Swapping interviews would be a useful thing as expended effort can be re-utilised instead of lying around in an unused file. When I featured Catter Dave Ruch in October I re-used an interview done by Jill Breit for North Country Public Radio in New York State, kindly sanctioned by station manager Joel Hurd. It was nice to have a another voice on the show.

I have features on the shelf about voices, mumming, instruments, etc which with a bit of editing could be made less station specific and shared around.

Commenting on Bruce's useful info on mp3's, I spent several years demonstrating the effects of compression to students studying broadcast and providing dire warnings about quality drop. Having said that, I've played transcriptions of wax cylinders and old 78s on my show. My feeling is that if I can do that for reasons of accessibility then I can also justify playing occasional home recordings and mp3s if the occasion demands. The main issue is that the audience should be aware that something from a degraded source is not to be compared with the surrounding tracks of (hopefully) pristine quality.

The main thrust of community radio is information and entertainment for the people, by the people, sometimes warts and all.