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Announcement of Czech Radio
Announcement of Czech RadioWith great sadness we announce the sudden death of our colleague PhD.Zdenek Boucek on 30 January at age 64.
Czech Radio is deeply saddened at the loss of a very active editor, producer and very good man and friend.
Mr Boucek worked for the radio more then 40 years in  Drama and Literary, Entertainment, Documentary and last time in the Drama and Feature department.
He received several prices (Prix Bohemia, REPORT, PRIX FUTURA), participated as a jury member at Prix Italia, Prix Futura, Prix Europe.
He was also a vicepresident of Radiomaker´s Union.
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Comments
do you know…? @ Sharon Davis
Was an English version ever made of “Death of an Elephant” by Witold Zadrowski?If so, can you tell me who by and how to contact them.Kind Regards,Sharon Davis
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
email
davis.sharon@abc.net.au
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Funeral Zdenek Boucek @ Leo Braun
The early death of Zdenek came totally unforeseen.Already one week before he died he had broken his leg, when walking his little and beloved pekinese dog in front of his house on icy surface.
The embolism which killed him was not caused by bad health, so I was told, but rather accidental.
So our fallen friend became a fallen angel.I knew Zdenek for about 15 years and from the very beginning was not only impressed but touched by his inner presence.
He radiated honesty, purety, noble motivation and a very strong and understanding humour when, in spite of all intentions, something failed.
At dinners, he was the one I always begged to sit next to, because of his aura of goodness.
He was somebody with the finest inner beauty.
On last Thursday, 2 February, I travelled to Prague to bring my affection, to pay my respect and to be close to him on his last walk the following day.
In the hotel restaurant where I had dinner, I asked the waiter to lay the table for two, I would be expecting an old friend.
Zdenek came with all his good aura, was sitting next to me as he had done so often and we had an outstanding evening together.
We discussed our work, failure and success, we cheered to all these great members of our family and I explained to him that tomorrow after his funeral he would be collected by all those who happened to die before him.
How do they know? he asked, I had such a sudden death, there was no time to let anybody know.
I informed them, I said, all of them will be there, and are really looking ahead, you will be in splendid company.
I paid the bill, and Zdenek embraced me, laughing.
He loved the idea to have been dying so fast that he took everybody by surprise, even those at the other side of the Gate.
To be too fast is not very professional, he said, but very personal indeed. He pushed off and waved to me, see you tomorrow.
Friday, 3 February, 12 o’clock.
The Mala Krematory in Prague had seats for about 80 persons, but double as much had come in. Family, friends, colleagues, young and old.
People were standing at the walls, in the background, actually pressed together all over the place.
Including the Director of the Channel Zdenek used to work for and the General Manager of Czech Radio.
The coffin that dominated the little stage was surrounded by an expensive sea of flowers.
Many tears and profound emotion, our Zdenek was a great personality and much loved.
No priest preaching, Zdenek did not believe in god, but heartbreaking music and two speakers for Zdenek’s professional and personal merits.
30 minutes all in all, then the curtain of the little stage began to close and I gave Zdenek the salute in the name of all of us.
And in the name of all of us I offered my condolence to his wife, doc.Ing. Jana BouÄková, a lady so small and in black looking desperately at the closed curtain and a broken life.
The world of feature is a long history of talent, motivation, craft and togetherness.
A gallery of character and brain.
Zdenek belonged into its center, he was a deep part of its soul.
Think of him and you will feel it.Â
Tell them, he said to me, it would be great to see all of them again, but they should take more time.
Leo Braun
P.S. Those among you who have not done so already should write to:
doc.Ing Jana BouÄková
Holubkova 4
CZ – 106 00 Praha 10
It would help her to know that she was not the only who loved Zdenek.
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website
Zdenek Boucek
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Comments
I know he was a deeply political being, but in a gentle, subtle way. A natural anarchist, perhaps, but his was the anarchy of laughter, and not anger.
I miss him, and will miss him, more.
Thank you, Leo, for sitting at that table, and saying hello to that gentle soul, for all of us.
