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Poster for How Radio Isn't Done
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Released
2017 · FILM

How Radio Isn't Done

'On the air, it's all at once, one time only, and then it's gone forever' - Don Joyce

Directed by
Runtime
74 min
BiographyDocumentaryDrama

Synopsis

When Don Joyce and Negativland discovered their mutual love for “found” sounds, an intensely collaborative creative partnership was cemented. It continued non-stop for the ensuing decades, with Don endlessly scanning the airwaves of radio and television, along with his massive LP collection, for new material, day by day, week by week. “It was Don who took the idea of reshaping previously recorded words – in a pre-sampling age – and ran with it to an extent and depth never before heard, and never equaled. ‘Recontextualization’ became his weapon, with the 1/4” tape machine and razor blade his ammunition, and the radio ‘cart player’ – an entirely forgotten piece of broadcast history using endless-loop tape cartridges, which he used until he death – his delivery system.” -Negativland

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 7

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Ryan Worsley

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