General characteristics of Açık Radyo and its programs are as follows:
Açık Radyo can be best described as a combination of News + Music + Personality.
The sound of Açık Radyo is composed of approximately 60 percent music, and 40 percent verbal. The programs can perhaps be best described as representing the richness of diversity within genres (with an intended reference to Darwin’s masterpiece, On the Origin of Species.)
The Talk “Shows”
Açık Radyo airs “talk shows” on: News and commentary, ecology, environment, public culture, philosophy, history, language, civil society, birth, women, children, youth, grassroots organizations, the city of Istanbul, Europe, the European Union, the Mediterranean, Anatolia, fundamental rights, law, peace movements, general history, mathematics, mind games, science, science-fiction, mythology, anthropology, the human brain, economy, archeology, political economy, social policy, meteorology, climatology, local administration, design, architecture, world literature, poetry, books, drama, cinema, plastic arts, urban planning, museums, communications, the internet, electronic games, television, psychology, traffic, business world, advertising, consumer society, health, cuisine, wine, bread, olive, coffee, scent, football, sports, travel, nature, photography, amateur aviation, riding, sailing, earthquake preparedness, occupational hazards & security, workers’ rights, children’s rights, animal rights, globalization, civil society, social movements, etc.
The Music
Açık Radyo has a wide range of music programs embracing a great multitude of eras and genres, i.e., World Music, Ancient Music, Blues, Jazz, Rock ’n’ Roll, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, “Oldies”, Folk, Classical Music, Soviet, Scandinavian, American, British, French, Russian Symphonies, Pre-Classical Era Music, Medieval Music, Troubadour’s Music, Opera, Operetta, Musicals, Concertoes, Turkish-Ottoman Music, Turkish Folk Music, Turkish Rock, Byzantine Music, Armenian Music, Rebetiko, Greek Popular Music, Sephardic Songs, Chansons, “Vampire” Music, Magical Music, Reggae, Dub, Surf, Rap, Punk, Hip Hop, Latin, Brazilian, Paraguayan, Cuban, Persian, Afghan, Indian music, Bollywood music, Electronic Music (and its various subgenres), free improvisation, music from the internet, Minimal music, Experimental music, etc. …
Programs About Various Musical Instruments
Special regular programs have been aired on a great scale concerning peculiar musical instruments such as the human voice, viola da gamba, cello, piano, jaws (jew’s) harp, guitar, clarinet, didgeridoo, and others.
An Exclusive “Branch”: The Radio “Documentary”
During 29 years of broadcasting Açık Radyo has aired (and has been airing) a great number of “documentaries” and “serials” on the following “events” and people”:
100 years of Sound Recording History of Turkey (4,5 years); writer Sabahattin Ali (100th anniversary, 6 months); composer Ferit Alnar (100th anniversary, 1 month); “Amma Hikâye” (“What a Story!” - Reading of select short stories from world and Turkish literature, 3 years); Andersen’s 200th Anniversary (an almost complete reading of his tales, 26 weeks); Arendt (100th anniversary, 1.5 months); writer Oğuz Atay (on the 30th anniversary of his death, the complete reading of his novel, Tehlikeli Oyunlar (Dangerous Games), for 12 weeks); Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, (200th anniversary of its publishing, 6 months); Johann Sebastian Bach (250th anniversary of his death, 4,5 years); Baroque Music (1 year); Samuel Beckett (100th anniversary, 6 months); “Istanbul and the Armenians” following the footsteps of the Turkish Armenian writer HagopBaronyan (6 months); The Beatles (“The Quartet that Gave the Century Its Sound”, 6 months/104 hours); Hector Berlioz (200th anniversary, 6 months); Jorge Luis Borges (6 months); David Bowie (6 months, and another 6 months following his demise); Bertolt Brecht (50th anniversary of his death, 6 months), Jacques Brel (25th anniversary of his death, 6 months); “Tales from the 1001 Nights” (6 months + 6 months); Bruce Springsteen (60th anniversary, 6 months); Albert Camus (50th anniversary of his death, 3 months; complete reading of Sisifos Söyleni (The Myth of Sisyphus, on Camus’100th anniversary); Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (400th anniversary of Don Quijote + complete reading of the classical work, over a year, ongoing); John Coltrane (80th anniversary, 6 months); Anton Chekhov (150th anniversary, 2 months); Charles Darwin (200th anniversary and 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species, 6 months); Simone De Beauvoir (100th anniversary, 5 programs); Claude Debussy, (100th anniversary, 6 months), Charles Dickens (200th anniversary, six months);; Antonín Dvorák (100th anniversary of his death, 6 months); Denis Diderot (300th anniversary, 1 year); Bob Dylan (60th anniversary, 1 year + “Half a Century of Dylan’s Music”, all albums and some covers, ongoing, ); Duke Ellington (100th anniversary, 1 month); the ECM Anthology of Music (1 year); poet Tevfik Fikret (90th anniversary of his death, 2 months); Sigmund Freud (6 months); Baldassare Galuppi (300th anniversary, 3 months), George Gershwin (100th anniversary, 1 month); Philip Glass (80th anniversary, complete works, ongoing); Nikolai Vassilievich Gogol (200th anniversary, 5 months); Gödel-Escher-Bach (4 months); Grammophone Records (1 year); Woody Guthrie (90th anniversary, 1 month; 100th anniversary, 4 months, ongoing); Georg Friedrich Händel (250th anniversary of his death, 4 months), “Hayat-ı Hakikiye Hikayeleri” (Readings of “True Tales” from Açık Radyo Listeners, 6 Months), His Master’s Voice in Turkey (2 months); Billie Holiday (90th anniversary, 6 months); Michael Jackson (50th anniversary, 6 months); The Illiad (complete reading, 6 months); Franz Kafka (125th anniversary, reading of The Metamorphosis, 22 programs); Writer Bilge Karasu (4 months); The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky (complete reading, 52 weeks), Fables by La Fontaine (1 year); John Lennon (25th anniversary of his death, 6 months); Madame Bovary by Flaubert (150th anniversary of its publishing, complete reading, 3 months); Madonna (50th anniversary, 1 month); composer and virtuoso Mesut Cemil (100th anniversary, 1 week + ); composer and virtuoso Tamburi Cemil (100th anniversary of his death, 6 months), Gustav Mahler (90th anniversary of his death, 1 year); Olivier Messiaen (110th anniversary); Felix Mendelssohn (200th anniversary, 6 weeks); Ilhan Mimaroğlu (4 months following his demise); Jim Morrison (25th anniversary of his death, 1 week; 30th anniversary of his death, 2 months); Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (250th anniversary, 1 year); Music Assemblies in Turkey (52 weeks); writer, poet, activist Aziz Nesin (100th anniversary of his death, 6 months + remembering him, 6 months); Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker (50th anniversary of his death, 6 months); Pacifica Radio (60th anniversary, 2 months); Orhan Pamuk (complete reading of the novel The Museum Of Innocence for his 60th birthday, 8 months); Cesare Pavese (100th anniversary, 1 week); composer Selahattin Pınar (100th anniversary, 1 month), Edgar Allen Poe (anniversary of his 200th birth and 160th of his death, 1 month), Elvis Presley (25th anniversary of his death, 1 month + remembering, 6 months); Protest Music in History (6 months); Rembrandt (400th anniversary, 6 months); composer Cemal Reşit Rey (100th anniversary, 8 months); Jean-Jacques Rousseau (300th anniversary, 10 weeks); J.D. Salinger (90th anniversary, complete reading of Franny and Zooey, 4 months); William Saroyan (100th anniversary, complete reading of The Human Comedy, two months); Erik Satie (150th anniversary, 6 months); composer Ahmet Adnan Saygun (100th anniversary, 6 months); Domenico Scarlatti (250th anniversary, 30 weeks); Friedrich Schiller (250th anniversary, 1 month); Münir Nurettin Selçuk (100th anniversary, 1 month); Pete Seeger (90th anniversary, 1 month, repeated at after his death); William Shakespeare ("Words, words, words...", Celebration of 450th anniversary, Shakespeare Lives, everyday for 1 year, repeated partly at 400th of death); Music from the contemporaries of Shakespeare (5 years); Robert Schumann (200th anniversary, 2 months); Sappho (reading of 17 new translations of her poems in 3 languages, accompanied by original scores) Jean-Paul Sartre (100th anniversary, full reading of What is Litterature?); Soviet (Russian) Rock (1 year); Friedrich Schiller (250thanniversary, 6 months); select Short Stories from World & Turkish Literature (3 years); Robert Schumann (200th anniversary, 2 months); Dmitry Shostakovich (100th anniversary, 2 months); Greek composer Nikos Skalkottas (4 months); Igor Stravinsky (6 months); String Quartets (1 year), Turkish music virtuoso and composer Tanburi Cemil (6 months); Lev Tolstoy (full reading of War and Peace, on his 100 the birthday anniversary); Turkish Rock Music (1 year); Turkish Pop Music (a history of 50 years of Turkish pop music, every week); Oral History of the Turkish State Radio (3,5 years); composer İlhan Usmanbaş (2 months); Giuseppe Verdi (200th anniversary; 6 months); Vladimir Vysotsky (30th anniversary of his death, 2 months); Jules Verne (180th anniversary, 20 programmes + Jules Verne in Turkish, 6 months); Boris Vian (90th anniversary, 4 weeks), Richard Wagner (200th anniversary, 1 year); Kurt Weill (100th anniversary, 1 month); Yaşar Kemal (following his demise a full reading of his complete journalistic reporting, Röportaj Yazarlığında 60 Yıl/60 Years Of Reporting, , over 1 year); String Quartets (1 year); Frank Zappa (2 years); 200th anniversary of Frankenstein; Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (50th anniversary)...
