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Playlist: Roland's Eclectic Audio

Compiled By: Roland Foster

 Credit:

Awesome Audio

The Gazillionth (or so) Monty Python Radio Special

From Joyride Media | 59:00

"It's"

Montypython_small THE GAZILLIONTH (OR SO) MONTY PYTHON RADIO SPECIAL A new one-hour Monty Python radio documentary hosted Keith Olbermann. Monty Python debuted on the BBC nearly 40 years ago, and their mix of everything absurd, obscure and English has inspired generations comedians - from the professionals to the amateur line-quoters. Their skits, films and songs continue to be both poignant and funny today, whether experienced for the first or gazillionth time on TV, film, disc (plastic or vinyl), broadway or anytime a devoted fan is confronted with a cheese shop, a dead parrott or a shrubbery. Between excerpts of their finest moments, Cast members Eric Idle, John Cleese and Terry Jones (with help from Python geek/historian Kim Howard Johnson) look back on the men, the myths, and legends behind them. Musician Mark Stewart analyzes the musical works that are equally as influential as their skits and films. Radio broadcasters Michael Berger and Jeff Prescott discuss Python's impact on concerned citizens of San Diego and the FCC. Carol Cleveland, a Python in everything but the title, adds what it's like to be a real woman. The Gazillionth (or so) Monty Python Radio Special is hosted by television and radio personality Keith Olbermann. He can currently be seen and heard injecting Monty Python references into his coverage of news, politics and sports on The Countdown with Keith Olbermann (MSNBC), The Dan Patrick Show (ESPN Radio) and Football Night in America (NBC-TV). Content advisories includes references to the human anatomy (bodyparts and ailments), ranging from clinical terminology from medical journals, textbooks and diagnoses, to English slang commonly featured in PBS broadcasts of classic BBC programs. Full transcripts, including song lyrics, can be provided on request.

Independent Minds: Peter Sellers

From Murray Street Productions | Part of the Independent Minds series | 55:31

Learn more about an amazing comic genius--Independent Minds: Peter Sellers is a one-hour (news-friendly) entertainment documentary hosted by David D'Arcy.

Sellers_small Peter Sellers' comic genius is undeniable. His radio, television, and film work has influenced everyone from the Monty Python troupe to Mike Myers. He gave movie audiences iconic characters like the laughingly wicked Dr. Strangelove, and the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. In the 1960s, his rise to stardom made him one of England's most recognizable stars, on par with the Beatles. Now, 40 years after the height of Peter Sellers' career, David D'Arcy hosts an engaging look at this comic genius. We'll hear from Sellers' collaborators Blake Edwards, Paul Mazursky and Joe McGrath, as well as Mike Myers, Tracy Ullman, John Lithgow, Geoffrey Rush, and Sellers biographers Ed Sikov and Roger Lewis. Plus rare archive interviews of Sellers! INDEPENDENT MINDS: PETER SELLERS is an hour-long special. ***Available 10/28 - 12/5 at NO CHARGE, but registration is required.

Bob Dylan, The Poet

From Open Source | Part of the Open Source with Christopher Lydon series | 58:59

(Rerun episode from 12/7/16) Bob Dylan, the poet, has been singing more than 50 years, but have you ever really stopped to listen to the words?

Screen_shot_2017-06-09_at_11

Bob Dylan, the poet, has been singing more than 50 years, but have you ever really stopped to listen to the words? Now that Dylan is a Nobel giant of literature, we asked Christopher Ricks, professor of English at Boston University, for a line-by-line, close-reading of a few lyrical wonders.

screen-shot-2016-12-07-at-1-20-22-pm

 First page of “Like A Rolling Stone” manuscript.

Listening to Dylan the poet, you hear many things: rural protest storyteller, Greenwich village freewheeler, king of rock surrealism. A people’s poet and songster (in the tradition of Robert Burns), a modernist beatnik (in the zone of Allen Ginsburg), a classic versifier (in the bardic tradition of Orpheus—that’s what Salman Rushdie says), and a prolific quoter and sampler (in the old, weird, American blues style, as Greil Marcus says). The novelist Francine Prose hears Arthur Rimbaud and Walt Whitman; the journalist Charlie Pierce hears gonzo journalism. Only Ricks would dare to compare Dylan to literary jumbos like Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, and Eliot.

Of course, Dylan is in a category of his own (not just because, unlike most writers, Dylan is heard through records, radio, and on stage); in fact, Ricks contends that Dylan the “greatest living user of the English language.”

dylantypewriter

Here are some of our favorite annotations from Ricks:

Desolation Row

They’re selling postcards of the hanging, they’re painting the passports brown,

The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town

Here comes the blind commissioner, they’ve got him in a trance

One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker, the other is in his pants

And the riot squad they’re restless, they need somewhere to go

As Lady and I look out tonight, from Desolation Row

Christopher Ricks: Hanging is lynching… Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if “selling postcards of the hanging” was only a surrealist sickness. No, no. It was the American way of life. It was quite central. So then you move into these things that aresurrealist, all right. “Painting the passports brown.” Oh, that’s “painting the town red.” And the town is going to turn up a moment later in the song. So you’ve got this strange feeling that you often have in a dream, that there’s a word just below the surface, there’s some sort of link, there are strange things floating one into the other. Is the “blind commissioner” a commissioner who is blind, or a commissioner for the blind? It’s blind partly because you’re visualizing things. Sound wonderfully visualizes.

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

Hattie Carroll was a maid in the kitchen

She was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children

Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage

And never sat once at the head of the table

And didn’t even talk to the people at the table

Who just cleaned up all the food from the table

And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level

Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane

That sailed through the air and came down through the room

Doomed and determined to destroy all the gentle

And she never done nothing to William Zanzinger

And you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears

Take the rag away from your face

Now ain’t the time for your tears

Ricks: Cain, as the first killer, turns up in many of Dylan’s songs. So the question is, when you sing a word like “cane,” it’s identical in sound with C-A-I-N. And when you have “table,” “table,” “table”—are you near Abel? Maybe not. But it’s a little bit of a coincidence. You’ve got cane. “Slain by a cane” reminds you: That was the first killing ever. So that you’ve got the primal curse of mankind on it!

Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

With your mercury mouth in the missionary times,

And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,

And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes,

Oh, do they think could bury you?

With your pockets well protected at last,

And your streetcar visions which you place on the grass,

And your flesh like silk, and your face like glass,

Who could they get to carry you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,

Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,

Should I put them by your gate,

Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

Ricks: This is like a huge, Petrarchan poem. It’s like four, six sonnets by Petrarch. Every one of which lists all the wonderful apparatus which surrounds a seductive woman. The seduction may be her very goodness, or it may be other things about her. The song overlaps terrifically with Swinburne’s poem “Dolores,” where Dolores is our lady of sorrows, “the sad-eyed lady of the lowlands.” … The refrain is a very great beauty with great dignity. It’s about “should I lead them by her gate? Or sad eyed lady, should I wait?” “Should I wait” is like Shakespeare’s sonnets, where the speaker in the sonnets is always saying “please, I’m perfectly happy to wait, happy to wait”—with a terrific edge of resentment—and this a song which understands resentment. That is, it’s not simply grateful to a woman who puts you through all of this with her this and her that, “with your, with your, with your…” Terrific song. Terrifying song, really.

dylan at the piano

 

If you want to learn more about Dylan’s time in Cambridge, read our own Zach Goldhammer’s piece on the ARTery.

