In the online magazine LEIBNIZ, Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wagner and radio play producer Dr. Klaus Buhlert talk to Fabian Zapatka about 100 years of radio plays, how listening habits have changed and explain the extent to which they see sophisticated radio plays as “part of a cultural home”.
From the Interview
LEIBNIZ: Does it matter to you that people listen to your plays differently today than they used to?
KLAUS BUHLERT: Our world is undergoing radical changes: it is becoming louder and more nonspecific. Language is changing, too: it is becoming indifferent. At the moment, radio is particularly suffering from this.
HANS-ULRICH WAGNER: Scientists call this a transformation process.
LEIBNIZ: Could listening “on demand” be an opportunity for sophisticated audio plays?
HANS-ULRICH WAGNER: Of course, we have to ask ourselves: When will I have time to listen to a 60-minute Buhlert radio play? “On demand” offers me the technical possibility to access and listen to it anytime. But what kind of ecosystem do we need to maintain or create to ensure that an artistic radio play can be perceived in our sonic environment “on air” and that people find it interesting and enriching?
KLAUS BUHLERT: In Germany, unlike in other countries, we make the sophisticated radio play available. For me, this also means that we afford a cultural home. Radio plays are part of a cultural home, just like the theater. When we feel culturally at home in some way, we feel better and our society functions better because the exchange between us and with the world is better. Art and culture are important for social peace. We simply have to afford them.
The complete interview is available in German in the online magazine LEIBNIZ.
Photo: Fabian Zapatka