Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Richard Friedman <>]

Long silences on radio do present a problem. Some stations have signal alarms that go off if a long segment with a very low output signal is detected.

Long silences also trigger a reaction from the audience to change stations, assuming something has gone wrong.  This, more than any other reason, makes for bad radio (if you consider losing your audience as being counter productive). 

Unfortunately, pieces with especially long silences (lets say 1 minute or longer), or with extremely low levels, are not successful for most radio programs. E.g. 4'33" could be broadcast if the audience ambience was loud enough to keep interest and prevent the studio alarms from going off %-)  )

<R>

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 4:48 AM, Glenn Freeman <> wrote:

> I'm curious about a practical aspect of the broadcast. According to
> the listing on Amazon, 108 appears to include stretches of silence
> lasting several minutes. Will you be broadcasting that much of what we
> used to call "dead air?" That would be quite unusual within a show,
> but not impossible.

--
Richard Friedman
Music From Other Minds on KALW 91.7 FM

Oakland, California
http://otherminds.org/mfom