 

Illustration: Susan Coyne; Photos: Ted Russell/Polaris, Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Bob Dylan: Listen To The Words

From Paul Ingles | 59:01

Another hour of Dylan's most literate work, hosted by Paul Ingles, to further mark his winning the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Dylantypewriter_small Another hour of Dylan's most literate work, hosted by Paul Ingles, to further mark his winning the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Songs:

Visions of Johanna

Senor

Masters of War

Hurricane

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

Mississippi

Desolation Row

Boots of Spanish Leather

Bob Dylan, The Poet

From Open Source | Part of the Open Source with Christopher Lydon series | 58:30

Bob Dylan has been singing more than 50 years. But have you ever really stopped to listen to the words?

Screen_shot_2016-12-09_at_2

Bob Dylan, the poet, has been singing more than 50 years, but have you ever really stopped to listen to the words? Now that Dylan is a Nobel giant of literature, we asked Christopher Ricks, professor of English at Boston University, for a line-by-line, close-reading of a few lyrical wonders.

screen-shot-2016-12-07-at-1-20-22-pm

 First page of “Like A Rolling Stone” manuscript.

Listening to Dylan the poet, you hear many things: rural protest storyteller, Greenwich village freewheeler, king of rock surrealism. A people’s poet and songster (in the tradition of Robert Burns), a modernist beatnik (in the zone of Allen Ginsburg), a classic versifier (in the bardic tradition of Orpheus—that’s what Salman Rushdie says), and a prolific quoter and sampler (in the old, weird, American blues style, as Greil Marcus says). The novelist Francine Prose hears Arthur Rimbaud and Walt Whitman; the journalist Charlie Pierce hears gonzo journalism. Only Ricks would dare to compare Dylan to literary jumbos like Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, and Eliot.

Of course, Dylan is in a category of his own (not just because, unlike most writers, Dylan is heard through records, radio, and on stage); in fact, Ricks contends that Dylan the “greatest living user of the English language.”

dylantypewriter

Here are some of our favorite annotations from Ricks:

Desolation Row

They’re selling postcards of the hanging, they’re painting the passports brown,

The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town

Here comes the blind commissioner, they’ve got him in a trance

One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker, the other is in his pants

And the riot squad they’re restless, they need somewhere to go

As Lady and I look out tonight, from Desolation Row

Christopher Ricks: Hanging is lynching… Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if “selling postcards of the hanging” was only a surrealist sickness. No, no. It was the American way of life. It was quite central. So then you move into these things that aresurrealist, all right. “Painting the passports brown.” Oh, that’s “painting the town red.” And the town is going to turn up a moment later in the song. So you’ve got this strange feeling that you often have in a dream, that there’s a word just below the surface, there’s some sort of link, there are strange things floating one into the other. Is the “blind commissioner” a commissioner who is blind, or a commissioner for the blind? It’s blind partly because you’re visualizing things. Sound wonderfully visualizes.

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

Hattie Carroll was a maid in the kitchen

She was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children

Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage

And never sat once at the head of the table

And didn’t even talk to the people at the table

Who just cleaned up all the food from the table

And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level

Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane

That sailed through the air and came down through the room

Doomed and determined to destroy all the gentle

And she never done nothing to William Zanzinger

And you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears

Take the rag away from your face

Now ain’t the time for your tears

Ricks: Cain, as the first killer, turns up in many of Dylan’s songs. So the question is, when you sing a word like “cane,” it’s identical in sound with C-A-I-N. And when you have “table,” “table,” “table”—are you near Abel? Maybe not. But it’s a little bit of a coincidence. You’ve got cane. “Slain by a cane” reminds you: That was the first killing ever. So that you’ve got the primal curse of mankind on it!

Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

With your mercury mouth in the missionary times,

And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,

And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes,

Oh, do they think could bury you?

With your pockets well protected at last,

And your streetcar visions which you place on the grass,

And your flesh like silk, and your face like glass,

Who could they get to carry you?

 

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,

Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,

My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,

Should I put them by your gate,

Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

Ricks: This is like a huge, Petrarchan poem. It’s like four, six sonnets by Petrarch. Every one of which lists all the wonderful apparatus which surrounds a seductive woman. The seduction may be her very goodness, or it may be other things about her. The song overlaps terrifically with Swinburne’s poem “Dolores,” where Dolores is our lady of sorrows, “the sad-eyed lady of the lowlands.” … The refrain is a very great beauty with great dignity. It’s about “should I lead them by her gate? Or sad eyed lady, should I wait?” “Should I wait” is like Shakespeare’s sonnets, where the speaker in the sonnets is always saying “please, I’m perfectly happy to wait, happy to wait”—with a terrific edge of resentment—and this a song which understands resentment. That is, it’s not simply grateful to a woman who puts you through all of this with her this and her that, “with your, with your, with your…” Terrific song. Terrifying song, really.

dylan at the piano

Roger Ebert in Conversation with Studs Terkel

From The WFMT Radio Network | 02:07:28

Roger Ebert, world renowned film critic, journalist, screen writer and social commentator passed away on April 4, 2013 at the age of 70.

The WFMT Radio Network is offering excerpts of Roger Ebert speaking with Studs Terkel from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive,to coincide with the release of "Life Itself," a a documentary based on Roger Ebert's early years

Primary_roger-red-seats_small For stations airing this program please announce that it comes from:
The Studs Terkel Radio Archive a collection of more than 5,000 interviews being curated by the WFMT Radio Network and the Chicago History Museum – www.studsterkel.org



Clip #1
. Roger Ebert the Movie Goer
Ebert reads a section of his book regarding the experience of movie goers as the films they watch become memories of their own lives.


Clip #2. Roger Ebert: Movies as Memories, Convincing Capone
Ebert and Terkel discuss movies as memories, the anti-hero, and gangster films. Together they read the story of how the writer of Scarface (Ben Hecht) convinced Capone’s men that the movie is not about Capone.

Clip #3. Rogert Ebert on Chaplin
Ebert and Studs discuss Charlie Chaplin, his brilliance and fame, and the universality of silent films.

Clip #4. Roger Ebert: W.C Fields
Ebert and Stud’s discuss W.C. Field’s changing popularity, insecurities, and disgust for babies. Together they read a story of Field’s spiking Baby Leroy’s bottle from Ebert’s text.

Clip #5. Roger Ebert: The Western

Ebert relays the often overlooked importance of Westerns in American Film and their international appreciation and fame. 

Clip #6. Roger Ebert: The Marx Brother and Casablanca
 Ebert tells the story of Warner Brother’s attempt to prevent the Marx Brothers from using “Casablanca” in their movie “Night in Casablanca” after Warner Brother’s big hit romance “Casablanca.”

Clip #7
. Roger Ebert: Fellini
Ebert and Studs discuss Fellini’s films, in particular Ebert’s favorite, La Dolce Vita, and Stud’s favorite, La Strada. Together they explore Fellini’s directorial decisions and style.

Also included are two unedited files which contain the entire conversation between Studs and Robert.

WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts—The First All Girl Radio Station in the Nation—Part 1

From The Kitchen Sisters | Part of the Fugitive Waves series | 25:08

When Sam Phillips sold Elvis' contract in 1955 he used the money to start an all girl radio station in Memphis, TN. Set in a pink, plush studio in the nations's third Holiday Inn, it was a novelty—but not for long.

Ks_fugitivewavessm_small When Sam Phillips sold Elvis' contract in 1955 he used the money to start an all girl radio station in Memphis, TN. Set in a pink, plush studio in the nations' third Holiday Inn, it was a novelty—but not for long. He hired models, beauty queens, actresses, telephone operators. Some were young mothers who just needed a job. WHER was the first radio station to feature women as more than novelties and sidekicks. The WHER girls were broadcasting pioneers. From 1955 into the mid-1970s they ruled the airwaves with style, wit and imagination. "WHER was the embryo of the egg," said Sam Phillips. "We broke a barrier. There was nothing like it in the world."

WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts—The First All Girl Radio Station in the Nation—Part 2

From The Kitchen Sisters | Part of the Fugitive Waves series | 25:27

An all-girl radio station in Memphis—set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the women's movement, Vietnam, and the death of Martin Luther King—the story of WHER continues following the women who pioneered in broadcasting as they head into one of the most dramatic and volatile times in the nation's history.

Ks_fugitivewavessm_small When Sam Phillips sold Elvis' contract in 1955 he used the money to start WHER, an all-girl radio station in Memphis, TN. In this episode we move from the pink plush studio in the Holiday Inn, with undies hanging on clotheslines in the lobby,  into the 1960s and a new studio in the Mid-City building, Memphis. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the women's movement, Vietnam, and the death of Martin Luther King—the story of WHER continues following the women who pioneered in broadcasting as they head into one of the most dramatic and volatile times in the nation's history. 

The Hustler Who Inspired the Beats

From With Good Reason | Part of the With Good Reason: Weekly Half Hour Long Episodes series | 28:59

Herbert Huncke's line "I'm beat, man" gave Jack Kerouac the label for a generation seeking spiritual sustenance and "kicks" in post-war America.

Herbert_huncke_small The author of a new book about Herbert Huncke says his unrepentant deviance caught the imagination of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. Hilary Holladay writes that Huncke (rhymes with “junky”) often said, “I’m beat, man.” His line gave Kerouac the label for a generation seeking spiritual sustenance and “kicks” in post-war America. Also featured: During the late 1960s, poet Allen Ginsberg bought a farm in New York to serve as “a haven for comrades in distress.” Gordon Ball, who was the farm manager, has written a book about his experience, East Hill Farm: Seasons with Allen Ginsberg .

Martin Sheen: Father Activist

From AARP Radio | Part of the Prime Time Radio series | 59:54

Martin Sheen and My Father's Secret War...this week on Prime Time Radio.

Ptrmartinsheen_small He intervened in his son's life, because, he told AARP's Nancy Graham: When a life is at stake, and it's your child, you become fearless. Actor Martin Sheen talked at length with Graham for a profile in the July-August issue of AARP The Magazine where he discussed his son Charlie, and problems with drugs and fame that threatened to take Charlie's life. Then...Lucinda Franks grew up thinking her father was a complete failure. Then, the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist found a piece of WWII memorabilia that prompted her to engage her considerable investigative skills. Her nearly obsessive quest led to the discovery that far from being a failure, her dad was an unsung hero. She shares her story in My Fathers Secret War.

A Beautiful Symphony of Brotherhood: A Musical Journey in the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

From WQXR | 58:00

In this hour-long special from WQXR and WNYC, host Terrance McKnight interweaves musical examples with Dr. King's own speeches and sermons to illustrate the powerful place that music held in his work--and examines how the musical community responded to and participated in Dr. King's cause.

Wqxr_logo_nofreq_small

Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up listening to and singing church songs, and saw gospel and folk music as natural tools to further the civil rights movement.

In this hour-long special from WQXR and WNYC, host Terrance McKnight interweaves musical examples with Dr. King's own speeches and sermons to illustrate the powerful place that music held in his work--and examines how the musical community responded to and participated in Dr. King's cause.

Terrance McKnight is WQXR's Evening Host. He came to WQXR from WNYC, which he joined in 2008. He brings to his position wide and varied musical experience that includes performance, teaching and radio broadcast. An accomplished pianist, McKnight was also a member of the Morehouse College faculty, where he taught music appreciation and applied piano.

Billy Bragg’s Guide to the Music of Dissent (rebroadcast)

From Open Source | Part of the Open Source with Christopher Lydon series | 59:00

We're ringing in the new year with a rerun of our conversation with Billy Bragg, a troubadour for British radicalism for more than thirty years as well as a democratic guitar-playing socialist with a steadfast commitment to fighting fascism, racism, and homophobia.

Screen_shot_2017-12-21_at_12

We're ringing in the new year with a rerun of our conversation with Billy Bragg, a troubadour for British radicalism for more than thirty years as well as a democratic guitar-playing socialist with a steadfast commitment to fighting fascism, racism, and homophobia.

He was the voice of the striking miners in the 80s—reminding us that there is power in a union, despite what Thatcher & Reagan might have told you.

In the 90s, he tapped into a well of forgotten American lyricism, singing and writing music for hundreds of unreleased Woody Guthrie songs, and reminding us that all those fascists were always bound to lose.  

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV714TBmLQU[/embed]

Today, Bragg, like the British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders in the U.S. , stands out as a survivor—someone who carried the torch for socialist ideas and sentiments through the Clinton/Blair years and the long age of acquiescence. Theres's a new audience of young people carrying his ideas forward now, but with a different tune: hip-hop and grime are the soundtrack of today’s resistance—not white guys with guitars—but the sentiment remains the same. Their history, as well as their lyrics, rhymes with Bragg’s own.

 

[A playlist of our favorite Bragg songs, curated by Zach Goldhammer, Susan Coyne, Pat Tomaino, Becca DeGregorio, and Conor Gillies]

As an elder statesman for youthful rebellion, Bragg wants to remind us how this whole subculture began. In his new book, Roots, Radicals, and Rockers, Bragg brings us back to 1950s England, where a new form of music called skiffle helped invent the first generation of true teenagers in England.

In his story, it’s the working-class English kids who picked up guitars in the playground and started singing American blues songs—like Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line”—and who kicked off a 60- year tradition of dissenting music in the Anglophone world. It was not political music per se, but it was the first rumblings of an anti-conformist rebellion in the UK.

We pick-up Bragg’s story with the first skiffle superstar, Lonnie Donegan,

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI4nRD-DRpk[/embed]

That spirit of rebellion continued to echo through the British Invasion in the 60s, the first wave of punk in the late 70s, and of course, in Bragg's own thirty year career.

But today, Bragg says it's a new sound carrying this rebellious tradition forward. Now, Britain's music of dissent is being made by Grime artists, blending high-speed English rap with West Indian dancehall beats. These were the musicians who also formed an unlikely alliance with Jeremy Corbyn in the last election.

 

We'll be listening carefully and trying to figure out where this new musical momentum will carry us next. You can also keep listening  with us—there's a playlist of all the songs featured in this  week's show here.

[Lead illustration by Susan Coyne. Prints are available at coyneworks.com]

See a full transcript of this show on Medium.

