These Networks gradually progressed into a series of radio/telephone events, in different cities. In the middle of the seventies I realized one for the whole of the USA with two hundred radio stations and five cities where people called into. I made huge trans-continental loops to transform their sounds.It was called Radio Net.
Max Neuhaus
'I started in another direction which I now call Networks; these are inter-connections of lay people again, having a dialogue with sound that is beyond language. I did the first one, also in the middle of the sixties, with a radio station in New York City. It involved doing something which was unheard of at that time: I plugged the telephone system into the radio station. I installed ten telephone lines at the station and asked people to call in during a two-hour period with whatever sounds they wanted. It created a live sound collage made with the participation of anybody within a twenty-mile radius the ten million people who were living there. These Networks gradually progressed into a series of radio/telephone events, in different cities. In the middle of the seventies I realized one for the whole of the USA with two hundred radio stations and five cities where people called into. I made huge trans-continental loops to transform their sounds.It was called Radio Net. At that time the word ‘network’ wasn’t a word in general us; it was a word that engineers knew but if you mentioned ‘network’ in a cultural context or any kind of conversation except with an engineer, no-one would know what it was. With these network ideas, I was also trying to go beyond the event and make them into entities. I was trying to figure out how I could take over a radio station twenty-four hours a day, or a network of radio stations. Fortunately, though, the Internet arrived. As of last year there is a work, Auracle, which is there twenty-four hours a day at a site called www.auracle.org. It is a point of meeting to create a network of people who play an instrument together using their voice'.
Max Neuhaus
Advertisement, article continues Belowe this ad hans-ulrich-obrist interview with Max Neuhaus, 22, Aug05
“Radio Net.” For two hours on 200 NPR stations in 1977, sound artist Max Neuhaus conducted a massive experimental audio symphony using processed sound from callers all around the nation. It’s a vivid reminder of the audacious experimental artistic force NPR once was.Previously unpublished video of the preparations for and execution of Radio Net:
Public Supply I - WBAI, New York City, 1966, 2 hours
Public Supply III - WFMT, Chicago, 1973, 2 hours
Radio Net - Continental USA, 1977, 8 hours
Track #1 East transmit loop (New York, WNYC)
Track #2 Midwest transmit loop (Dallas and Chicago)
Track #3 South transmit loop (Atlanta, WABE)
Track #4 West transmit loop (Los Angeles)
Radio Net Postcard Npr
William Duckworth, interview Max Neuhaus, edited from transcript, New York 1982
1945 - The "Father of Talk Radio," Barry Gray, "became bored just playing music and interviewed one of the callers on air who happened to be celebrity Woody Herman."(WMCA in New York City.) Gray estimates interviewing more than 40,000 guests over 40 years. Talk Radio History by Carla Gesell-Streeter, www.radiotalk.org/history.html
Mid-1950's - Todd Storz puts a call-in show on WHB Radio in Kansas City; Pittsburgh's KDKA starts a late-evening show called Party Line. All Talk: The Talk Show in Media Culture by Wayne Munson
October, 1961 - KABC Radio in Los Angeles converts to an all-talk programming format. KMOX in St. Louis and KVOR Colorado Springs make a similar move around this time. All Talk: The Talk Show in Media Culture by Wayne Munson
1963-67 - Phil Donahue hosts Conversation Piece, a phone-in radio talk show.
1967 - Phil Donahue Show debuts in Dayton, OH (WLWD-TV.) The show combines the talk radio format with a television interview show, providing the prototype for current interactive talk shows. The Museum of Broadcast Communications
1978 - Larry King Show launches, marking the first national call-in radio program. (Mutual Radio Network) CNN.com
October 7, 1980 - C-SPAN inaugurates television's first-ever, regularly scheduled national viewer call-in program from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
June, 1985 - Larry King Live debuts, airing each weeknight on CNN. In addition to topical guests, the program also features phone calls from viewers. CNN.com
1990s - About 10 percent of all radio stations air call-in talk shows, creating one of the fastest growing radio broadcasting formats in the country. Hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Larry King, Howard Stern and others are syndicated nationally, and the number of local programs increases dramatically. Talk Radio History by Carla Gesell-Streeter
1993 - Tom Snyder returns to The Tomorrow Show format with the launch of the Tom Snyder program on CNBC, adding an opportunity for viewers to call-in with their own questions. www.wikipedia.com
January 5, 1995 - The three-hour Washington Journal (7 to 10 am ET ) replaces the earlier call-in incarnations as the network's flagship viewer call-in program