Screen shot from recorder-radio.com

Twenty-four hours a day, from anywhere in the world, you can stream programming devoted entirely to the recorder through an online station, 

recorder-radio.com. How amazing is this! The website is in German, but easy to navigate just by poking around. Just click "Flashplayer offnen!" to start the music (you must have Adobe FlashPlayer installed for this to work, but you can use other players including WinAmp and iTunes).

Although there is no live announcer, the names of the selections, the albums from which they come, and the artists' names are displayed on the home page of the recorder-radio.com web site, and the text scrolls on most of the media players they list. Streaming at 128 kbps allows for near-CD quality audio to be delivered to you through your speakers.

You will hear everything from solo recorder to recorder orchestra, mixed ensembles, and music that might be played on recorder but is heard on other instruments such as harpsichord, organ, or voice. The genres span the centuries - from medieval to very contemporary; from the demonstration of classic recorder technique to extended, experimental technique.

Who is to thank for this recorder music gem?

	Photo credit: Tony Griffiths

Recorder-radio.com today: Mr. Kunath launched recorder-radio from his living room, but in 2006, when he began his own instrument shop, Kunath Instrumentenbau, it became part of the office there. Today, the IT systems of Kunath Instrumentenbau and Blockfloetenshop.de (started by Jo's wife, Silke, around the same time) are the backbone of recorder-radio. The CD library is maintained primarily by Jo Kunath himself, with some assistance from staff members of the online instrument shop. The catalog continues to grow when musicians request that their CDs be played, and want to make them available for purchase in Blockfloetenshop.de .

Fan mail keeps coming in: The folks at the radio station love to receive emails that show how much it is appreciated. For example, one teacher wrote, "I told my students to listen to recorder-radio.com as a homework [assignment] and find out which artist they like most. It was interesting to see what they told me and which music they loved. Thank you for the program." Occasionally, the server may go down, and the email response is immediate. One amusing message said, "I can't do my homework because of the missing music, please repair the server. Kind regards ..."

A labor of love for recorder music: Kunath says that it is an expensive hobby to fund the radio station. Running the server and paying fees to GEMA and GVL (German agencies for performing and usage rights to the music) cost quite a bit. Some money from Blockfloetenshop.de is spent on the maintenance of recorder-radio. This is helped by the exposure the shop gets from advertising in various publications, like our own American Recorder magazine. They don't want to run a lot of advertisements on the radio, but they would be happy if a few more companies from the recorder world would be willing to buy airtime to help support the station. Meanwhile, there is a link marked "Spenden" in the menu bar on the left side of the home page which gives individuals a way to contribute.

Jo Kunath

Many thanks to Jo Kunath  and Meggy Grösch-McCluskey at Kunath Instrumentenbau fo r their time and thoughtful answers to the questions posed for this article. They can be reached at info@kunath.com.