99% Invisible #88- The Broadcast Clock

From Roman Mars | Part of the 99% Invisible (Director's Cut) series | 14:53

What makes public radio tick.

99invisible-logo-square-for_prx_medium_small

There’s a term that epitomizes what we radio producers aspire to create: the “driveway moment.” It’s when a story is so good that you can’t leave your car. Inside of a driveway moment, time becomes elastic–you could be staring straight at a clock for the entire duration of the story, but for that length of time, the clock has no power over you.

But ironically,  inside the machinery of public radio–the industry that creates driveway moments–the clock rules all.

monikacalc

At NPR’s studios in Washington, DC, there are clocks everywhere. Big red digital clocks, huge round analog clocks. There’s even special software and time calculators, where 60 + 60 = 2’00.

(All Things Considered director Monika Evstatieva during a live broadcast in NPR’s Studio 2A. Credit: Julia Barton)

Each show has a ‘clock’, a set template, from which the show almost never varies. Every show that broadcasts—or aspires to broadcast—in the public radio system has a clock. This is the All Things Considered broadcast clock, which NPR and stations across the country refer to on a daily basis:

new_atcformat_3_8_04-2

It’s actually a pretty cool piece of visual design, but one which functions best when it is never seen. This template is used twice every weekday: ATC Hour 1, from 4:00:00pm through 4:59:59pm ET; and then for ATC Hour 2, from 5:00:00 through 5:59:59pm ET.

Here’s how it works: at the ‘top’ of the hour, there is a 59 second “billboard,” which announces what’s going up in the program. Then there’s five minutes for the newscast, which is itself divided into two segments (“Newscast I” and “Newscast II”). Then there are the “blocks”–A, B, C, and D–which is where the stories and interviews (or “two-ways”) live.

Segments can’t run long by even a second, because most of the local stations are automated to cut off the national program where the clock says they can. These times–the dividers between the sections on the clock–are called posts. You have to hit the post. Nothing can go wrong.

Though, of course, things go wrong every day.

Monika2

(When Julia visited ATC, a live interview segment accidentally got wrapped up 35 seconds early. Then it was on Monika, the director, to figure out what to do. Credit: Julia Barton)

Taking care of the clock is so ingrained in the director’s psyche that a common side effect of the job is waking up in the middle of the night fearing that you’ve blown the post–these are called “director’s dreams.” To cope with the anxiety, ATC directors make their own cheat sheets to help them memorize every queue of every hour of broadcast.Visit any studio that does a regular live feed with a broadcast clock and you’ll likely find a cheat sheet one somewhere in the studio.

TOTN sheet

The director’s cheat sheets at ATC  have been used so much that they’re in tatters. They have since been laminated.

ATC sheet

(Note the correction in the “Top Cast” in the upper right. It’s not “1:00″, it’s “:59″)

When NPR began in the early 1970s, show clocks were much less regimented–or they didn’t have clocks at all.

One of the early champions against the fixed clock was Bill Siemering, a founder of NPR who helped design the network’s overall sound. He came up with the name All Things

Considered (original title: A Daily Identifiable Product). Siemering wrote the mission statement of NPR, which is enshrined in the halls of NPR (note the text on the walls).

600x401x428543-Acoustical_panels_front_the_reception_desk_.jpg.pagespeed.ic.E0VR1u8FBN

 

(Credit: Interior Design)

Siemering liked a clock that was more free-form, because it allowed for spontaneity and unpredictability. But spontaneous and unpredictable does not always make for compelling radio. Done wrong, and you wind up with laughably bad “Schweddy Balls”-grade public radio.

 

When Siemering left NPR in the early 1970s, NPR chose to have more subdivided clocks. The constraints forced the shows to get tighter, which some say makes NPR stronger. One person is Neal Conan, former host of Talk of the Nation, who maintains that the earlier, freer days of NPR were not as halcyon as some may remember them.

 These days, podcasting allows for shows such as this one to be free of a post, and go on for as long or short as is fitting for any given story.

me clock with 99

Reporter-producer-editor (triple threat!) Julia Barton visited NPR’s old headquarters at Washington, DC, where she spoke with ATC directors Monika Evstatieva and Greg Dixon, and former Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan. Julia also spoke with public radio’s patron saint, Bill Siemering.

Many thanks to All Things Considered Executive Producer Chris Turpin and the other powers-that-be at NPR who gave us unfettered access to the shop during Julia’s visit.

(Note: Julia visited NPR while they were still at 635 Massachusetts Ave, NW. They have since moved to 1111 N. Capitol St.)

More network clocks! And more! And more!

Music: ”Io, Apollo, And The Veil”- Metavari, ”The Wind Up Bird”- Tunng, ”Standard Error”- Orcas, ”Paintchart”- ISAN, ”Snow Tip Cap Mountain”- The Octopus Project, ”Black Blizzard/Red Umbrella”- The Octopus Project

Pete Seeger: Plain and Complicated

From WFHB | Part of the Interchange series | 01:28:26

Pete Seeger died in 2014 at the age of 94, a cultural icon, and a so-called a “consensus hero." But the hero was also a pariah too many.

Seeger’s was a long life of constant work and activism. He is for many the quintessential “folk singer” and his left politics goes hand in hand with that reputation. And it is because of those politics that Seeger has perhaps been as widely vilified as praised.

Pete-seeger_small


Today on Independence Day, your independent, community radio station in Bloomington, Indiana presents “Pete Seeger: Plain and Complicated.”

It’s hard to know where to begin but let’s start with one of the most popular songs of the mid-20th century, The Weavers rendition of “Goodnight Irene” by Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly. This is a song which seems a kind of simple artifact of pop music, but how we understand the tradition of folk songs which are nearly always “covers” or appropriations of music often borne of deep suffering is deeply complicated. That’s for you to chew though as that particular critique is beyond the scope of this program.

Pete Seeger died in 2014 at the age of 94, a cultural icon, and a so-called a “consensus hero”–but the hero was once also a pariah.

Seeger’s was a long life of constant work and activism. He is for many the quintessential “folk singer” and his left politics goes hand in hand with that reputation. And it is because of those politics that Seeger has perhaps been as widely vilified as praised. I am tempted to offer a sketch of this life at the outset, but even a sketch would take up too much of our program and our guests will cover some of this territory for us.

And those GUESTS are, in this order:

  • Ron Cohen, co-editor of The Pete Seeger Reader
  • Rob Rosenthal, co-editor, along with his son, Sam, of Pete Seeger: In His Own Words
  • Leda Schubert, author of a new children’s book about Seeger called Listen: How Pete Seeger Got America Singing
  • Robbie Lieberman, author of My Song Is My Weapon
  • Ernie Lieberman, a singer-songwriter who played now and again with Pete Seeger and produced a landmark album of songs for peace in 1954 called Goodbye, Mr. War
  • Gary Fine, author of Sticky Reputations: The Politics of Collective Memory in Midcentury America.

