Writtle Calling / 2EmmaTo
Date uploaded: August 13, 2012
Writtle Calling / 2EmmaToc
87.7 FM (local area only)
Online (writtlecalling.co.uk)
Daily broadcasts: 6 – 7.30pm
Public event: Saturday 15 September, 6.30 – 11pm
Writtle Calling / 2EmmaToc is a temporary radio station by artist Melissa Appleton and architectural practice Post–Works which will broadcast from the Essex landscape during September 2012. The station will host a series of live broadcasts by artists, writers, musicians and scientists with a public event on Saturday 15th September.
The radio structure will be located near to the site of the original 2EmmaToc station, which broadcast from Writtle in 1922. Transmitting under the call sign 2EmmaToc, the 1922 radio station broadcast live performances every Tuesday evening from an ex-army hut in the fields around the village.
2EmmaToc was the first regular UK radio station and is regarded as the birth of British broadcasting.
The 2012 radio structure takes its form from the original hut and agricultural vernaculars sampled from the local area. Imagined as a ruin, the radio structure will act as a vehicle of content, broadcasting transmissions from the past, present and future. Through the transmission of live performances, the physical limits of the radio structure are extended through the ephemera of radio waves.
A series of live broadcasts by artists, scientists, writers, singers and bell ringers will take place every evening between 11 and 18 September 2012. On Saturday 15 September there will be a programme of public performances which will take place between 6.30pm and 11pm. For a full schedule of broadcasts see: writtlecalling.co.uk
The structure will be sited in the grounds of Writtle College, Essex, a 5 minute walk from Writtle Village and 2 miles from Chelmsford, Essex. (Writtle College, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 3RR).
