BBC World Service Interview
Due largely to the pervasiveness of the Internet, I was interviewed by Roland Pease of the BBC World Service for a series of programs (sorry, programmes) called Sound Works that he was putting together on the science of music. Roland found me because of my web page on the Physics of the Didjeridu which, I was surprised to find, is now well referenced on the Web amongst didjenthusiasts. The interview was conducted via an ISDN phone link up between me in the WSM (or WWTN?) studios next to Opryland and Roland at the BBC in London. The link below is a short outtake from the program that features my modest input. It's in .mp3 format so you'll need an mpeg audio player. I would suggest first trying Winamp found at www.winamp.com, or go to mp3.com to read more about the mpeg audio format in general. The file is rather big.
As I was creating (and trying to debug) this page I have learned that mp3 is not well supported in browsers. If you click on the link below and your browser tries to open the file as text (lots of garbage characters will appear on your screen) then try the alternate method of holding down the shift (or option) keys as you click on the link. You will be prompted to save the file on your disk. After the file transfer, you can use the Winamp player to listen to the downloaded bbc.mp3 file (just remember where you stored it!).
Update 10/24/99
Wow! The BBC World Service must have athingabout the didjeridu. Below is an interview with James Gordon, a biology researcher at the University of Leeds in the UK conerning his work with didjeridus and elephants. It was broadcast across the US on 10/20/99 on the BBC's World Update program. James contacted be about designing a didjeridu that was capable of producing infra sound (sound below the frequency at which human hearing cuts off) in order to make an elephant deterrent for subsistence farmers in Africa. We have been corresponding over the last few months--he mentions that in the interview. Give it a listen if you've got a fast internet connection (the file is 3.7 Meg!) or a lot of patience.
Send me an email at wroberts@mtsu.edu
Contact Information
Dr. W. M. Robertson
MTSU Box X-116
Murfreesboro, TN 37132
Ph. (615) 898-5837