Growing up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, I remember listening to the BBC on shortwave radio in the car, on the way to Manarat Jeddah Schools. There were news broadcasts, interviews, and then the things I remember most: the plays.

I think plays, and lengthy pieces of work played over the radio are fascinating, because you’re constrained to work without the visual element, and that means you’re facing a bigger challenge than you do on a television, or now…video sharing/ Youtube kind of ‘new media’ sites.

I guess I’m ‘old school’. Videos are great, but for me, there is something challenging and more rewarding when you’re facing this uphill battle- creating a soundscape, be it play or journalistic piece, with the right content, supporting audio effects, vocals and anything else that is needed to create an audio experience for the listener.

There are few 28 year olds out there, especially guys, who could enjoy this kind of stuff. I recently caught ‘Before the War, It was the war‘, a beautifully produced audio documentary about a Lebanese artist’s blog, and how it gained massive readership during the Israel-Lebanon ‘war’. I’m using quotes because wars require armed forces, usually belonging to the government to engage in combat. This was a unique theater, in that both armed forces managed to rape the same entity- Lebanon. I know rockets fell in Israel, but the devastation the IDF brought Beirut and its suburbs will never, never, never be erased. Both parties, Hezbollah, and the Israeli government, owe their people much more than the impulsive actions they took (kidnap, and the response)

The piece I heard on the radio, was just perfect. Because I was forced to listen rather than listen and watch, I realized how powerful audio journalism/ documentary production is. I’ve always known this, but I figure that even if no one ever suscribes to my podcast, I’m learning technical production skills through the exercise, that will eventually allow me to produce that kind of material; material that is able to evoke pent up emotions in an average joe, parking a car in front of a coffee shop almost about to go back into oblivion as usual.

I think it’s high time for Pakistanis to be equipped with microphones to walk around the street, record their thoughts. So what if no one listens- you keep working on it, refining and then one day, the pen really becomes mightier than the sword.