Programs on Special Dates, Anniversaries, Commemorations, Documentaries
40th anniversary of the ’68 Revolution; 50th anniversary of the pogrom of September 6 and 7, 1955; 75th anniversary of the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti; the 20th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila Massacres; the 25th anniversary of the coup d’etat of 9/12, 1980; the 40th anniversary of the coup d’etat of 3/12, 1971; the 50th anniversary of the coup d’etat of 5/27,1960; the 40th anniversary of the 6/15 -16, 1970 atrocities, the 9/11 atrocities on its first anniversary…
Also, in 2000 a 2-hour documentary on the first anniversary of the great 1999 earthquake disaster; on the 10th anniversary another 2-hour documentary on the 1999 Earthquake disaster;
And, the annual “wrap up” programs titled “Last Year in Perspective”, broadcast on the last days of every year since 1996 (21 programs broadcast to date).
Some Other Highlights
Hosting HABITAT - II:
Acting as a semi-official radio station for the UN International HABITAT (II) Conference held in Istanbul in 1996, Açık Radyo broadcast 3 hours daily bilingually for 10 consecutive days.
(Re)Producing the Russell-Einstein Manifesto:
In 2005, in cooperation with Radio Nederland, we produced a 2-hour program commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto delivered as a solid protest against the production and use of nuclear weapons.
Memories of Childhood:
Between 1999-2011 we regularly produced and broadcast exclusive programs on religious holidays. We interviewed more than 80 distinct personalities from all walks of life, excelling in art, music, literature, history, science, journalism, etc. These 2-hour long interviews, broadcast together with music selected by the guests themselves, may perhaps be described as an exercise in some sort of “oral history”, an endeavor which is admittedly rather rare in Turkey. …
Special Anniversary Broadcast – I
“Açık Radyo is 10 years old”: Celebrating our 10th broadcasting year with a special collage/documentary in 8 parts, 30 minutes each.
Special Anniversary Broadcast – II: “Açık Radyo is 15 years old”:
An exclusive 3-hour documentary titled “Timeline” covering the notable global events of the previous 15 years.
Special Broadcast – III: “Talking Açık Radyo – The First 20 Years”:
Three one-hour episodes of a documentary were broadcast on the 20th anniversary of the radio station. This was an effort in search of a different kind of documentation of our broadcasts – we tried to share with our listeners the events reflecting significant episodes from the previous years, beginning with our first day of broadcasting.
Exclusive Recordings of Special Music Events (Broadcast on our 20th Anniversary)
November 13, 2015 was Açık Radyo’s 20th anniversary. For this reason we started an ‘archeological dig’. We dipped into 17-18 year-old exclusive recordings of live concerts from the historical Istanbul Music Fests I and II, held in 1997 and ‘99. These unforgettable music festivals were produced by Acik Radyo in collaboration with the Pozitif music organization. Although both events have been a huge success, they had not been aired until that date. The historic recordings were brought out to daylight for the first time ever in 2015, to be broadcast exclusively for our 20th anniversary. After brushing the dust off, we started broadcasting. Some of the recordings were regularly aired on the early morning music show, ‘Sabahlık’ during the week. They were being broadcast for the first time on any other media. The recordings of the many live “mini-concerts” from the now-quasi legendary Fests of ’97 and ’98 were then promptly “embedded” with various other regular music programs of the radio.
Listeners as “Special Guests”:
The music recordings and interviews made by special guests for Açık Radyo’s birthdays, anniversaries, and listener - support campaigns or for other special occasions were continuously aired throughout the year of 2015.
“A Theater of The Mind”:
(Readings of literature, radio drama and exclusive recordings at Açık Radyo)
Açık Radyo, in its Manifesto of 1995, states that it would seek to establish a “theater of the mind”. Since then it has diligently strived to uphold this claim by numerous readings from world literature starting with Alexandre Dumas’ (Père) classics: The Three Musketeers was read live on air daily for several months. This was to be immediately followed by the second tome: 20 Years After.
