sensational programmes like CHICKENS (1967), OPERATING THEATRE NUMBER 3 (1970), "HYENAS" (1972) or BELLS IN EUROPE (1973) where it says: "In Europe the guns chime and the bells fire".

By and by radio programmes were split into segments - for the young and for the old, the so-called intellectuals and for the "man on the street", who since then has been fed with radiophonic fast food, as we know. Radio became a background medium, part of the global juke box and the feature - where it still was kept going - became a minority Programme for a specialised audience, sharing this fate with the documentary film. And this never will be undone.

QUESTION: Is it still reasonable and explainable to the public (and in some countries to the payers of obligatory monthly fees) to put so much money, fantasy, brains, passion and work into the production of radio features for a very small group of listeners ?

All of us have been asked this question before and we might be challenged in that respect more and more in the future. Serving minorities, of course, is the task and duty of public broadcasting systems - is the justification for it's existence. So better put the question this way: How should we cultivate and possibly even increase our small but exquisite audience ?

As we experience in our daily work, there still is a virtual demand for radio, the slow medium; for listening to items of interest; to a human voice that is talking to us and not just stuffing our senses with images and unspecified informations.

But...