For my audio reflection, I’m choosing to reflect on The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar.  The reason that I chose this one is because of the title.  I love ghost stories and all of the other titles didn’t seem to captivate me as much as this one did.

Interestingly, the introduction of the story is actually told through a bunch of different voices.  Rather than one person reading the introduction, there are five or six people that are telling the same story.  It’s kind of interesting how they threw it all together to make it sound like one story but told through the voices of different people.  Already, I really like the technique that they have used.

It seems like this is going to go on for the remainder of the story which is absolutely brilliant.  To have the same story told through different people and making it sound like it’s one continuous story is something that I’ve never heard of before.  I’m not too sure if this is a popular technique or not, but I really think it could be effective for telling any kind of story that has any date to it.  What I mean by that is

They have someone narrating the story, but go back and forth between interview and narrative.  Obviously, since this is an older story, there has to be historical context included in the narrative.  What I think is the most effective form here though is that they are bouncing back between present and past.  The narrative is told in the past tense, but the interviews of the people are, I believe, all told through the present tense.  This technique is extremely effective because the audience is literally time traveling to 1912 to witness the story and then transported back to present time to reflect on what has happened.

I’ve always had a problem listening to the radio because stories, to me, are very dull when they are told over the air.  I like to be able to see what I’m reading or listening to.  In my opinion, I’ve always felt a strong disconnect when I listen to something on the radio.  Sure, someone is telling the story and I can paint the picture, but it’s not as effective to me as some people make it out to be.

This story shatters all of those thoughts and ideas though.  As I’ve already stated, the audience is transported back to 1912 and then back to the present.  It’s always refreshing.  Even though the tone is kind of dull and slow, I’m finding myself increasingly intrigued about the balance between present and past tense story-telling. 20 minutes in, we’re listening to Bobby Dunbar’s youngest son talk.  The story just flips from narrative and past tense to interview and present tense.  What I mean by interview and present tense is that we are listening to the present tense talking of the interview but it’s told as if it were in the early 1900s, not referred to as in the past.  It might sound kind of confusing, but it’s actually really brilliant.

Another great technique, that I can pull from Ira Glass’ interview, is that the interviewer and interviewee are just talking how they would normally talk.  I’m sure that they had to practice this a lot, but nothing is over-exaggerated.  Nothing is over-done.  I love the fact that it’s just the people talking.  The interviewees are reflecting but speaking how they normally would.  There is no nervousness is any of the voices.

Rarely ever do they use music, but when they do, it really accents what is going on.  50 minutes in and they use a little piano in the background after the ‘lying about the child’ topic is discussed.  It really allows for a second or two of reflection on what is going on and what really did happen to Bobby Dunbar.

I enjoyed listening to the story, but since I was focusing more on the techniques, I’m glad that I was able to think about those while I was listening.  I probably wouldn’t have picked up on all that I did pick up on had I not been listening for technique.  Now I feel like every time I listen to the radio, I’m going to be listening for technique if I hear a story and not for the actual story.  When you search for technique, you are also listening to the story but you are listening to it for enhanced reasons.