Select episodes and/or tales from yet another and much older classic, the One Thousand and One Nights were read just ‘round midnight’ in order to provide yet further “clarity of mind” to our listeners.
During this “adventure of the mind” huge novels such as War and Peace by Tolstoy were read from cover to cover for years. Sometimes they addressed a single hypothetical listener (also known as “The Fat Lady” to certain members of the Glass family). The complete reading in the wee hours of the morning of The Brothers Karamazov in its original language, went “parallel” to the daytime rush-hour rendering of the great classic in its full Turkish translation.
The Unique “Stage” of Açık Radyo
The Açık Radyo “stage” opened it’s “curtains” in November 2005 with the performances of the theatre troupe called the “Civil Theater”.
In May 2006, another troupe called “Theatre After - 6” took over the radio drama project with the title “Voices From Filifu”. 25 plays by leading writers from all around the world such as Aziz Nesin, Tennessee Williams, Alexander Pushkin, Behçet Necatigil, Yiğit Sertdemir, Cüneyt Uzunlar, Federico García Lorca, Eugène Ionesco, Anton Chekhov, Woody Allen, Dario Fo and many other notable playwrights have thus been aired .
In the same year, Açık Radyo participated in the 15th International Istanbul Theatre Festival with an exclusive production of Lorca’s The Shoemaker’s Remarkable Wife, by yet another troupe called the “Theatre Playhouse.”
The troupe Theatre After-6, whose members themselves being long-time Açık Radyo programmers as well, brought Gogol’s classic play The Government Inspector to life in Açık Radyo studios to celebrate the playwright’s 200th anniversary.
The Ban on Açık Radyo for reading a Bukowski Short-Story:
Açık Radyo has even been closed down for 15 days by the authorities, because of a rendering of legendary “hobo” writer Charles Bukowski’s world renowned short-story, The Most Beautiful Woman in Town.
Exclusive radio drama productions of modern classics:
In 2016, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and Antigone (by Jean Anouilh's modern adaptation of Sophocles’ classical tragedy) have been produced and broadcast to much acclaim by the troupe Tiyatro Tatavla exclusively for Açık Radyo.
Fairy tales – a revival: Açık Radyo also took great pride and joy for bringing fairy tales back into our lives. Andersen’s Tales have been recited in commemoration of the writer’s 200th anniversary by the late great actress Tomris Incer in 2005. The next year, she went on to recite fairy tales from the peoples of the world – From Anatolia to the Far East, from Mexico to India, from Vietnam (back) to Andersen’s Denmark...
Cervantes, Nesin, Saroyan, Koçu, and “company”:
In 2005, in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the publication of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, readings and commentaries by scholar Jale Parla were realized and broadcast in 32 episodes.
2005 was also the 10th anniversary of the death of the celebrated Turkish writer Aziz Nesin. Accordingly, readings from Nesin’s short stories were featured and aired for months on end.
Armenian American author William Saroyan was commemorated by a complete reading of his magnum opus The Human Comedy over a period of six months. These renderings have later become parts of an exhibition by the title of “Saroyan in Istanbul.”
Cult eccentric historian-writer Reşad Ekrem Koçu also joined the party –albeit posthumously– with our regular readings from his priceless Tarihimizde Garip Vakalar (Weird Stories From Our History).
Franz Kafka was also on air at Açık Radyo on his 125th anniversary. We celebrated his birthday by a complete reading of his classic short-story, The Metamorphosis daily for months on end.
The Nobel laureate Jean-Paul Sartre –on his own centennial– could be said to be searching yet for a meaningful answer to his own burning question, What is Literature? (This monumental work has been completely read and broadcast in installments.)
2007 was the 150th anniversary of the publication of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Celebrated Turkish actress Tilbe Saran committed herself to daily readings of Flaubert’s opus magnum for three months, taking great care to always follow the original chapter divisions of the novel.
Turkish dissident author Sabahattin Ali would have been 100 in 2007 – had he not been cruelly murdered at the age of 41 by the agents of the “deep state” apparatus. On the occasion of the anniversary Açık Radyo featured his short stories, poems, and letters during a period of six months to celebrate the great writer’s centennial.
