Taking a cue from NASA, The BBC, and other organizations who have made other similar errors in the past with regards to archiving, we thought it would be a good idea to undertake the first ever official Blasphuphmus Radio Archive Project, where we make an attempt to collect all the various recordings related to the show in all of the various different forms they have taken over the years. As of 2:00 PM today, every known existing recording is now safely archived on six DVDs, containing almost 400 broadcasts that I participated in, and includes many of the long-since-thought-lost KWVA shows from 1998 and 1999.
This project originally began last summer, when we began analog-to-digital conversion for the KWVA shows that were, on the whole, entirely stored on cassette tapes. Many of these tapes began to show wear and tear, or had been lost over the years, and it made sense to make the conversion to a digital format to increase the longevity of these recordings, and to make them more easily accessible in a world where cassettes are a (supposedly) dying format. After the mass-cassette conversion, the project continued until this morning, where the last of the known recordings were all assembled, and then backed up (in .mp3 format) to a series of DVD discs, now being stored at the Blasphuphmus Radio Offices in beautiful Portland, Oregon.
One of the reasons the archive project took so long is a simple matter of media formats: Blasphuphmus Radio has been archived in a variety of ways over the years, many of which were not the best means of capturing audio for repeated future listening. For the KWVA years, cassettes were the only format available, and many of the shows were heavily edited for the cassette archives. Playlists were not kept as dilligently as they are now, and so many of the early shows exist in little as 20 minutes versions, a far cry from the two hour broadcast presentation. (Only one show from that era exists in it's near complete form, missing only the commercials.) The last few months of broadcasts from that period are gone entirely, which may or may not be uncovered as secret stashes of cassettes crop up in the Blasphuphmus Radio Offices. (Shades of Dr. Who again, no doubt.)
At KPSU, the show was archived in a variety of ways: cassette tapes, minidiscs, CDs, mono .mp3 recordings, and finally, full stereo .mp3s. Various means and methods of keeping these shows were used between 2004 and today, and not all of them were successful. Many shows were, again, edited in the cassette tape form, and while we were able to recreate these shows in an as-complete-form-as-possible, there are many that are missing, or don't contain everything. When .mp3 archiving began in mid 2005, the initial archive was spotty at best (and in a very cheap mono form, utilizing only one of the two stereo broadcast tracks). Only the 2006 broadcasts are (nearly) complete, and some of the later (and, by many accounts, best) 2007 shows were lost in a hard drive crash that occured in early 2008. Fortunately, all of the 2009 Season shows exist, in their entirety, some of which are even in stereo, thanks to the podcasts going stereo earlier this year.
In the process of assembling this archive, many rare gems were unearthed, and over 100 recordings of live performances were found, too (some by bands that either were, or went on, to become fairly famous). Some of these recordings will make appearances in future Blasphuphmus Radio Retrocasts, while the live recordings will begin to surface in other forms as we move into our 12th Year as a media entity. (Watch this space for more information.) One thing that caught our attention in undertaking this project were the numerous individuals who made appearances on the show, helped make a show possible, or in some way encouraged us to keep going. It would be too labor-intensive to name everyone, but I promise you, each and every one of you will be thanked in some way or another, and your contributions mean the world to each and every one of us.
In the last 11 years I have been lucky enough to broadcast music I love to the people I love in a variety of means and ways. It has been a real treat to get to do something like this, and I hope that in the next 11 years, I can continue to offer better and better shows, in whatever form they take.
Keep up the good work, and I'll see ya Tuesday. Walg.
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