I enlist the first guest you’ll hear, Ron Cohen, as something like a co-host for the program. Ron stressed that Pete Seeger was a supreme organizer, from rallies, to music journals, to newsletters, to hootenannies, to anti-war protests, to festivals, to river clean-up–an inexhaustible Organizer. So let’s let Ron Cohen organize this show about Pete Seeger, the great organizer–he’ll keep us “up to date” with a kind of activity log of Pete’s life as we move through conversations with our other Pete Seeger experts. Throughout you’ll hear me reading from a four of Pete’s letters published in Ron and Sam Rosenthal’s Pete Seeger: In His Own Words–I have taken liberties with these and compressed them. I don’t feel the elisions alter the meaning of the text, but feel free to check up on me!

MUSIC
“Goodnight Irene” by The Weavers
“Which Side Are You On” by The Almanac Singers
“Talking Union” by The Almanac Singers
“Ballad of October 16” by The Almanac Singers
“Tzena, Tzena, Tzena” by The Weavers
“This Old Man” performed by Pete Seeger
“Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
“My Dirty Stream” by Pete Seeger
“The People Are Scratching” performed by Pete Seeger
“Little Boxes” performed by Pete Seeger
“Mr. War” by Ernie Lieberman
“Spring Song” by Ernie Lieberman
“Waist Deep In the Big Muddy” by Pete Seeger
“We Shall Overcome” performed by Pete Seeger

CREDITS
Producer & Host: Doug Storm
Assistant Producer: Rob Schoon
Executive Producer: Joe Crawford

Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel

From The WFMT Radio Network | 01:04:39

Studs Terkel interviews Pete Seeger on the culture of folk music. Includes one hour interview and 7 breakout segments from the interview by Studs Terkel at WFMT/Chicago in 1955.

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Hour long

The segments are:

Clip 1: Pete Seeger talking with Studs Terkel – 1955 – Intro

Clip 2: Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel on how folk songs come from specific, real events

Clip 3: Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel on the folk revival

Clip 4: Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel on singing for kids

Clip 5: Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel on Woody Guthrie

Clip 6: Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel on people making their own music and “The Goofing off Suite” / Bach

Clip 7: Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel discussing and playing a closing lullaby “All the Pretty Little Horses”

Pete Seeger – Thoughts from a Troubadour: An Interview with Pete Seeger

From Barry Vogel | 28:59

This archive edition of Radio Curious was originally recorded and broadcast in January of 1992 when Radio Curious was called “Government, Politics and Ideas.” Our guest is Pete Seeger, a folk musician and a very special person in the lives of many people around the world. He brings songs of hope, peace, justice and equality wherever he goes. He was an inspiration to me when I first learned to play the 5-string banjo and when I took lessons from him, in what seems both long and ago and, just yesterday. We began our conversation when I asked him what he meant when he said “the world is in a state of uncertainty.

Default-piece-image-0 This archive edition of Radio Curious was originally recorded and broadcast in January of 1992 when Radio Curious was called “Government, Politics and Ideas.” Our guest is Pete Seeger, a folk musician and a very special person in the lives of many people around the world. He brings songs of hope, peace, justice and equality wherever he goes. He was an inspiration to me when I first learned to play the 5-string banjo and when I took lessons from him, in what seems both long and ago and, just yesterday. We began our conversation when I asked him what he meant when he said “the world is in a state of uncertainty.

Pete Seeger-All Mixed Up

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 59:18

Tribute to legendary singer-songwriter, political activist and environmentalist Pete Seeger featuring interviews, music and stories from a life far-traveled and well lived. Studs Terkel, Harry Belafonte, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Pete himself act as our narrators.

Pete_seeger_b_w_small Featuring the Almanac Singers, the Weavers, Woody Guthrie, Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Studs Terkel, Richie Havens, Stephen Colbert, Bruce Springsteen, The Freedom Singers, various children's chorus, plus interviews, live performances from Carnegie Hall, Newport, and Clearwater Music Festivals, stories, songs and clips from the extraordinary life of Pete Seeger.

I was lucky enough to work at several Clearwater Festivals and got to interview and broadcast Pete over WBAI during Father's Day Weekends and treasure every moment and memory shared with one of the founding Fathers of Folk music.

Quite Early Morning: The Life, Times and Legacy of Pete Seeger

From A World of Possibilities | 54:58

Legendary folksinger and social activist Pete Seeger is receiving long-delayed appreciation for his immense contribution to American music and culture. In this intimate conversation, Pete recalls it all through the prism of mellowed memory, his personal reflections on his life, times and his country's future laced with the sounds of his now-quavering but still strong voice.

Peteseeger_small

Legendary folksinger and social activist Pete Seeger is receiving long-delayed appreciation for his immense contribution to American music and culture. In this intimate conversation, Pete recalls it all through the prism of mellowed memory, his personal reflections on his life, times and his country's future laced with the sounds of his now-quavering but still strong voice.

Guest: 
Pete Seeger, Folksinger, social activist, American Icon  

Thelonious Monk at 100

From Open Source | Part of the Open Source with Christopher Lydon series | 58:59

At Thelonious Monk’s hundredth birthday, it’s our ears that have changed, not his sound.

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At Thelonious Monk’s hundredth birthday, it’s our ears that have changed, not his sound.  Instead of odd angles and eccentricity we hear orchids in music, various and beautiful.  The truth of the man’s life is clearer, too: drawn back from the ragged edge to the creative center of classically American music.  

The quirky story of Thelonious Sphere Monk made a new sort of sense in Robin Kelley’ grand biography in 2009.  Monk was one of the be-bop revolutionaries, it’s always said, uptown in Manhattan in 1941, but Robin Kelley revealed him as a child of Fats Waller stride piano and all the music of 1930s Harlem and well beyond it.

 

He mumbled at the piano and danced around it. He showed up late sometimes, sometimes disappeared, and did time for small drug offenses. But inside Robin Kelley’s biography is an unshakably original, purposeful musician, ever a generous genius, an attentive father, son, and husband, in triumph and in trouble. 

What Monk did was take the oldest, rooted tradition of the piano, in Harlem, New York, all over the country. And then he combined it with a future we have yet to achieve. It’s collapsing space and time. And his whole approach to the piano is one that brings past and present and future together in one. And he had never ever left his roots as a stride pianist — all the way to the very last tune he ever played.

Monk wrote close to a hundred songs still being interpreted and reinvented. He was musician beyond category, or genre, or period, in Kelly’s persuasive account. It’s fun to see Monk now an African-American Emersonian. His line, for instance, that “the piano ain’t got no wrong notes,” resonates with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s war on conformity and consistency. “To believe your own sound,” paraphrasing Emerson’s line in Self Reliance, “that is genius.”  

Robin D. G. Kelley in conversation with Chris Lydon, December 18, 2009

"Not Fade Away"- Buddy Holly Anniversary Special

From Peter Bochan | Part of the Shortcuts series | 01:24:23

A ninety minute documentary about Buddy Holly and the Crickets, celebrating his life & music, on the anniversary of "The day The Music Died".

Buddyholly_small "Not Fade Away" takes a long look back at one of the most influential figures in popular music history Buddy Holly, whose tragic death in a small plane crash with fellow musicians Richie Valens and the Big Bopper on February 3rd, 1959 set off headlines around the world and still resonates pop culture today.

Featuring rare and exclusive interviews with all the Crickets, Holly biographer John Goldrosen, producer Norman Petty, rock critics Dave Marsh, Robert Christgau, and Jonathan Cott, Buddy's parents and wife, producers of "The Buddy Holly Story" film (which featured Gary Busey in his breakout role), comments from his fans, vintage clips from Dick Clark, Ed Sullivan and Alan Freed with Buddy himself mixed together with his greatest hits.

