ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the parallels which exist between music documentary production for radio and that for TV and film, and consider case studies of successful productions which have gained both industry and public recognition. It explains the development of the key technologies used in the production of music documentaries to show how changes in recording and editing equipment have helped to shape the role of the music documentary producer and their output. The growing reputation of film-based music documentaries can also be seen in the prestigious awards won in documentary categories since the turn of the century. Innovations in audio recording equipment allowed radio documentary producers to capture and present actuality in a similar manner. Montages, cross fades, use of ambient on location recordings, and other features of contemporary documentary production are commonplace in the radio documentaries of Charles Parker and Philip Donnellan in the late fifties and early sixties.
