One of the constant tensions that exist is the new media age is between preservation of culture and copyrights. Personally this doesn’t get summed up any better for me than the fact that Schickele Mix is now lost to us.
Peter Schickele produced 175 episodes of a radio show that explored concepts in music in a very accessible way. I heard it by accident on our local NPR station 7 years ago, and fell in love with it. This was already during one of it’s many encores, as new shows had stopped being produced the last 90s. Even though I possess no real musical talent (or perhaps because of that), the show was facinating, and taught me incredible amounts about music. I only wished it was still running somewhere.
Because the show was about music, it played full length songs. The royalty rates for those on broadcast radio were something that was payable at the time, but those rates are substantially higher for online distribution. Hence, there are no archives, and a big piece of culture, one that could get people really excited about music, is now unpublishable due to copyright.
When I was in college, I was always fascinated by the fact that all that still remained of Ancient Greek Theater were 40 some odd plays. How could culture like that get lost? In a digital age it seems incredible that it would be possible to loose important parts of our culture.
It's always more complicated 
I agree with all you’ve said. I too learned a lot about music and developed a passion for music I hadn’t enjoyed much before. I’ve been searching the internet hoping to find someone that recorded the programs when I found you. They were wonderful programs and I am sorry I didn’t hear more of them.
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A large portion of it can be found on Torrent sites.
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I happened upon Shickele Mix on the car radio while driving home from ensemble rehearsal years & years ago. Instantly, I was hooked. Ever after, I made a point of being home at broadcast time with the radio & tape recorder turned on & a fresh tape ready to go. Not knowing what episode would be on from week to week, I kept on recording the shows even after the program went into reruns. My collection started after No. 50 or so. If my tapes have not deteriorated in storage & will still play, I could still listen to them & possibly make copies. I have not had much success in reaching others who taped the show, so attempts to fill in blanks in my Shickele Mix tape collection have been seriously disappointing. If anybody out there has tapes of early Schickele Mix shows & would like to swap, I would appreciate getting in touch. Contact spit_valve at Yahoo dot com
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They are lost to *us*, but surely they are not lost forever? Doubtless they are recorded, and seventy years after the last new show, say in 2072 or so, it must all be out of copyright, so they will be available again! Personally I plan on living to be at least a hundred years old, so I might have a year or so to enjoy them. Sigh.
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