Music from Bruce Springsteen, Don McClean (whose classic hit "American Pie", immortalized "The Day The Music Died), The Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, Freddie Fender, Tom Rush, Santana, The Mamas & The Papas, Chris Spedding, Ricky Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, Roky Erickson, Wreckless Eric, Bob Montgomery, Sonny Curtis, Mike Berry, The Beach Boys, Jimmy Page, Blind Faith, Bobby Vee, Jesse Colin Young, Denny Laine, Paul McCartney (who started up "Holly Days" in honor of one of his first heroes), The Beatles (who's very name was inspired by "The Crickets") and many more.

Bob Fass-All Mixed Up

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 01:58:34

Bob Fass led the way for so many of us, The Godfather of free form radio. This producer and program, thanks him for all the inspiration

Bob-fass_small Celebrating a true radio pioneer, Bob Fass with excerpts from his long running program "Radio Unnameable" and music from The Incredible String Band, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, The Villagers, Baaba Maal, 808 State, Aksak Maboul, Anouska Shankar, Jupiter & Okwess, Klalab & M'berra Ensemble, Angilque Kidjo and featuring Abbie Hoffman, Steve Post, Bob Dylan, Mike Edl and featuring a tribute to Yaphet Kotto with additional music from The Byrds, Dom La Nena, Eric Hutchinson, Chet Baker, Charlie Haden, Ben Sidran, Tom Jones, Tom Waits, Bill Withers, Brittney Howard, Bob Dylan, Little Axe, Boozoo Bajou feat. Wayne Martin, Neil Young and Howlin' Wolf

Stayin' Alive

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 01:59:02

Playing it close to home with Marlon Brando, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, George Reeves, Noel Neill, Bob Dylan, Michael Caine, Rev. Harvey Gates, Mayor Bill DeBlasio, and two hours of music from around the world.

Hopper_window_small Stuck inside and experiencing cabin fever with Ane Brun, Cardinal, Ella Fitzgerald, The Real Tuesday Weld,Was (Not) Was feat. Mel Torme, Jar Vis, Oh Land, The Ink Spots, Paul McCartney, Dianna Krall & Michael Buble, Adam Driver, Anthony DeMare, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Cast of Into Woods as part of 90th Birthday Salute to Stephen Sondheim. Celebrating Kenny Rogers and Anoushka Shankar, Paul Anka, Calibro 35, Randa, Talking Heads, Pixies, Eurythmics, Rev. Harvey Gates, Neil Young, Joseph Arthur, Mandy Barnett, Ozark Henry, Dan Wilson, Antony & The Johnsons, Van Morisson, and R.E.M.

1969-All Mixed Up

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 01:55:02

Traveling through Time & Space back to 1969 with Richard Nixon, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Walter Cronkite, Ted Kennedy, Arthur C. Clark, Ronald Reagan, Arlo Guthrie, The Cast of Hair and more for a two hour remix of all the major events of an incredible year and the history of space exploration.

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1969--from Woodstock to Altamont, Washington to Vietnam, Chappaquidick to Chicago with stops at Stonewall, Hyde Park, Shea Stadium, The Super Bowl, Memphis, Times Square, Sesame Street, and the Moon. Featuring commentary from John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Iggy Pop, the Smothers Brothers, The Firesign Theater, Monty Python, Richard Pryor, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Roman Polanski, Richard Nixon, JFK, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Walter Cronkite, Ted Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Lang, Chip Monck, Dave Marsh, Joe Boyd, Rob Kirkpatrick, Carl Capotorto, Arlo Guthrie, Hugh Romney, Harry Reasoner, Nile Rogers, various FBI and police agents, The Black Panthers, The Weather Underground, The Zodiac Killer, Apollo 11 astronauts and many others. Music from Hair, Midnight Cowboy, Sly and the Family Stone, The 5th Dimension, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, James Brown, David Bowie, The Who, Les McCann & Eddie Harris, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Blind Faith, Roy Budd, The Plastic Ono Band, The Jefferson Airplane, Arlo Guthrie, Canned Heat, The Beach Boys, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, Beautiful People, Jimi Hendrix, Procol Harum, Henry Mancini and The Stooges!
We continue our space explorations with Arthur C. Clark, Art Bell, Ronald Reagan, JFK, Stephen Hawking, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Hamm, William Shatner, Charlton Heston and music from Lord Huron, The Police, The Cast of Hair, Stereolab, The Tornados, Donald Fagen, Pinback, The Rolling Stones, Robin Danar, AURORA, Courtney Barnett, Frank Black, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Donald Trump

Dan Ingram-All Mixed Up

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 59:34

A Tribute to Dan Ingram who guided us through the sixties over Top 40 Music Radio Giant "77 WABC"-with airchecks, music and cultural atifacts including The Great Northeast Blackout of November 1965.

Dan_ingram_sm_small Celebrating radio pioneer and All American Top 40 DJ Dan Ingram with music from The Beatles, Snail Mail, The Bacon Brothers, Alice Cooper, Tom Petty, The Box Tops, Billy J. Kramer, Johnny Swim & Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, Fred Rogers, Morrissey, PIXX, Childish Gambino, Margo Price, Camille Yarborough and Daniel Johnston

Joe Frank & Julius Lester-All Mixed Up

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 59:36

Celebrating two radio legends who passed through Pacifica radio station WBAI in New York City in the seventies on their way to greater glory- I was there myself and was lucky enough to meet them both.

Julius_lester_celebrityromp_small Tributes to Julius Lester & Joe Frank, Dolores O'Riordan, Edwin Hawkins, Peggy Cummings and featuring commentary from David Sedaris, Andy Griffith, Jim Nabors and others with music from The Black Eyed Peas, The Cranberries, Sarah Vaughan, David Byrne, Charlie Hunter with Norah Jones, Willis Earl Beal, Rosemary Clooney, The Northern California Youth Choir, Omar Sosa, Nina Rota, Afro-Classics, St. Germaine and excerpts from the work of Joe Frank and Julius Lester

Billions of Words-All Mixed Up

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 59:20

Join George Carlin, Barack Obama, JFK, James Taylor, Sarah Palin, Bernie Mac, Bill Maher, and Donald Trump in the Billion Dollar Mix of "Just Words?" With new music from Phillip Glass, Ozark Henry, The Urban Renewal Project and many others

Img_3924_small Featuring music from Miles Davis, The Urban Renewal Project, The Afrosonics, Ozark Henry, Khruanghan, Phillip Glass, Genevieve Belmare, Johnette Napolitano, Norah Jones, Rev. Organdrum, Gemma Ray, Morrissey, Loma, Pussy Riot and featuring "billions of words" from Barack Obama, George Carlin, Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, Bernie Mac, James Taylor, Sarah Palin, Billy Bragg, Bill Maher, Andy Griffith, Greer Garson and Clark Gable this mix examines the values of speech and word.

A Shortcut Back to 1967-The Summer of Love

From Peter Bochan | Part of the Shortcuts series | 30:36

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Summer of Love as we travel back to 1967 with LBJ, Mick Jagger, Frank Zappa, Julie Christie, John Cage, Timothy Leary, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, RFK, Allen Ginsberg, Lady Bird Johnson and the Flower Children...