GW
Third Coast Festival Update @ org
Who is Vern Nash?By Thelon Oeming and Steve Wadhams.When producer Thelon Oeming meets Vern Nash, they
strike up a surprising friendship. Thelon is a young
theater school graduate with recording equipment; Vern
is an elderly man tormented by demons, constantly guarding
the perimeter of their shared neighborhood to exorcise the
evil forces. But Vern is also an accomplished musician
brought down into Vern’s life.
What’s up with Podcasting?
Good question, and the exact one we intend to get to the
bottom of at the first 2006 Listening Room happening in
Chicago on March 8. Join us to hear a variety of podcasts
and engage in a lively debate about this new audio format
that folks can’t seem to stop talking about.
http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/listening_room_LR.asp
Coming Soon…
Stay tuned for the weekly Re:sound podcast and
Third Coast FeatureCast, coming soon to your nearest
computer.
website
http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org
email
info@thirdcoastfestival.org
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Lajos Loránd left us behind in this world @ Tibor Solténszky
…the community of the old documentary, feature fans and fighters is shrinking.One nice man has passed this morning (Wed, 15 Feb 2006), Lajos Loránd left us behind in this world.
He had more and more problems with his health but remained optimistic throughouth these months and years, hoping he could once come and work again.
Please, let all those know about his death who knew and liked him.
Your,
Tibor Solténszky
P. s.: His widow is Mrs. Bori KÅ‘mÃves, her address: 1022 Budapest, Tulipán u. 15. III.
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Lajos Loránd and the IFC?…
The genesis of the International Feature Conference
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DEEP WIRELESS, May 2006, A Festival of Radio Art
May 2006, Toronto, Ontario, DEEP WIRELESS, A Festival of Radio Art’New Adventures in Sound Art’ is pleased to launch the 5 th annual Deep Wireless festival , a month long celebration of radio art including new commissions, special radio broadcasts, artist residencies, performances and sound installations, as well as the Radio Without Boundaries conference and workshops for radio and sound artists and enthusiasts.website
New Adventures in Sound Art
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Comments
Lajos Loránd @ Richard Goll
Lajos Lorand†15 February 2006(photo ‘Lajos Loránd’, 25 years ago ->Another friend left the family!
Lajos was a committed member of the IFC from its very first years until his retirement.
And one should understand that in these early years it was not easy, sometimes even risky for somebody working for radio in a socialistic country to build up contacts and to cooperate with colleagues from the ‚West’.
To speak up internationally, honestly and in open, to expose Hungarian documentary productions to foreign criticism and to criticise himself the work of foreign stations meant trespassing borders, trespassing rules in order to meet professional friends.
This was the magic of the conference from the very beginning.
Trust and togetherness in spite of iron curtains.
We experienced Lajos never as a feature maker himself, he was rather the man behind feature making in Hungary, the ‚Redactor’ or the head of features within Magyar Radio.
The top Hungarian features in these years were thrilling social reportages, dark and bloody – striptease of the soul – almost merciless in their penetration of privacy and their confrontation of people with sin and atonement.
And no idea of a glorification of the political system – mismanagement, catastrophe and suicide – sometimes close to social pornography but stunning and breathtaking when we listened to it.
“Why I did it“ the document of a suicide produced by Magyar Radio was awarded the PRIX ITALIA.
What a piece – the wild arguments of a ferociously battling family going directly into the open microphones are still in my mind.
Lajos could not speak English (but German) and so I did translation for him at some of our conferences and doing this I got to know him closer.
His philosophy of radio feature was the idea of acoustic snapshots of reality; not a sophisticated, intellectual approach like in some of the French productions of these days but rather a straight forward story.
Maybe a small story but one with social relevance.
In one of the conferences Lajos presented a document about a coal mine accident.
To be honest, it was not a really good programme, the report was too accidental, simply following the time line of that alarm combined with too many uninteresting comments of officials – and so there was quite a lot of criticism in the discussion.
Lajos listened carefully to the arguments, took a lot of notes and then with a kind of despair and a certain unwillingness to expect more from a montage than life was ready to give he finished the debate by shrugging his shoulders and saying the unforgettable words:
„So geschah!“
(hard to translate at least for me but something like)
“and just so it happened!“
And all of us laughed and loved him.
Lajos has passed away.
We have lost him.
He finished the debate.
So geschah.
And if there should be a ‚Feature Heaven’… Lajos, who could look as innocent as a teddy (as long as you didn’t recognize behind his glasses the twinkle in the eyes), Lajos would appreciate to meet all the other feature angels, especially the female ones.
