"The Art of The Small Feature - A forum
that will concentrate on the issues
surrounding the 3 - 10 minute piece"

A new category, indeed: The docu-clip. It's radio - but not the radio we are talking about. It reminds me of a joke in the former GDR: "Comrades - here is the Golden Medal for creating the world's biggest computer chip !"

There is a maximum size for computer chips and - as I'm convinced - a minimum size for good radio features.

Because...

Making a feature means: to dig deep down below the surface of a subject - deeper as it might be possible in a current affairs programme, for instance; and digging - as every gardener knows - takes patience, skill, sweat and TIME.

I like to quote the definition of our wonderful Greek-British colleague John Theocharis: "A feature is an acoustical work that uses the manifold possibilities of sound-radio to enable factual information to stir the imagination of the listener, to entertain him in an exciting manner and at the same time to sharpen his perception of the world and of human existence". How to achieve all this in 3 minutes ?

3 minutes is the format of the private radio consisting of commercials in permanent succession. There is no room for our long and slow - sometimes too long and too slow - documentaries. On the other hand it's the utmost stupidity to imitate the habits of those media salesmen in order to save our public system.