylight Time, that translates into “bright and early” on Sunday morning, between 9 and 11 AM (9 to 11 PM in Perth). Unfortunately, you can’t listen to past broadcasts online, but you can access the playlists for the last three months. The playlist for November 28th seemed typically eclectic. Labeled “experimental techno and e
lectronic music,” it included compositions by people and groups I have never heard of: Jochem Paap, Somatic Responses, Ken Ishii, and a group called Existence and Uniqueness of Solutions, among others. The broadcast of October 31st featured some composers whose work I know a bit better: John Cage, and Harry Partch, who was represented by his entire seventy-two minute Delusion of the Fury. (Try to imagine that on an American radio station!)

Moore has also set up his site as a resource for the new-music community, a goal he appears to share with the authors of the other sites I explored. To begin with, he has created a link to the Australian Music Center. The playlists contain links to record labels as well as the performers’ homepages, if available. In addition, he has posted a separate list that allows you to access the Websites of new-music-friendly record companies.

From Retuning the Dial: Rethinking the Relationship between Radio and New American Music
by Jennifer Undercofler
© 2000 NewMusicBox