Audio Timecapsule

FAIN: TD-300631-24

Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN 37203-2416)
Jad Abumrad (Project Director: January 2024 to present)

Development of a podcast series that explores the history of early American radio broadcasting. 

We propose a new podcast series spotlighting important moments in radio history. Each episode will focus on a “radio time capsule”, a brief segment of radio illustrating the rich, dynamic, strange, and strikingly modern world of early American broadcasting. These radio moments will be culled from audio archives from all over the country, many of which may have been broadcast to audiences only once in history. The podcast will directly examine the similarities between radio and podcasting. At a time when AI will play a bigger role in podcasting, this newer medium can take inspiration from the humanity (and playful experimentation) of its older counterpart. The host and special guests will take a modern and playful approach to framing each episode. Interviews with expert guests will occasionally be woven in. This development grant will fund researching the episodes and producing one pilot episode that will be pitched to partners that will support the full-scale production of the podcast.