The first progress report on the British Library's National Radio Archive has been published.
The pilot is scheduled to run over two years and aims to preserve a representative proportion of ongoing UK radio output which will be made available for research:
This intervention was needed because most UK radio output was not being preserved long-term or was inaccessible for research and education. We estimate that of around 3 million hours of radio broadcast in the UK each year from 700 stations, some 92% is not being properly preserved, with only 2% being made available for potential research post-transmission. These are sounds that need saving.
While Ofcom-licenced stations have to retain off-air logger recordings for at least 42 days, so they can be shared with the regulator if necessary, they're often binned after this time period or at risk of being deleted from internal systems.
Thankfully, the likes of Aircheck Downloads and other enthusiasts have archived thousands of hours worth of radio over the years - but we wish there was more.
I remember LBC’s catch-up subscription service had virtually every show since the mid-00s archived. No idea what happened to the treasure when it closed, but I hope it’s buried for someone to dig up one day.
Also, special shoutout for Matty whose Iain Lee Vault has virtually every one of the great man’s shows since the 90s.
No comments:
Post a Comment