Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

The Leo Sarkisian Music Time in Africa (MTIA) Radio Show series contains 3,054 analog tapes, 690 scripts, and 3,617 electronic files representing the MTIA radio program produced by Leo Sarkisian between 1965 and 2004. The radio show is a complex archival object composed of an audio recording and associated script. The audio component of the show could be either a complete show or the musical selections only. The scripts occasionally exist only as the audio recording of the host's performance of the typed script and in the future these will be available as transcriptions. The series includes analog audio tapes, paper scripts, born digital files, and digitally reformatted radio shows. The analog tapes are either 10" or 7" quarter-inch open reels of acetate or polyester tape stock. Reformatted shows contain digital surrogates of audio recordings (.wav and .mp3), digital images (.jpg) of the scripts when available, and digital images (.jpg) of the analog tapes and the original container. Digital surrogates of the Leo Sarkisian Music Time in Africa radio shows are available here.

The series is arranged in four subseries. The first subseries contains the single most complete analog version (audio + script) of each extant MTIA show created between 1966 and 2004. The second subseries is the full digital representation of the analog materials in the first subseries. The third subseries includes all extant analog duplicate copies of MTIA audio recordings in the first subseries. The fourth subseries is an incomplete sequence of audio recordings of "Music Time in Africa AM," a fully pop-music oriented radio show that Leo Sarkisian created for broadcast Sunday mornings from 1980 to 2004.