Preserving Radio Broadcasts: Thoughts on Future Directions

Abstract

The preservation of radio broadcast archives faces an uphill battle related to multiple issues, including appraisal, assessing uniqueness, format obsolescence and media degradation, and lack of institutional infrastructure. Some solutions are offered.

Keywords:

• Radio
• sound archives
• preservation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Seubert

Since 1998 David Seubert has been the curator of the Performing Arts Collection at UCSB, where he manages the performing arts archives and the recorded sound collections and audiovisual archives, including radio recordings. He is project director of the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive – the library’s online collection of early sound recording – and the Discography of American Historical Recordings, a research project documenting early sound recordings. Both are internationally recognized projects designed to make early sound recordings more widely accessible to scholars and the public.

Seubert has a degree in music from Oberlin College and in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has taught courses in Audiovisual Archives Management at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and has consulted on audio preservation issues for various American organizations. He is a past president of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections – a professional association of audio archivists and librarians – and an appointed member of the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board.