Of what use is public radio in a time of podcasts?
That is, other than providing the funding for programmes that can be podcast – is there any use for radio medium specifically?
I suggest there is.
Beyond giving local news and weather, there’s a traditional use which could be used again. Consider these two 1920s BBC publications, pamphlets in the “BBC Transmissions To Schools” series:
Boys And Girls Of The Middle Ages by Rhoda Power with illustrations by Elinor Lambert |PDF|
Broadcasts on Mondays from September 26 – December 12, 1927 at 2:30pm
Boys And Girls Of Other Days by Rhoda Power with illustrations by Elinor Lambert and others |PDF|
Broadcasts on Mondays from January 16 – March 26, 1928 at 2:30pm
BBC, CBC and ABC Radio National do a tremendous job at providing excellence in public adult programming with an educational bent, but in terms of children it seems to fall very short
The above documents show how public radio broadcasting can help with education of elementary school children. I’d love to see some education programming of this sort, aimed at children, turning up on CBC radio, with PDF downloads and podcast feeds as a compliment to national broadcasts.
For more information on the use of radio in schools, BroadcastForSchools.co.uk
Posted by Jesse Willis