Tag Archives: Myke Dodge Weiskopf

Help Myke fund a 2013 ShortWaveMusic series on Socotra, Yemen

We’ve mentioned Myke Dodge Weiskopf before on the SWLing Post, he’s a radio producer, historian, broadcast artist, multi-instrumentalist, sound recordist, and composer based in Los Angeles, CA.

Myke travels around the world with his trusty Eton E1 and recording equipment in tow to capture both sounds from the ether and live performances. He then makes them available on his website, Myke.me.

He’s now planning a recording trip to isolated island of Socotra and needs your help.  He has a Kickstarter campaign which outlines plans for his trip. Watch the video below and consider helping him by contributing to his goal of raising $3,500 US.

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Music and sounds of Mali

Myke Dodge Weiskopf, who we’ve mentioned on the SWLing Post for his shortwave radio recordings, has informed us that he will be hosting a long-form radio show May-19-20th, showcasing live radio recordings from Mali. You can listen to the show online, or live (if you live near Cambridge, MA, USA).

Details from Myke:

I’ll be producing and hosting another long-form radio broadcast on the music and sounds of Mali for WHRB 95.3 FM, Cambridge, MA (USA). The broadcast is part of the biannual WHRB Orgy® tradition.

Mali is perhaps the most popular and influential hub of African music. This continuous, 22-hour-long broadcast will feature rare live recordings from more than a dozen of Mali’s finest homegrown musicians and bands, as well as extensive folkloric and regional music from the libraries of Malian state and community FM broadcasters. Recordings were made in January 2012 during a three-week overland journey ranging from the country’s capital, Bamako, to the legendary Saharan city of Timbuktu. Fans of Malian music, African community radio, and world folklore should consider this required listening.

Available via terrestrial FM (95.3 FM) or streaming online at www.whrb.org.

The details in short:

FROM HERE TO TIMBUKTU: The WHRB Mali Orgy®
WHRB 95.3 FM (Cambridge, MA) or www.whrb.org
START: Saturday, May 19 (1800 UTC / 1 PM EDT)
END: Sunday, May 20 (1600 UTC / 11 AM EDT)

Further details will be posted soon at www.maliorgy.info.

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ShortWaveMusic offers one-day music download in honor of World Radio Day

Our friend, Myke, over at the ShortWaveMusic blog has a very special World Radio Day gift:

As the preeminent blog dedicated to preserving and disseminating indigenous sound and music as heard via international radio, ShortWaveMusic is observing World Radio Day with a special, one-day-only offer: a download of the 5-CD retrospective box set, The Clouds Should Know Me By Now: ShortWaveMusic 2005-2010. This box set was compiled in 2011 for release on a prominent independent record label, but has since stalled at the gate for various reasons. As a result, I’ve decided to give it away on the occasion of World Radio Day – perhaps no more fitting time to compel others to enjoy the vast and kaleidoscopic array of music available via shortwave radio.[]

What are you waiting for? Go to ShortWaveMusic and get your free download–bookmark the site, too, as Myke offers some incredible recordings and journals of his audio/radio expeditions. (This is not the first time we’ve mentioned Myke’s work on the SWLing Post.)

Thanks, Myke, and happy World Radio Day!

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“At The Tone”–A history of WWV in audio

NIST Radio Station WWV Transmitter Building in Fort Collins, Colorado.

If shortwave radio has a pulse, it is the constant beat of the WWV and WWVH time stations.

Some of the first memories I have of hearing shortwave radio are of my father tuning in WWV each Sunday morning (on his RCA 6K3), to set his watch. Had this not been my father’s routine, I’m not so sure I would have known what  shortwave radio was for many years.

Indeed, I’m so fond of WWV, that I have to make a modest confession: I often tune it in simply to listen to its predictably reassuring announcements of the time. Somehow it calms and comforts me that all is right on the airwaves.

Actually, WWV is and has always been much more than simply a time station. It is the most reliable way for us here in North America to check propagation characteristics both by listening to the signal strengths of the transmissions on 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz, but also by the announcements made at specific times throughout the day.

Lately, WWV has even been announcing test tsunami warnings. It was the search for broadcasts of these warnings that lead me to Myke Dodge Weiskopf’s site, Myke.me. (Regular readers of the SWLing Post will be familiar with Myke’s work.) When I wrote to thank Myke for the audio, he drew my attention to something irresistible to a WWV disciple like me.

“At The Tone: A Little History of NIST Radio Stations WWV & WWVH”

Myke has meticulously and artfully created a CD audio archive of the WWV and WWVH time stations. A description of the project from its “about” section:

At The Tone is the first comprehensive audio survey of NIST Radio Stations WWV and WWVH: two legendary shortwave radio broadcasters whose primary purpose is the dissemination of scientifically precise time and frequency. Comprised of a 74-minute audio CD and a 32-page, full-color booklet, the set represents a huge cross-section of the stations’ “life and times,” including recordings of obsolete formats, original voices and identifications, special announcements, format changes, “leap seconds,” and other aural oddities from 1958 to 2005.

After listening to some of the sample audio from the project, I was hooked: I purchased the CD on Myke’s website and have enjoyed hearing the many tracks of audio history from WWV. The accompanying track notes alone provide a very complete history of the these NIST stations, and are the perfect companion to the audio tracks.

Indeed, I liken this audio journey to learning some untold life experience of a good friend or family member. WWV has been my radio companion all these years, but until I encountered Myke’s archive I had never heard the many voices of the station, leap seconds, experimental formats, etc. It puts the station in perspective, and opens an audio window to the time before “Coordinated Universal Time.”

It may seem foolish to wax enthusiastic about a time station.  But before you judge me for my indulgence in this unlikely source of nostalgia, I encourage you to cruise to Myke’s site, purchase “At The Tone” and see (or rather, hear) for yourself!

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