complex was forced to invent something what they call "Loudness Controller" in order to prevent listeners from getting tired by permanent sound attacks (like a so-called "Humanizer" has to add small "human" irregularities to the mechanic beat of drum machines).

"Loudness", "speed" and "punch" are the symptoms of an obsessional neurosis in the radio of today: to be perceived - noticed. What we should learn from our professional forefathers like Orson Welles is another kind of "punch" and "pressure", closely connected to the term "personality". In Welles own words: "Personality always matters more than technique".

When the feature came to Germany with the British liberation army in 1945 Axel Eggebrecht, one of the celebrities in our German feature history, demanded from his colleagues "den Druck einer lebendigen Gesinnung" - "the punch" or "pressure of a living opinion" or "spirit". No one in our profession has imposed more punch and pressure on his listeners, as Orson Welles did in more than 20 radio years (...) In dozens of criminal and suspense programmes the unique voice of Orson Welles - a soft baritone but with a dramatic undercurrent - sent shivers up and down the spine of America. How does Orson Welles achieve such an impact ?

The answer to this question leads us directly to the fundamental virtues of radio. Just a few of them:

ABSTRACTION is one of the main qualities of the oral medium. It abstracts from reality by not taking advantage of other important human senses. As we know from different fields of life: abstraction as means concentration. Every loss can be a profit, too.