Just to wake this topic up, I've been wrapped up in Negativland's Over the Edge shows for the past few days. It's easy to get wrapped up in them. They are at times boring and stupid, and at times brilliant and engaging.
Over the Edge is a show on KPFA in Berkley (a stridently left wing public radio station that refuses to take any commercial contribution, and will not give in to NPR's monopoly on public radio) that is broadcast most Thursday nights at midnight. It's normally a 3 hour show, but on months with 5 Thursdays it is 5 hours. It is not heard on the 1st Thurday of the month.
All of that used to be fairly important if you want to catch the show on the radio, but of course it's now available on the internet at
http://www.kpfa.org/It is mostly the braichild of Don Joyce, a member of the band called Negativland. He creates very enigmatic 3 hour audio montages with various audio sources based on 1 subject matter. The last few years he has been focused on "How Radio Was Done". Basically a history of the world through the eyes of radio, by way of a history of radio. Using air checks from various DJs in various ages, and comercials, audio from documentaries about things that happened in a particular year, and taking calls from, normally annoying, callers in the San Francisco Bay area. All with a background of songs from each year. Currently he is up to 1982 (or possibly 1983).
He has turned the Over the Edge eye on many different subjects from people like Ken Nordine and James Burke to subjects like religion, the history of flight, numbers, and UFOs. There is a whole series of episodes entitled Another UFO covering that subject.
Besides the interesting mix of sounds and concepts that the shows provide Joyce seems to be able to stradle the edge of subjects without really making it clear who is right and who is wrong. He maintains a good balance. For instance he states he doesn't believe in UFOs, but if you listen to his programs about the subject, you might be fooled into believe that he does believe in them. His shows dealing with religion feature sound about Islam, various Christian beliefs, Jewish, and other odd ball religions. All without judgement.
Another good source to find Negativland shows is SerpentX's half-assed Over the Edge/Puzzling Evidence Archive
http://matrix.csustan.edu/Negativ/ While KPFA's archieve is up to day with the most recent shows, they are all in fairly low qualtiy 30Kh mono mp3s. SerpentX has some good quality stereo shows, but he updates infrequently. Stereo is definitly the best way to enjoy the world of Over the Edge.
