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'Ephemeral Work’: Louis MacNeice and the Moment of ‘Pure Radio'

Pure Radio was written in response to an invitation from the editors of Key Words, based in recognition of the methods and approach to cultural history of ‘Only in the Common People’ and the publication of an article documenting the work of innovative BBC radio producer Charles Parker. The special edition of Key Words sought to collect work directly committed to the excavation and analysis of marginalized culture, building on the spirit of that aspect of the work of Raymond Williams that was addressed to constructed cultural traditions. While the poetry of Louis MacNeice is well-known, my contribution explored his radio work as a means of defamiliarising his canonical status in order to evaluate his approach to and hopes for the possibilities of radio as popular art. In so doing, this research considers the nature of the retrieval of radio as an ephemeral medium, the experience of which, as argued by MacNeice, is not simply a matter of assessing the script as written but assessing its materiality as sound. Thus, this act of retrieval and historical imagination developed the conjunction of media and cultural history and of the politics of creative production, of what is remembered, how historical narratives are constructed and indeed, what aspects of the production are accessible. One development of the archival work led to an invitation to act as organizer and panelist for ‘Research and repurposing? Using the online Archival Sound Recordings of the British Library – issues, debates and opportunities in a changing online environment’, at Unlocking Audio 2’, a conference at the British Library. Likewise, this research informs the leadership in research in archives and heritage in BCMCR and my place on UK radio Archives Advisory Committee (UKRAAC) alongside Tim Wall.