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Due to public demand and his own unquenchable desire to talk about the neglected history of ABC radio, former Drama and Features producer (now successful businessman with several companies in the Gulf states), Barry Anthony has returned to The Night Air with a new series exploring some of the more obscure moments of the program for which he once worked as a 'junior trouser'—the legendary magazine show of the 50s, 60s and 70s, Scope.
Scope was a hardy example of creative programming on ABC radio. It ran from 1958 until 1976 and for 13 years of its existence was guided by the charismatic and energetic Donald Ingram Smith. A devotee of the Indian teacher and one-time `messiah´, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Ingram Smith was always keen to question society, its motivations and directions.
With Scope he sought out a diverse collection of commentators, from philosophers and novelists to society ladies and chimneysweeps, who would satirise, critique and celebrate social mores.
Interspersed with `narration´ from Ingram Smith and young presenters like Clive Robertson and Margaret Throsby, Scope took on a given theme each week and with its unpredictability and enthusiasm, offered respite from the starchy fare elsewhere on the ABC. Although it suited the irreverent mood of the 60s, by the mid 70s Ingram Smith´s sense of the `breakdown in all levels of society´ hastened the end of the show and his own retirement.
In a labour of love and deep fascination for his old show, Barry Anthony has trawled through the recorded remnants of Scope to select some choice examples of this long-running and popular ABC program. Musing over a 1964 Ingram Smith introduction to a story about the advent of `Beaujolais in can´, Barry Anthony notes, with characteristically wry nostalgia, that his senior producer always had the ability to `know where the crumbling chaos of the 20th century ended, and where humour, even the bleakest and most absurd, began...´
In this first episode of Reviewing Scope it´s back to 1958 and 1962 for a youthful Edna Everidge and her banana trifle recipe, Hoshi the taxi driver, dancing The Twist, and a smoking lab.
Part 2: Kraig Grady and the Music of the Island of Anaphoria
Situated about `180 degrees from here´, the island of Anaphoria and its unique culture of exiles has provided musical stimulus for LA native, composer and musician Kraig Grady. Now resident in Australia, Kraig discusses his experiences on the island and offers a selection of shimmering Anaphorian or Anaphorian-influenced music from recordings such as `The Stolen Stars: An Anaphorian Dance Drama´, `Orenda´ and `From The Interiors of Anaphoria´.
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