Radio
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Seán Street has worked in radio since 1970. He began his career at BBC Radio Solent, later moving into the commercial sector when 2CR opened in Bournemouth, in 1980. Here he was Features Editor, leaving in 1987 to develop work as a freelance programme maker. Since that time he has made programmes for The BBC World Service, BBC Radios 2,3 and 4, and a number of commercial radio stations, including LBC in London.

You can hear Seán Street's acclaimed documentary on the sound recordist, Ludwig Koch, first heard on BBC Radio 4 in 2010, here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jn4m2/Ludwig_Koch_and_the_Music_of_Nature/

 

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A Second Chance to hear WALLS OF SOUND - BBC Radio 4, 21 April 2012

To mark the partnership between the BBC and the British Library on the newly launched 'Listening Project', BBC Radio 4 is re-broadcasting Seán Street's much-praised documentary, Walls of Sound, about the work of the BL's Sound Conservation Department, which was first broadcast in March 2011. The programme can be heard on Saturday 21 April at 8.00pm UK time, and via the BBC iplayer for seven days thereafter.

More information can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zq9mz

 

The Sound Of Fear

Episode image for The Sound of Fear

 
BBC RADIO 4, 2011
Tuesday 18 October
9.00-9.30pm 
Repeated 19 October
4.30-5.00pm

 

Elisabeth Mahoney

The Guardian, Tue 18 Oct 2011 21.40 BST

Radio programmes about sound are often a delight, exploring the medium's currency, but they can be esoteric. Not so The Sound of Fear (Radio 4), a fascinating consideration of why sounds scare us, if only some of the time. Hearing footsteps nearby during the day, for example, wouldn't warrant attention. But, as one contributor put it to presenter Sean Street: "If I'm woken up by the sound of footsteps in the middle of the night that has a very different meaning".

This exploration had three major things in its favour. First, Street is blessed with a very listenable becalming voice and second, it was beautifully produced by Julian May to include a rich aural backdrop of noises that might terrify.

Street had fine contributors, too. I could listen to musician and writer David Toop for hours on the subject. Sounds, he argued, are fleeting: "As soon as you make a sound, it's gone." Because of this, he went on, sound is always about loss, and ultimately death.

Neuroscientist Sophie Scott explained how the noises we make when frightened are "more like noises made by other animals than they are like speech". But speech can be scary, too, said one contributor, if it's a Da