Farewell and ‚huszd!’ old friend.
richard goll 2006-02-17, Austria
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Lajos Loránd left us behind in this world @ Tibor Solténszky
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Comments
- But Lajos remained so good natured through all of it,untouched by our barbs,by our imagined superior ways,editing as we were, forests of programs with manicure scissors and micro blades.
- It all seems so irrelevant now. Lajos represented not so much a more primitive or unsophisticated world, but a kindlier,wiser approach. He listened with great enthusiasm and interest to programs he perhaps knew he could never replicate back home in Budapest. But he brought other qualities to the feature: heart,passion,dedication,compassion. I don’t know anyone there among us who did not care for Lajos a great deal….and I think he cared a lot for us too….even when we acted so superior.
- He was a great soul , and one of the treasures of the Conference……with or without his great Magyar Axe. I will miss him with all the other great ones too ; Zvonko, Klaus, Bob Ushi,Ake, Pertti,and on……
- Bless you Lajos Lorand….wherever you are. And Happy New Ears!
- Don.
Don Mowatt
- One of the beautiful oddities of the IFC is that it seems to create bonds of friendship and affection for strangers one occasionally and briefly meets in some foreign city.Â
- What brings us together must be the fact that, though complete strangers to one another, -even though strongly disagreeing perhaps with one another-, we all care, (or learn to care), passionately, for the success of a type of crafted programme that embodies the essence of radio.
- Thus we end up with the warm feeling that we have like-minded ‘militant’ friends in so many parts of the world.  Dear Lajos for me was a case in point.
- Ever since I joined the I.F.C., Lajos had been one of the ‘constants’; a chip of the foundation stone. I regarded him with affection mingled with respect for his firm views, regardless of my own judgement of the somewhat rough-hewn programmes he offered. In the 70s and 80s, it was with a special sense of excitement and curiosity that ‘we’ from outside the Curtain listened to the programmes of those behind it.
- For me Lajos was also the not so vocal ‘mascot’ of the Conference. He meant Good Luck. If he was not present, something was missing.Â
- Like the also much lamented Zdenek, Lajos had a warm, cuddly personality which didn’t get in the way when he forcefully disagreed with someone else’s point of view. I liked him instantly, and we became good friends, and often had a good laugh about the absurdities of life, when we managed to communicate, usually with the help of multilingual colleagues. ‘Such is life’, or ‘Life is like that!’, he would laugh; suggesting, I thought, that Life is always a messy building site, a work in perennial progress, rather than a perfect, beautiful palace. And so were the programmes…
- I remember him one year bumping into me outside Hotel Am Studio, hugging me laughingly and telling me something in Hungarian with great excitement. Thanks to the timely arrival of a Hungarian colleague I realised that Lajos was telling me the happy news of his new marriage. He was brimming with happiness. And at the Montreal Conference one morning, -his glasses, like his eyes, twinkling-, he indicated to me that the night before he had spent some time playing cards at the Casino.  His face was beaming like that of an excited, naughty child.Â
- I regret that our combination of foreign languages did not coincide sufficiently for us to carry out any detailed exchange of views on our work and that of the IFC. And, as we couldn’t freely converse, I missed the chance to get to know and understand him better.  His contribution to Hungarian Radio, as someone with the passion and the wisdom to inspire, guide and encourage the then new generation of programme-makers, must be very significant.
- Now, Lajos too has passed on. I gather, and hope, that the IFC, ever renewing its vital amalgam of old and new, is still striding forward and ‘going strong’ like Johnny Walker! Well, one day of course we may all, without exception, meet somewhere, and converse enjoyably and have a good laugh about the vanities of life, free from the constraints of earth-bound languages. Until then, may Lajos and all the other friends who have gone on before him Rest in Peace, and, free from any pressures, collaborate perhaps on a feature about heavenly music…  Â
John Theo
John Theocharis +44 (0) 208 203 3065 <mailto:john.theocharis@btopenworld.com>john.theocharis@btopenworld.com
if you ever heard about? On the edge? help needed for a student.
—1. Search and find! Immediate result!
Use our site!Amazing how promptly I got an answer to my question about “On the Edge” , a radiodoc produced by the BBC in 1962.
