LitStation.com begins with an inordinate and obsessive love of poetry... Which is an affliction for which I’ve not sought a cure.
Hendree Milward, my partner in the LitStation.com enterprise, interviewed me on his radio program last year. Afterward we got to talking about our mutual love for recorded poetry and literature. As the conversation developed we decided to build a Web site devoted to making available literary sound files.
While developing this plan, we realized there were other sites being built along these lines, notably, Pennsound. So our idea morphed into something less static: a Webradio project. We’d collect audio sound files of literary interest, organize them, and then stream them. We’d contact people who were doing interviews with authors and see if we could re-run their programs. We’d get permission to run classical works that had been recorded by catalogs like Naxos. We’d get people to produce original programming for our Webradio station. Etc. The ideas multiplied and so did the tasks involved in launching such a project. Now comes the time when you can be a part of this endeavor:
LitStation.com to launch in late summer or early fall
LitStation.com will be a Webradio broadcast source for poetry, fiction, interviews, book reviews and essays of literary interest. Currently we are seeking content providers willing to allow us to stream their recorded materials. Poets and fiction writers who have recordings of their own work can send them to us for use on the air. These recording do not have to be professionally produced, but they need be of decent sound quality (a minimum of hisses, crackles and extraneous noise). Ideally, we’d like to get this material in digital sound files like mp3 or wav formats. But we can and will convert audio tape recordings to digital files, as well. Secondly, if you have access to any recordings of readings, interviews or lectures by other authors, we’d like to run those. (We will, of course, get permission from the author or copyright holder before running these recordings.)
Before sending a recording to us, please email us a brief description of what kind of recording you have available, the format (digital file type/cassette tape/vinyl, etc.), and your assessment of the recorded quality (pro/good/fair). (If it’s another person’s recording, any leads you might have on how to get permission for use would be of help.) We’ll then let you know if we think we can use your recording in our broadcast stream. Once the recording is scheduled to air/stream, we’ll notify you before it goes out in the stream, so you can be sure to tune in. We’ll send back to you any recordings that are originals…with a digital copy when it came to us as analog. We strongly suggest making a duplicate before sending an original recording to us. We can’t be responsible for lost or destroyed one-of-a-kind material.
At first the programming schedule will be somewhat loosely organized. Certain time slots will be a random playlist of various artists: an audio anthology du jour, so to speak. Gradually, as we collect more regular shows and series, the schedule will become more structured. For example, a regular listener will know he/she will hear ‘American Short Stories’ on Tuesday evening at 7 pm and that on Friday morning at 8 am ‘Conversations with Contemporary Poets’ is on the air (or in the stream).
We are very interested in hearing from people able and capable of producing original segments or series for broadcast. It might be something a tech-savvy lit student could do for credit as an independent study. We’re open to ideas and proposals.
Jim Finnegan manages the NewPoetry List.
Read on for two new poems he has graciously consented to present here at About Poetry:
