User:Beau Shelver/The Night Air (radio program)

The Night Air is a weekly ABC Radio National program that remixes a variety of media around different themes. The show is broadcast across Australia and is partly available as a podcast.

The program describes itself as “radio abstraction for listening pleasure”, and has been labelled by others as “audio collage”, “hybrid radio”, and an “aural equivalent of the avant-garde cut-up”.

The theme changes with each episode, and is the driving force for the content of the show.

Background and Format
The Night Air began production in 2002 when it was conceived by Tony Barrell, Diane Dean, Brent Clough and John Jacobs. It's a remix program focused on recontextualising other audio material, including radio drama and documentary, news, interviews, talkback, short stories, poetry, music and film. Content is sourced both from the Radio National archives and external sources. The format builds on those established in previous montage and cut-up programs that Barrell worked on, such as Sunday Afternoon at the Movies and Watching the Radio with the TV Off. Clough says the program makes “music out of talk”, while Jacobs describes the process as one of “distillation and subtractive synthesis”.

Forming part of Radio National’s arts and music programming, The Night Air is a pre-recorded show divided into two parts. Both parts are broadcast and streamed on Sundays from 8.30 pm to 10.00 pm AEST. Part 1 is then repeated at 9.30 pm Friday, and Part 2 at 12.00 am Sunday. The show began partial podcasting in 2005 when the station first commenced the practice, with Part 1 available for four weeks after the initial airing time.

Specialised Programming
The Night Air engages in co-productions and specialised programming on a semi-regular basis.

Orpheus Project and Remix Awards
To mark the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi’s L'Orfeo, The Night Air broadcast The Orpheus Project: 400 Years to 4 Minutes, a series of “micro operas” by contemporary Australian composers and sound artists. Produced in collaboration with ABC Classic FM and Triple J, the project commissioned 4-minute Orpheus remixes by Constantine Koukias, Gail Priest, Damian Barbeler, Robin Fox and Anthony Pateras, Amanda Stewart, and Dave Noyze and Sarah Last, and went to air on 2 December 2007. The Remix Awards then invited listeners to produce their own 4-minute remixes of Orpheus, a selection of which were broadcast on 24 February 2008.

Electrofringe and This Is Not Art
From 2004 to 2008, The Night Air collaborated with Electrofringe, an electronic arts festival in Newcastle, Australia, and its umbrella festival, This Is Not Art. The collaborations showcased and remixed content from the festivals, in some instances broadcast live from the festival.

Pool
Through the media-sharing site Pool, The Night Air has curated a number of programs from public callouts for content, such as the City Nights project. It has also sourced a variety of discrete content through this site for various episodes.

Scope
In December 2008 and January 2009, The Night Air ran a series of features under the title Reviewing Scope. These specials revisited Scope, an ABC Radio satire and social commentary program that ran from 1958 to 1976. The “lost episodes” were selected by one the show’s original presenters, Barry Mortlock Anthony.

Hosts and Contributors
Of The Night Air’s original creators, three remain producers of the program: Brent Clough, Diane Dean and John Jacobs. Tony Barrell ceased to work on the show when he retired from full-time employment with the ABC in 2008.

Production responsibilities for the program are rotated, each episode being typically produced by one person, but often with a number of contributors – guest producers, freelancers and interns.

Clough is also the de facto host of the program, although it’s not uncommon for another producer to host.