Original archive

Yleisradio Oy (YLE)

The YLE radio archives

The YLE radio archives
Box 16
FIN-00024 YLEISRADIO
Finland

Visitor's entrance:
The YLE radio archives Radiokatu 5
FIN-00024 Helsinki
Finland

phone:
+358 9 1480 4435
eMail:
radioarkisto@yle.fi
web:
www.yle.fi

Open to the public
by appointment only

Contacts
Katri Vänttinen
manager of archives and information services

Pekka Salosaari
head of radio archives

Petri Home
head of record library

Pekka Gronow
YLE Dismarc project manager

YLE

YLE is Finland's national public broadcasting company. YLE operates five national television channels and more than 30 national and regional radio channels. YLE broadcasts regularly in Finnish, Swedish and Sami. The company plays a major role in producing and presenting programmes dealing with national arts, educational programmes and children's programmes.

Music has always played an important role in YLE's programmes. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 80th anniversary in autumn 2007. So far the orchestra has given first performances of more than 500 Finnish works. Nowadays, the Orchestra annually commissions three to four new works. YLE also presents programmes from festivals representing all types of music and produces studio programmes with Finnish and visiting musicians.

The YLE radio archives were founded in 1935, when it first became technically possible to preserve broadcasts, first on disc and later on tape. At the same time, the company also began to systematically acquire commercially issued music recordings. Today, the radio archives contain more than a quarter million radio programs. The DISMARC database contains a selection of about 20,000 music productions from the YLE radio archives. The emphasis of this collection is on Finnish classical music, but it contains all musical genres, from folk music to jazz.

The most memorable of radio broadcasts was that on New Year's Day 1939 celebrating the New York World Fair. Jean Sibelius took up the baton for the last time in his life to conduct the Orchestra in a performance of his Andante Festivo (example 1). The recording of this broadcast is the only remaining one of Sibelius as a conductor, but there are thousands of recordings of other conductors and soloists. Matti Lehtinen was one of the many celebrated Finnish singers who were regular guests in YLE's programmes (see examples 2 and 3)

In the field of folk music, the radio archives contain historical recordings by Teppo Repo and Kaustisen purppuripelimannit. Teppo Repo (d. 1962) was a player of kantele and the shepherd's flute, who preserved the ancient Finnish traditions of Ingria, a region around St. Petersburg in Russia. Kaustisen purppuripelimannit were a group of fiddlers who played an important role in the revival of Finnish folk music. Both were recorded by YLE in the 1950s. (examples 4 and 5).

Most archival programs were originally recorded on analog tape. The format is now extinct and has a limited life expectancy. In order to ensure the permanent preservation of the collections, YLE is currently converting the entire radio archives into digital form. About one third of the task has already been accomplished, and it is expected to be completed by 2017.

The YLE record library has grown today into a collection containing more than half a million commercial recordings. Starting with shellac 78 rpm records, the collection expanded into 45 and 33 rpm vinyl records in the 1950s and CDs in the 1980s. The rights of these recordings belong to the record companies, but the oldest part of the collection is in public domain. The catalogue of this collection is available on the website of the Finnish public library system.

The records in the collection range from the common to the unique. YLE has an almost complete collection of Finnish records. Like all major broadcasting companies, YLE has over the years acquired best selling recordings by many internationally known artists, but there are many rare items, such as this 78 rpm record made in Tibet in 1950.

In the 1950s, YLE founded a special sound effects department to record effects needed for radio and, later, television productions. They included sounds of natural phenomena, sounds made by humans and animals, and industrial sounds. Over the years, the sound effects archive has grown into a unique collection of more than 60,000 sounds. All are sounds recorded from real life, not synthetically created effects. In many cases they document historical soundscapes which no longer exists.

The sound effects archive is currently being catalogued and digitised, and a large part of it (over ten thousand sounds) is already included in the DISMARC database.

co-funded by the European Commission