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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Wanted - Old Tapes!!

Do you have any tapes and cassettes in your attic or under the stairs that contain old family recordings?

If so we'd like to hear from you and possibly include some of your material in our programme Home Recorded Voices which is being transmitted on BBC Radio 4 this Christmas. We are particularly interested in `domestic recordings' like family audio letters, holiday tapes and stories. [We are not looking for off-air recordings of TV and radio programmes]

Maybe you have recordings of family and friends making their own radio programmes or experimenting with their tape recording equipment? Or perhaps you have boxes of tapes hidden in a dark corner somewhere that you can't play and have no idea what they contain – then perhaps we might be able to help you find out!

If you think you might be able to help please contact us by email on:-
voices@soundscapeproductions.co.uk or call on: 01904 731300 and leave a message and we'll get back to you.

This is in connection with this planned programme:

BBC Radio 4 – transmission date to be confirmed
Sean Street delves into the world of domestic home recordings revealing a fascinating social history from wax cylinders to 'myspace' Domestic and semi-professional tape machines have only been around for just over half a century and by the late 1950s people with money or a passion for sound were beginning to purchase these machines and start to recording sounds in their own homes. But now in the 21st Century tape has become old technology and boxes of tapes take up a lot of space!

For the past 10 years Richard Harrison has been trailing around car boot sales, skips and auctions finding boxes and boxes of 1/4" tapes and has now established an unusual archive of 'domestic recordings' from around the UK. In this Archive Hour Sean Street joins Richard as he hunts out piles of boxes at Car Boot sales and listens to tapes many of which are being heard for the first time in decades and probably for the first time people outside a close circle of family and friends. These are recordings of unique moments in time and situation never before broadcast. But who are these voices? The programme will also follow Sean, Richard and other collectors and `domestic' tape recordists as they tell the story of Home Recorded Voices.
(Source: Mike Barraclough/World DX Club)