Demo Explanation
The call-in talk radio show could hardly have experienced the growth it did without cell phones and mobile means of communication. Communication technology is evolving quickly, with instant messaging and cell phones becoming equipped to record, receive and distribute visual messages.
KRLX is the home of weekly call-in show, A Series of Tubes, a program that offers support and as the hosts answer technology-related questions posed by callers. After two terms, however, the show has not been attracting the number of callers they have hoped for and are currently working to change the show's style.
Calling the station is currently the best means listeners have to contact the hosts. The station has had the capability of receiving phone calls from it’s listeners for many years, but recently listeners are now able to send messages to the studio online. Since the messaging system's inception, there has been an increase in the contact show hosts have had with their listeners, while the number of phone calls have decreased. To attract more questions from the audience, then, it stands to reason that the amount of ways in which the hosts can be contacted should also increase. In this demo we’ve created a way in which the studio could be contacted via video instant messaging.
This particular program, along with the first demo in this website, demonstrate how a call-in show could be available to stream visually and download as a podcast upon completion of the broadcast. With more computers and cellphones coming equipped with cameras, it doesn’t seem long after video streaming becomes popular that listeners will be able to contact the show via “video chatting” and have their image broadcast alongside the hosts.
As more people have the equipment and technology to instant message with video components built into their computer, we might be able to see more two-way interactions and community podcasts. This demo transforms the simple question and answer formula of popular call-in shows into more dialogue between listener and host. This speculation tries to combine early ideas of wireless broadcasting as a means of communication and radio as a means for one-way distribution and public service.