Tilbe Saran continued her readings with a rendition of Oğuz Atay’s novel titled Tehlikeli Oyunlar (Dangerous Games)to mark the 30th anniversary of the author’s death. (As mentioned above, this reading was followed up by a reading of Karamazov Kardeşler (The Brothers Karamazov), while the Russian original of the classic was read by another celebrated actress, Maria Merzlyakova Akgüllü from the St. Petersburg Academy.)
J.D. Salinger’s 90th birthday was celebrated by a complete reading of Franny ve Zooey (Franny and Zooey) by Ömer Madra, who also happened to be the translator of the novella into Turkish.
Meanwhile, Açık Radyo has also participated in and collaborated with the international network which produced the “Voices from Iran” project: Consequently, eight short plays by modern Iranian playwrights have been aired at Açık Radyo in 2011 and 2012.
23 April, 2014 was the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare. From the beginning of the year Açık Radyo had already started celebrating the anniversary by broadcasting immortal lines from the Bard of Avon on life, death, power, omnipotence, love, humiliation, nobility, passion, theft, shame, flattery, politics, storms, climate, the commons, and many more…. These were read in between programs throughout the day for the year throughout. We commemorated the poet with the series titled “Words, words, words ... Shakespeare is Among Us” Our programmers and actor friends rendered some of his famous sonnets, lines and tirades. In addition, the subject of “the reverberations and reflections of Shakespeare on Ottoman-Turkish music” was examined by Bülent Aksoy in three consecutive programs. The series was based upon an article on this topic by poet, scholar and Açık Radyo programmer Cevat Çapan. (Incidentally, two of the songs which we were unable to dig up from the archives of TRT, the State Radio and TV, were performed especially for Açık Radyo for this occasion.) ...We also interviewed Professor Terry Eagleton, the world renowned Marxist Shakespeare scholar and philologist, on the influence of the Bard on the contemporary world.
Thinking it suited the zeitgeist perfectly, we have rendered another important literary work, 1984, the classical dystopia of George Orwell’s. 1984 was read and broadcast fully in the year 2014.
On the other hand, The Myth of Sisyphus, the collection of philosophical essays by philosopher and novelist Albert Camus, was on air from the beginning of 2014 until the end of the year, with actress Saran reading it.
When the great writer and human rights, peace and nature advocate Yaşar Kemal passed, we chose to mark this sad event by a complete reading of one of his less known yet greatest masterpieces, Röportaj Yazarlığında 60 Yıl (60 Years Of Reporting and Story Telling). (Incidentally, the powerful rendering was made by professional speaker Adnan Acar, who was part of the duo that had read “The 1001 Nights” every midnight during the formative first years of Açık Radyo.
At around the same time, we started reading Ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho’s timeless poems. Greek musician and singer Vassiliki Papageorgiou, who had translated the poems from ancient Greek to modern, rendered the poems in their original version as well. The Turkish translations of the poems were rendered by our musician programmer Sumru Ağıryürüyen. The rendering of Sappho’s verses were accompanied by original tunes composed exclusively for this program by Orçun Baştürk, an Açık Radyo programmer.
2015 also happened to be the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Alice In Wonderland (Alis Harikalar Ülkesinde). Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece, ably translated into Turkish by writer Tomris Uyar, was read by actor Tolga Korkut and was broadcast for over 3 months. Highly motivated by the interest shown by the listeners, we felt we could not slow down, so we continued with the reading of Aynanın İçinden, (Through the Looking-Glass), the equally important classic by Carroll.
Last but not least, in what can be viewed as one of the greatest achievements of Açık Radyo within the broader context of “All the radio’s a stage”, we were able to realize what we called the “True Turkish Tales” project. With the instigation of one of our programmers, Güven Güzeldere, who had been inspired by a similar project realized by renowned writer Paul Auster for NPR in the US, we made a call to all our listeners worldwide, inviting them to send in their “true tales” to be selected, read and broadcast at the radio. And they did. Among the more than 400 short-stories we have, through a democratic process, chosen 127 true tales, and they were rendered and broadcast in the spring-summer season of 2016. The project, realized in collaboration with Boğaziçi University’s Nâzım Hikmet Culture and Arts Center was a great success. Shortly afterwards the short-stories were published in a 500-page book in the spring of 2017, with the title Türkiye Hikâyelerini Anlatıyor (Turkey’s Telling OwnTrue Tales).
NB: A final note on the “theatre of the mind”:
In what must be a rare occasion in the global history of broadcasting, a radio station was granted a theatre award. During the 11th Lions Theatre Awards, Açık Radyo was presented with a special award for its efforts to widen the scope of theatre audience by producing and broadcasting the program “Kuranderde Kalanlar” (“Exposed to the Undercurrent”).
