On Sat, 26 Apr 2014 17:26:04 -0500, Griffin <hosgriffin@gmail.com>
wrote:
>I want to create an Excel spreadsheet that has a list of all of the
>Hearts of Space programs. Some of the columns could be:
>Program Name, Program Number, Artist, Album, Track Title, etc...
>(the details can be discussed here before starting)
>
>Obviously this would take one person a very long time. So I am asking
>for volunteers. The more people working on this, the sooner it will be
>done ;^)
>
>If you want to help with this, please send me an email at
>hosgriffin at gmail dot com
>
>I will coordinate the effort, and post an updated spreadsheet weekly.
>I will also send the completed list to Stephen Hill.
>
>If ten people add ten programs to the spreadsheet every week, then it
>will be done in less than three months.
>
>
>Recently I sent the following email to Stephen Hill:
>Hello,
> I have a recording of program 136 from many years ago, and during
>the program you say that the title is "Floating." But on your website,
>the title of program 136 is "Floating Whispers." Which one is correct?
>I also have another recording of program 325, and during the program
>you say that the title is "Floating Whispers", but on your website the
>title of program 325 is "Floating Whispers 2."
>
>I've also noticed several other anomalies on your website. For
>instance, the program details of number 2 - "Starmusic", which was
>first broadcast on 5 Jan. 1983 lists the release year of some of the
>albums used as being after 1983 - (1988, 1997, 1991.)
>
>Sorry to point these things out Stephen, because you really do amazing
>work.
>
>Have you ever considered hiring someone to go thru your website and
>fact check everything?
>
>Sincerely, (a HOS fan since 1987)
>
>Here is Stephen's reply:
>Thanks for casting a precision eye on our program listings. You are
>one of a small but appreciated group who've contacted us about details
>like these. Since we aim to get things right 100%, we always respond
>and fix any errors that are pointed out to us.
>
>I've passed your email on to Steve Davis, who is the keeper of our
>Programs database. He will respond to you if he needs more
>information; otherwise he'll fix whatever he can immediately.
>
>Please understand that we seldom update titles of shows when they are
>rerun, but there have been a few cases where it's happened in 30 years
>of broadcasting.
>
>On playlists, there's no point in listing out-of-print versions of an
>album if there is a currently released version, so in these cases we
>sometimes update the listings, which explains the later pub dates..
>The goal is to give the listener current access information - we are
>not a historical archive like Discogs.com that can list every
>publication of a given album.
>
>Re your offer: we have a short list of People Who Care about these
>things, and are always happy to have help in finding and fixing
>errors. When we have an actual project, we'll contact you. There's one
>coming up to verify the timing information (track start and end times)
>prior to breaking the programs into their component tracks.
>
>Stay Tuned. Safe journey :: SH
Here is a follow up email sent by Steve Davis:
Thanks for your diligence with regard to details of the early shows.
Now, as for the titles of early programs, remember that HOS grew out
of a live 3-hour weekly broadcast, where there really wasn't a
specific show title (just a general description handwritten on the box
of a reel tape!). In the early days of syndication, NPR needed a
unique identifier for each episode...and for that purpose, the program
*number* is clearly more efficient and less ambiguous. I'm not
implying that the title of the program is not important, but I think
the titles of some of those early shows were a bit more "fluid," if
you will.
I went back to the original typewritten documents of that show from
1987 and here's what I found: the official playlist & timings sheet
given to NPR for that broadcast (i.e. the same data used for creating
our website playlist) is titled "Floating Whispers." The voiceover
script for the show has a heading of "FLOATING" but the text of the
intro copy says "music for floating" (not in caps, more like a
description than a title). I have a hunch that the title was settled
on after the voiceovers were recorded and just before readying the
and Michael Stearns' "Floating Whispers" fit the bill perfectly. Since
the official playlist for NPR has that title, I'm inclined to leave
things the way they are. If we change the title for "Floating
Whispers," then we would also have to alter the title for "Floating
Whispers 2," if only slightly. It gets rather complicated.
Steve Davis
Associate Producer
HEARTS OF SPACE Radio Pgm.
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