The Art of Radio Documentary

Abstract

For many years, I have been a devoted fan of radio documentaries. Back in the 1980s and 1990s I used to record some of the documentaries on my old Phillips cassette recorder. When digital technology replaced such tapes, I put them in a drawer. To make a radio documentary, you only need a good voice recorder and a talent to connect with people. Listening to a good radio documentary, you get the feeling of participating in the scenes that the journalist has recorded on tape. The story unfolds before you, rich with character and detail, as people present their lives “unfiltered,” without the usual interjections from experts.