George_harrison_67_small Tripping through the "Summer of Love", with music from the Mothers of Invention, The Fugs, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The B-52s, Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Youngbloods, Donovan, The Incredible String Band, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and spiritual guidance from Timothy Leary, Norman Mailer, Julie Christie, Mick Jagger, Ed Sanders, Allen Ginsberg, LBJ, Adam Clayton Powell Jr, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Military

All Mixed Up with Bob & Ray

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 01:58:31

Celebrating the lives of Bob Elliott, Maurice White and Dan Hicks with comedy classics and music from Earth, Wind & Fire, Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks, Wilbur DeParis & Jimmy Witherspoon, School of Seven Bells, Family, Bombino, The Big Bright, and featuring material from the career of Bob & Ray.

Bob___ray_nbc_sm_small In this tribute edition of All Mixed Up we draw material from the years I spent working on Bob & Ray compliations for Larry Josephson's Radio Foundation including contributions from fans and broadcasters alike (one of the most memorable being Keith Obermann who as a teenager recorded every episode of B & R on WOR that he could). I never had so much fun "working" on any project, listening to show after show, searching for a program thread or continuation of a Mary Backstayge storyline. We've pulled a few special segments together for this program mixed with music from Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks , Maurice White & Earth, Wind & Fire , it was great editing intros from Bob & Ray into the music--also featuring Family, Barry Adamson, James Hunter Six, Paul Marks & The Van Dorens, Sufjan Stevens, Harry James with Kitty Kallen , Emett Rhodes, Field Music, with award winning reporter--Wally Ballou as portrayed by the late, great Bob Elliott.

All Mixed Up: Judy Collins

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 59:41

All Mixed Up (The Sesame Street Chinese Debate ) continues with a conversation with Judy Collins on her book "Suite:Judy Blue Eyes"

Images-2_small Released this week in 1969 Crosby, Stills & Nash's "Suite:Judy Blue Eyes" launched their first album, became a staple of FM radio and told of Stephen Still's relationship with Judy Collins. Forty three years later we speak to Judy about that song and her book "Suite Judy Blues Eyes-My Life in Music". We also feature more new music from Pinback, The Project Trio and much more on the second hour of All Mixed Up.

The first hour features the Presidential Debate mixed directly on Sesame Street, the obvious battleground for selecting our new economic path with Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Astronaut Gordon Cooper speaking to JFK during a commemoration of the launch of Sputnik plus we talk to Judy Collins about Suite:Judy Blue Eyes 

All Mixed Up: The Sesame Street Debate!

From Peter Bochan | Part of the All Mixed Up series | 58:58

Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, JFK, Gordon Cooper, and Judy Collins try to console Big Bird while the unemployment rate on Sesame Street threatens to rise!

Images-1_small The first Presidential Debate mixed directly on Sesame Street, the obvious battleground for selecting our new economic path with Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Astronaut Gordon Cooper speaking to JFK during a commemoration of the launch of Sputnik plus we talk to Judy Collins about Suite:Judy Blue Eyes 

Shortcuts To Happiness

From Peter Bochan | Part of the Shortcuts series | 28:29

What Is Life? What's the Meaning of It All?

Dames_jp50_small Finding happiness with Woody Allen, Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, Pablo Casals, Claire Bloom, Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner, the original cast of "Candide", David Carradine, Jim Backus, James Dean, Jack Haley, Ray Bolger, Bert Larr, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Billie Burke, Walter Huston, John Garfield, Ann Sheridan, The Old Philospher, Steve Martin, Hans Conreid, Martin Sheen, Tim Holt, Roger Ruskin Spear, Roger Wolfe Kahn & His Orchestra, Gus Arnheim & his Orchestra, The Selector, Clara Blandick, Gilda Radner, Jonathan Schwartz, The Firesign Theatre, Michelle Phillips, Juanita Hall, XTC, and more in this the best of all possible worlds:

"Life Is Happiness Indeed!"


A Shortcut Back To 1968

From Peter Bochan | Part of the Shortcuts series | 37:32

1968-The 50th Anniversary Mix

B28471hj25_small An unpopular war was raging overseas, as the equally upopular President chose not to seek re-election, while his party fought for a change toward "new policies" and the crew of Apollo 8 embarked on a journey to the moon. 1968 was an election year that brought the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The Vietnam War took a record number of casualties. Many cities burned as people took to the streets against the war and against racism. The Presidential election process gave way to unprecedented turmoil, with deep divisions in the political parties, including protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and riots in the streets of Chicago (leading to the political trials of the "Chicago 8" and the Catonsville 9 for burning draft files in Maryland). It was also a time of intense resistance on college campuses across the country, with battles between hawks & doves, rich and poor, young and old, black and white. Using only the sounds, music and voices of one of the most explosive and memorable years in history, this 50th Anniversary mix captures a time when America came to a crossroads that almost destroyed the dream and any bridge for that famous "generation gap". Featuring "Yippies" Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and underground and counter-culture heroes like The Fugs, Cat Mother & The All-Night Newsboys, David Peel & The Lower East Side, the Amboy Dukes, Jimi Hendrix, Sly and The Family Stone, the Rolling Stones, the Band, Mary Hopkins, Marvin Gaye, the Moody Blues, Ennio Morricone, 2001: A Space Odssey, Aretha Franklin, the Beatles, the Monkees, the cast of "Hair", Simon and Garfunkel, Cream, The Firesign Theater, with Dustin Hoffman, Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Huey P. Newton, Charlton Heston, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, H.Rap Brown, Stokley Carmichael, Sammy Davis Jr, Eldridge Cleaver, Joe Cocker, Marshall Efron, "Rosko", Spiro T. Agnew, General Westmoreland, Sen. Ted Kennedy, LBJ and many more. Recorded and mixed in analogue on a Tascam vintage 4-track, "A Shortcut through 1968" features no narration, it's message evolves from the careful juxtaposition of the various elements, including airchecks from the archives of WBAI in 1968 (with the voices of free-form radio founders Bob Fass, Steve Post and Larry Josephson) mixed with interviews on "what do you remember about 1968?" "The Whole World's Watching!"- Protesters (outside Democratic Convention center in Chicago 1968) The additional mix is a music medley from 1968--what a year!

"Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was" 25th Anniversary Edition (Six-Hour Series) (Series)

Produced by PRX

Most recent piece in this series:

Bonus Minis

From PRX | Part of the "Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was" 25th Anniversary Edition (Six-Hour Series) series | 15:37

Playing
Bonus Minis
From
PRX

Blackradio_25thann_logo-03_small These are three shorter segments of different lengths that focus on early innovation in Black public media. These segments can be aired separately; they can also standalone to promote the series.

Say it Loud: Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African American Identity

From American Public Media | Part of the American RadioWorks: Black History series | 59:00

"Say It Loud" traces the last 50 years of black history through stirring, historically important speeches by African Americans from across the political spectrum. With recordings unearthed from libraries and sound archives, and made widely available here for the first time, "Say It Loud" includes landmark speeches by Malcolm X, Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Louis Gates, and many others.