From Canada (Chris Brookes), Ireland (Pat Hannon), Steve Erickson (USA and Germany), and even from the daughter of one of the authors, the famous BBC producer Charles Parker.
(photo ‘Charles Parker’, lived 1919-1980 ->
Sara Parker is now working at the BBC. (more in next message)
Thanks to Pat -the CD is on its way now to the student t I’m coaching.
We all together are a rich source.
Merci to all, Edwin
2. Sara Parker (BBC) is too modest!
Charles Parker introduced the “radio ballad”.
His daughter Sara had the delicacy and modesty not to mention that she was at the source of a new type of radio feature. ( I’ll do it here in here place) The Radio Ballad anno 2006.
Based upon the big social issues in British society today, and annotated, commented and vitalized by original work of singer/songwriters.
The format might inspire us! READ THIS
Edwin
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dear Friends,
One of the students I’m coaching for her final work at the Radio and Television Institute in Brussels, is looking for a copy of a radiodoc produced at the end of the sixties,( seems to be 1962)  made by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger en Charles Parker about being a teenager at these times.
It was called ‘On the edge’
More info, scroll down. Does anyone has a copy of this programme?
Only for training use. …….just discovered writing this mail, it was a BBC production.
If so, a file can be mailed to
edwin.brys@pandora.be
or edwin.brys@vrt.be
or straighth to leenparedis@hotmail.com
Edwin Brys
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The Radio Ballads
Originally produced for the BBC, each one-hour radio-ballad consisted of recorded actuality from members of the public, a script and songs made by Ewan MacColl, musical arrangments and direction by Peggy Seeger, production and editing by Charles Parker, musical participation by singers and instrumentalists and ingenious procedures innovated by BBC technicians. The final programs were tapestries of speech, sound and song and were considered revolutionary for their time. They opened up new vistas and techniques for radio documentaries and many of Ewan MacColl’s most popular songs were made for them.
For a behind-the-scenes, in-depth look at the production of the radio ballads read Ewan Mac Coll’s story of The Radio Ballads: How they were made, when and by whom“.
Six of the radio-ballads were put on disc by Argo Records. The whole series has recently been issued on Topic Records“.
.
1957 The Ballad of John Axon
A true Casey Jones story about a Stockport railwayman. BBC’s entry for the 1958 Italia Prize.(TSCD 801)
1958 Song of a Road
About the building of the Britain’s first motor highway, the M-1. (TSCD 802)
1959 Singing the Fishing
Dealing with the herring fishing industry. Winner of the Italia Prize (documentary category) for 1959. (TSCD 803)
1960 The Big Hewer
Dealing with Britain’s coal miners. (TSCD 804)
1961 The Body Blow
Dealing with five people paralysed by polio. The first of the radio-ballads to deal with a non-industrial subject. (TSCD 805)
1962 On the Edge
About Britain’s teenagers. (TSCD 806)
1963 The Fight Game
Dealing with professional boxing. (TSCD 807)
1964 The Travelling People
About Britain’s nomadic peoples. (TSCD 808)
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IFC AudioDocs 
Zdenek was always interested in these topics which have a relationship to the listener. He came from a former socialist country and had always had his experiences with the dictatorship. As a young editor he had seen the uprising in Prague and had defended the broadcasting station. It could highly be possible that his work had been influenced by the situation of that time until the last days. He did documentaries about history and about all facts which were hidden during the time of the socialists. He was always keen on substantial contents more than in acoustical frills. And he had a lot to catch up on concerning the old time.
I met him at several places during the IFC in Zagreb, Lucerne, Sinaia and in Berlin. I liked him for his taciturn behaviour. IÅ’ve remember him as a man who had always known the worth of speaking, fighting and he knew exactly when he had to keep silent
Some days ago a steering group of editors accepted a new cooperation between the Czech Radio and the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk and it is hard to accept the knowledge of his passing away.
Ulf
and to his colleagues
kaye
Be sure, best fellow traveller, that we still see you. And know that we are so many on the platform.
Our voices come from all over Europe: Norway, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Romania, France, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, even New Foundland, etc.
Tomorrow, we will send them to Mrs. Boucek.
Au revoir, ami.
Edwin Brys, Belgium.