When sound is digitally recorded and retransmitted, it goes through four discrete phases. First, there is the actual sound wave or signal produced by a human voice. This is then sampled digitally, or "sliced," into fragments at the rate of 44,100 times per second, producing a sort of digital bar graph. Those slices are then reconstituted and unified into a geometric line that looks much like a modern city's skyline. Finally, upon transmission, what you hear out of your speakers is integration, made up by electronically averaging the gaps between the geometric bumps on the skyline, smoothing it out in as close proximity to the original uninterrupted sound wave as possible.

Fig. 1: Signal Oral/Tribal Age


Fig. 2: Fragmentation - Writing


Fig. 3: Unification - Printing


Fig. 4: Integration Electronic Age

Copyright ©2000 Mark Morley

These four stages not only represent the breakdown and reassembly of analog voices into digital media, they are also visual metaphors for the history of our species as Marshall McLuhan understood it: with each stage of media, the human species' social, psychological, and spiritual behavior would be rearranged along the lines predicated by the dominant medium.

First, we lived in the oral phase of history--the age of the human voice, of bards, recited poetry, and religious mystery. Then we discovered writing, which froze writing and concurrently codified mystery into religious ritual. Third came printing, which multiplied the frozen voices of writing, leading to the exportation and then exploitation of culture (or, as McLuhan asked, why did the missionaries export literacy along with the gospel? The two have nothing to do with each other). Finally we entered the electronic age that accelerated all the above to cultural light speed.

Today, in the digital world, all that is frozen is not only multiplied and accelerated, but it is also morphed into whatever shape the market demands. Enter lip-synchers Milli Vanilli, the globalization and home-theaterization of karaoke, and the visual music of synthetically voiced Britney Spears. More and more, there is less and less "reality" to our everyday experience of reality.

And yet, whether spoken or sung, humans will always come back to voice, and so radio may mutate, but it will always survive. The voice is our primitive and primordial technology. In the hierarchy of our senses, it is sound that matters most, both from a physical and metaphysical point of view. If filmed entertainment can fool your eye into the persistence of motion illusion at a mere 24 frames per second, then consider how much more delicate and attuned is the organ that requires 44,100 samples per second to fool you into hearing true sound.

Both eastern and western philosophies have the universe created with sound ("Om" in the East, and "God said" in the West), and the gospel tells us, "For faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word," which implies that hearing is more crucial than seeing for faith's action. Conversely, it is the denial of the human need for other human voices that makes solitary confinement such a harsh form of punishment.

And so the future of radio is going to look simultaneously like progress and nostalgia for the oral ancestry of our species. The first trend will be an ongoing replication of Howard Stern and Britney Spears. As corporations merge in their ongoing attempts to "own" more and more of the audience, so too will the dumbing-down of the content be a requirement as the market operates much like democracy: the least common denominator becomes the new mark of high culture--just look at Arnold Schwarzenegger's career. The second trend will be the simultaneous revolution by those who understand the new media technologies and create radio shows for audiences seeking refuge from corporate-controlled monoculture. This means, most likely, that Web-based micro-casting will be available on next-generation iPods capable of picking up Wi-Fi hotspots, allowing you to pick up the stations of the new ham radio operators--the Web-radio-geeks with access to transmitters.

These future applications will be used for both good and evil. In William Wresch's analysis, radio use in Africa currently serves as both call for genocide (Rwanda) and as a substitute telephone, where in rural Namibia you can call the station to announce that your aunt should come visit; even if she has neither radio nor telephone, someone who does will give her the message by the end of the day. McLuhan once quipped that he never predicted anything that wasn't already happening, and in that respect, the future of radio will be a lot like right now, only more so.

Read Mercer Schuchardt is Assistant Professor of Communication Arts at Marymount Manhattan College and the publisher of Metaphilm. His e-mail address is: read@cleave.com.