Over the past few months the Radio Preservation Task Force (now with a brand new website) has worked to expand its list of affiliate archives. A number of big organizations have also become recently affiliated with the RPTF, including NPR, the Pacifica Radio Archives, the Prometheus Radio Project, and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. As well, big steps have been made in the organization of a national conference on the preservation of radio history.
On February 25 – 27, the RPTF will host “Saving America’s Radio Heritage: Radio Preservation, Access, and Education” in Washington, D.C. at the Library of Congress and the University of Maryland. The conference will bring together research associates, affiliated archives, and members of the broader academic, archival, and general public to discuss the project’s progress and steps for the future.
Keynote speakers will include Paddy Scannell (University of Michigan), a renowned radio scholar and historian, and Sam Brylawski, the former Head of the Library of Congress’s Recorded Sound Division.
When the RPTF project was announced in October 2014, the national conference was noted as one of the key goals of the initiative. Alongside the accomplishment of building an organization of more than 130 media studies scholars, over 350 affiliate archives and radio producing organizations across the US and Canada, and a number of online partners who provide critical discussion and reflection on the project, the conference is a move in the right direction. It will offer participants the opportunity to meet face-to-face and discuss the project’s next steps. Workshops and panels aim to focus on issues of outreach, growth, and education.
Please keep your ears open for more updates as we near the dates of the conference!
