SOUND, SPACE, AND SOCIETY: Rebel Radio

Abstract

Kimberley Peters’ book Sound, Space, and Society: Rebel Radio is a rara avis in the vast skies of media geography. It is devoted to the omniscient placelessness of the radio, where sound (and music) create acoustic territories that are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. On a personal level, this book resonates with me as a disc jockey in a college station in northcentral North Carolina where disc jockeys control the content of the music in a free-format radio that can be listened both in its streaming and radio-broadcast platforms. As a disc jockey, I am a specter without material presence operating for a faceless audience. The radio audience themselves hear all kinds of sounds from a faceless disc jockey who manages the airwaves: sounds range from challenging pentatonic noise to actual sounds (field recording) emanating from the intimate spaces of the radio station. In Peters’ book, she situates Radio Caroline’s “illicit” broadcast from the watery contexts of the seas that occupy a liminal space that continually defines and redefines outlaw and “pirate.” The forum for Sound, Space, and Society: Rebel Radio stems from two attempts to mount an author-meets-critics panel session for the American Association of Geographers (AAG) in both 2019 and 2020. Both panel sessions never materialized because of logistical conflicts and COVID-19. The commentaries here are from panelists who have since read Peters’ book more than once: Catherine Wilkinson, Tyler Sonnichsen, and Sara Beth Keough. Kimberley Peters herself responds to the provocations raised by the panelists. It is my hope that the commentaries and response will inspire readers to peruse Peters’ book, and continue the conversation on sound in geography, the blurring of territories, and liminalities of “pirate” and “outlaw.”—JOSEPH PALIS, University of the Philippines-Diliman