"Theatre of the Mind"

If you've ever listened once to Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR, you've probably tried to listen to it again.  It doesn't really matter what the topic is, there is something both interesting and soothing about listening to her voice.

I thought it was just me, but I read a newspaper column by someone who went to hear her speak at a public event.  He was thrilled to get to see her speak in person.  After hearing her talk, he said that if he were able to give her any advice at all about the job she was doing at NPR, it would be "don't lose the microphone."

It turns out that a lot of people have noticed how mellow, how smooth, how articulate the NPR reporters are.  And it's more than the microphone -- it is "dark room magic" that helps these voices conjur a theatre of the mind.  It's all explained by John Solomon at NPR's On the Media.

NPR takes the original audio stream, digitizes it, then edits out pauses, um's, uh's, and irrelevancies.  The process adds some resonance.  Sometimes even more is added:  the Car Talk brothers (Click and Clack) play their own recorded laughter after their own jokes.

And there may be tips here for budding pod-casters, as noted by Brand Autopsy:

Solomon explores the issue of how NPR implies interviews are live by saying ‘so and so joins us to talk about whatever.’ When in reality, the interview may have been taped earlier in the day.

Since podcasts are all the rage now with amateur anchors producing their own audio programs, these dark room magic tricks from NPR could help improve the listening quality of most podcasts I’ve heard.

Knowing this explains a lot, but it doesn't detract from listening to Fresh Air -- it's still great.