Over the Edge (radio program)

Over the Edge (or OTE) is a sound collage radio program hosted and produced in the United States by Jon Leidecker ("Wobbly") and Robert Cole ("KrOB"), who took over in 2015 after the death of longtime host Don Joyce.

Leidecker, like Joyce, is a member of the pioneering sound collage band Negativland, other members of which have frequently appeared on the show. A series of Over the Edge episodes have been released under the Negativland name, first on cassette and later CD. Critic Ned Raggett describes Over the Edge as "a merry trip into an alternate world," while critic Stephen Cramer describes Over the Edge as "the longest-running block of free-form radio in the history of radio ... essentially live performance art."

Founded in 1981, OTE is broadcast live on KPFA in Berkeley, California, every second, third, and fourth Thursday night/Friday morning from midnight to 3 a.m. On the rare occasion of a month with a fifth Thursday OTE runs an additional two hours, from midnight to 5 a.m. The show is also available online, streamed live from KPFA.org (which podcasts the show), or from Negativland.com, where many older episodes are available as well. As of July 2021,^[update] approximately 1300 episodes are stored at the Internet Archive. It is the group's plan to digitize and archive every episode ever made.

Negativland members—often just Joyce—have broadcast OTE since June 1981. OTE began as a rather conventional music show, though Joyce gradually experimented with the format, due to his disapproval of what he saw as radio's primary function (encouraging listeners to buy music recordings). The show was originally on Sundays at midnight, following Music from the Hearts of Space. It changed time slots a few times, but now broadcasts in the Thursday/Friday midnight to 3 a.m. slot. Due to various obligations on the part of the host(s) or the KPFA DJs on before and after him, the show is sometimes not aired at all, or is sometimes much longer (up to five hours), or is hosted by friends of Negativland such as the hosts of the Puzzling Evidence show which usually airs after OTE. Usually these kinds of scheduling changes are announced the week previous, or in the closing minutes of the previous show.

Joyce declared that with OTE, he and his collaborators "create 'direct-reference' collages, manipulating and mixing both found and original sounds to produce a new kind of audio animal. OTE is always concerned with recycling existing cultural elements to some new, unintended effect."

Joyce used sound collage techniques, weaving many sources together throughout the program to create a "conversational" form of audio presentation. Sources might include recordings of other radio programs (including old time radio shows, commercials, talk shows, or news programs), portions of documentary films, songs and more, all typically—but not always—related to a pre-selected theme.

Joyce usually played a "bed" of unobtrusive background music, and adds reverberation or other special effects to sound sources. He also employed the "Booper", a circuit-bending oscillator created by David Wills ("The Weatherman"), to create electronic and synthesized tones that he incorporates into the show.

OTE's theme music is the track "12 O'Clock (in two parts)" from Heaven and Hell (1975), by Vangelis. Most of the time, this song begins each show, though in some cases other sounds may play over it, and the song may be slowed down or sped up, depending on the show's theme. About two-thirds of the way through the song during a natural pause in the music, the song stops and Joyce played a teaser, which indicates a topic or theme he would explore for the episode.