There’s a term that epitomizes what we radio producers aspire to create: the “driveway moment.” It’s when a story is so good that you literally can’t get out of your car. Inside of a driveway moment, time becomes elastic–you could be staring straight at a clock for the entire duration of the story, but for that length of time, the clock has no power over you.
But ironically, inside the machinery of public radio–the industry that creates driveway moments–the clock rules all.
Reporter/producer Julia Barton explores the design of the broadcast clock, the pie diagram that determines what you listen to when.