Over the Edge (radio)

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Over the Edge (or, OTE) is a sound collage radio program hosted and produced in the United States by Don Joyce, who is also a member of Negativland.

Founded in 1981, OTE is broadcast live on KPFA in Berkeley, California, every second, third, and fourth Thursday morning from 12am to 3am. On the rare occasion of a month with a fifth Thursday OTE runs an additional two hours, from 12am to 5am. The show is also available on-line, streamed live from KPFA.org (where you can also podcast the show), or from Negativland.com, where many older episodes are available as well.

Contents

[edit] History

Joyce has broadcast OTE since June 1981, usually solo, but sometimes with collaborators, who are often members of Negativland, too. OTE began as a rather conventional music show, though Joyce gradually experimented with the format, due to his disapproval for what he saw as radio's primary function (encouraging listeners to buy music recordings). The show has changed time slots a few times, but now broadcasts in the Thursday 12 - 3 AM slot. Due to various obligations on the part of Joyce and the KPFA DJs on before and after him, the show is sometimes not aired at all, or is sometimes much longer. Usually these kinds of scheduling changes are announced the week previous, or in the closing minutes of the previous show.

[edit] Format

Joyce uses sound collage techniques, weaving many sources together throughout the program to create a "conversational" form of audio presentation. Sources might include recordings of other radio programs (including, but not limited to old time radio shows), portions of documentary films, songs and various special effects sounds, all typically related to a pre-selected theme (though this is not entirely necessary). Joyce also uses various devices to add reverb or other effects to sound sources, and often employs a device known as a "Booper" to create electronic and synthesized tones that he incorporates into the show. Joyce declares that with OTE, he and his collaborators "create 'direct-reference' collages, manipulating and mixing both found and original sounds to produce a new kind of audio animal. O.T.E. is always concerned with recycling existing cultural elements to some new, unintended effect."[1]

O.T.E.'s theme music is from Heaven and Hell (1975), by Vangelis. Most of the time, this song begins each show, though in some cases other sounds may play over it, and the song may be slowed down or sped up, depending on the shows theme. At about two thirds of the way through the song, during a natural pause in the music, the song stops and a sampling of what's to come plays, which can last any amount of time before the remainder of the song will finish. Following the theme music, Joyce will usually announce the theme of the show, and when appropriate, say a few words that relate to previous or upcoming events. Usually at the top of the hour Joyce will perform a Legal ID for KPFA in some form, and near the end of the show will make a similar closing announcement. At the very end of each episode Joyce plays a recording of a woman's voice reading a statement attributed to photographer Man Ray: "To create is divine. To reproduce is human."

Throughout most shows, regardless of content, Joyce will play spots that idea the show as being part of the Universal Media Netweb. This is part of an on-going plot that connects the majority of Over The Edge broadcasts.

Occasionally, Over The Edge will subvert the expectations of this format when it suits the theme of the show. Joyce (or others) will feign personas or characters, and will sometimes even skip the theme music and other show conventions, to better create the feel and sound of another kind of show. There have even been cases where fans have become quite confused, which is ironic given that the collage nature of the show tends to confuse the average radio listener.

[edit] Receptacle programming

The audience phone participation ("Receptacle Programming") is another element of the format: listeners are encouraged to call in, and are placed on-air, sometimes two or three at a time, with no prior screening. Listeners can then play their own recordings for OTE, offer commentary or non-sequiturs, or, less often, converse with Joyce. People are allowed to remain on the air as long as Joyce judges their contributions valuable, from a few seconds to several minutes or more. The highly improvisational content and late hour of the broadcast attract a variety of colorful callers.

According to Joyce[2], Receptacle Programming is, ideally, a collaboration:

Receptacle programming is there to deposit ideas and sounds from the real, live, simultaneous life outside our broadcast studio. Real-time participation allows a direct interaction with our mix as it is happening. Thus, musicians can join in with an over-the phone instrument and follow our live beat or provide a responsive bed for our elements. This, as we like to say, is best accomplished by listening to the show on stereo headphones tuned to KPFA when you call, and holding the telephone like a microphone. Then the caller is "in" the mix, hearing his or her own real-time sounds being broadcast right along with our mix in headphone stereo. Some callers have their own mixers which they connect to their phones and send in their own rather elaborate mixes of music and tapes with their own effects added.

There are only two rules for callers: (1) When the phone stops ringing, you're on the air; (2) Don't say "Hello."

Many fans and regular callers of the show have home-brewed their own electronic devices to aid in sending sound over the phone.

[edit] Topics

Joyce typically follows one theme for an entire program. Topics vary wildly, from motion pictures, to various music and copyright issues and the CIA; one episode each was devoted to Ken Nordine and to radio comedy team Bob and Ray.

Usually only a few times a year, Joyce does an episode in a series called "Another UFO". Each episode examines one facet of the unidentified flying object phenomenon, such as alien abduction, cattle mutilation, or the Roswell UFO incident. These episodes are a fan favorite, and a subject that Joyce himself is continually fascinated with.

In 2006 Joyce began two on-going series: "How Radio Isn't Done" (about pirate radio and other broadcasting renegades and / or bloopers), & "How Radio Was Done" (about the history of radio as a cultural phenomenon, with recorded samplings of what that sounded like). As of January, 2008, the show has yet to complete this series, as the shows present recorded radio phenomena chronologically.

[edit] Characters & Story

Over The Edge often uses personas and characters, created by Joyce and his cohorts, to give the show a textual depth and continuity over time. The show purports to be part of the "Universal Media Netweb," a broadcasting entity that offers any number of shows, and specializes in Receptacle Programming. The UMN employs a number of people, including Joyce, and is responsible for the UMN spots that Joyce plays throughout his shows. While new developments in this storyline ebb and flow as Joyce's interests shift and change over time, there are recurring characters that crop up fairly often.

[edit] C. Elliot Friday

UMN is supposedly funded by a wealthy recluse, C. Elliot Friday, who lives in a secret retreat on Howland Island, and emerges every four years to run for President on the Universal Party ticket.

[edit] Crosley Bendix

Crosley Bendix is a radio personality (played by Joyce) for a series of commentaries. Bendix was touted as the Cultural Reviewer, and typically greets listeners with a cheery "Good hello!" Most famously, Bendix introduced listeners to "squant"[1][citation needed] the fictitious "fourth primary color", which was also the only primary color to have its own unique scent.

[edit] Discography with Negativland

Throughout the '80s and '90s and beyond, Over the Edge has also been an outlet for Negativland's creativity. The group participated in many of the shows, a few of which have been released as edited-down CDs:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Crosley Bendix, Director Of Stylistic Premonitions, U.M.N.. Squant Story. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.

[edit] External links