Say_it_loud_prx_small Say It Loud traces the last 50 years of black history through stirring, historically important speeches by African Americans from across the political spectrum. The documentary illuminates tidal changes in African American political power and questions of black identity through the speeches of deeply influential black Americans. With recordings unearthed from libraries and sound archives, and made widely available here for the first time, Say It Loud includes landmark speeches by Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Martin Luther King Jr., James Cone, Toni Morrison, Colin Powell, and many others.

Bringing the rich immediacy of the spoken word to a vital historical and intellectual tradition, Say It Loud reveals the diversity of ideas and arguments pulsing through the black freedom movement. Say it Loud is a sequel to the American RadioWorks documentary, Say it Plain. A companion book and CD set, Say It Loud: Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African American Identity, is now available from The New Press.

Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio (One Hour Special)

From Mighty Writers | Part of the Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio series | 59:00

Starting in the 1950s, Black radio stations around the country became the pulse of African-American communities, and served as their megaphone during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. "Going Black" examines the legacy of Black radio, with a special focus on the legendary WDAS in Philadelphia. Hosted by Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP) music producer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Kenny Gamble, a 1-hour version and 2-hour version of this documentary special are both available.

Georgie_woods_1__small "Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio " examines the legacy of Black radio, with a special focus on the legendary WDAS in Philadelphia. The story of Black radio in Philadelphia is actually the story of a music that would have gone undiscovered, of Civil Rights and progress in the African-American community, and of how the radio medium has changed in the last century. The documentary special is hosted by legendary Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP) music producer and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Kenny Gamble . For more about the program, visit our website: www.mightyradio.org .

Today, a lot of people don't know what the term "Black radio" means. But starting in the 1950s,
Black radio stations around the country became the pulse of African-American communities, and served as their megaphone during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. Stations like WDAS in Philly, WDIA in Memphis, WWRL and WBLS in NYC, WHUR and WOL in DC, WERD in Atlanta, WVON in Chicago, WLAC in Nashville, WMRY in New Orleans and KWBR in San Francisco featured radio personalities with styles all their own who played records you'd never get to hear on mainstream radio. Beyond being hip radio stations, these were pipelines into the Black community where you'd get the latest news on current events and the Civil Rights Movement — at a time when the mainstream media wasn't covering these stories from a Black perspective.

The documentary features conversations with well-known disc jockeys, radio professionals, record company executives, musicians, journalists and scholars. Listeners will hear first-person accounts of Civil Rights events and rare archival audio of Black radio air checks from the 60s and 70s, including a 1964 interview with Malcolm X, just a few months before his assassination. The documentary also includes a soundtrack featuring R&B, jazz, gospel and soul hits from the 50s through the 80s, especially from the Sound of Philadelphia .

A 1-hour version and 2-hour version of this documentary special are both available, along with a series of short companion non-narrated pieces.

Peace Talks Radio: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Path To Nonviolence (59:00/54:00)

From Good Radio Shows, Inc. | Part of the Peace Talks Radio: Weekly Hour Long Episodes series | 59:01

Martin Luther King Jr.'s journey to a philosophy of nonviolence and his lasting legacy as a peace proponent is recalled in interviews with his daughter, the late Yolanda King, and one of King's top colleagues in the civil rights movement, the late Dr. Dorothy Cotton. This program is also available in a 29:00 version at PRX.

Yolandaking_small IMPORTANT: Please have your local announcer read the following script before and after this show. "The following (preceding) program, featuring an interview with Yolanda King, the daughter of the late Martin Luther King Jr., was recorded in 2004. Yolanda King died, at the age of 51, May 15, 2007." PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: Two women with very close ties to Martin Luther King Jr. reflect on how King developed into one of the great moral and political philosophers of the 20th century and how his philosophies might still guide the world through troubled times today. Dr. Dorothy Cotton was the highest ranking female in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by Dr. King. From 1960 to 1972 Dr. Cotton was the educational director for SCLC and worked very closely with Dr. King. The late Yolanda King was the eldest daughter of Dr. King. She was an internationally known motivational speaker and actress whose personal mission in life was to inspire positive social change and world peace. Ms. King died in May of 2007 at the age of 51. Ms. King and Dr. Cotton were interviewed separately in 2004 by phone by show host Carol Boss. The entire program includes about 15 minutes of excerpts from talks by Dr. King, along with music by U2 ("Pride in The Name of Love") and 1960's recordings by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Freedom Singers. Newscast Compatible (but airing a newscast will pre-empt a compelling King speech clip). Program is split into two parts that can be run as separate half hours. The two 29 minute parts can stand alone and are separated by a minute long music bed. A 29:00 version of the program is also available on PRX: http://www.prx.org/piece/3124

Advertising's Threat to Inner Peace / Media Literacy Programs

From Good Radio Shows, Inc. | Part of the Peace Talks Radio: Weekly Hour Long Episodes series | 58:59

PEACE TALKS RADIO host Paul Ingles postulates that advertising of all kinds crowds our brains with messages that may not help us to inner peace or peace among us. Many of us just let TV, radio and online ads wash over us in our homes, cars and through our devices. We talk with three media educators who think teaching young people and adults to critically analyze ad messages may help us build some immunity to the persuasive power the ads ply to our minds, and to our attitudes about ourselves or each other. We'll ask our guests, media literacy advocates and teachers, about it. And while the idea of teaching media literacy in schools has been kicked around for about 25 years, to promote critical analysis by students of advertising and other mediated messages, the movement hasn't really taken off.

Glassesreflect_small PEACE TALKS RADIO host Paul Ingles postulates that advertising of all kinds crowds our brains with messages that may not help us to inner peace or peace among us. Many of us just let TV, radio and online ads wash over us in our homes, cars and through our devices. We talk with three media educators who think teaching young people and adults to critically analyze ad messages may help us build some immunity to the persuasive power the ads ply to our minds, and to our attitudes about ourselves or each other.  We'll ask our guests, media literacy advocates and teachers, about it.   And while the idea of teaching media literacy in schools has been kicked around for about 25 years, to promote critical analysis by students of advertising and other mediated messages, the movement hasn't really taken off. 

Our guests include Pamela Pereyra, the founder and CEO of Media Savvy Citizens, Allison Butler, media literacy expert from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Ben Boyington, a veteran high school teacher, researcher, and media literacy studies advocate.

Musicians For Peace & Social Justice: Jackson Browne/ Marvin Gaye/ Harry Chapin

From Good Radio Shows, Inc. | Part of the Peace Talks Radio: Weekly Hour Long Episodes series | 59:01

PEACE TALKS RADIO host Paul Ingles profiles 3 musicians whose music turned the attention of their fans to issues of peacemaking, social justice and ending hunger & poverty. Jackson Browne, Marvin Gaye, and Harry Chapin.

Browne-gaye-chapin_medium_small PEACE TALKS RADIO host Paul Ingles profiles 3 musicians whose music turned the attention of their fans to issues of peacemaking, social justice and ending hunger & poverty.  From his first single in 1972 ("Doctor My Eyes") to his latest 2021 album DOWNHILL FROM EVERYWHERE, musician Jackson Browne has used many of his songs to raise consciousness over the environment, the cost of war, social justice and the wealth gap around the world. Paul offers highlights from his exclusive interview with Jackson.  Paul also speaks with music writers and historians who reflect on the landmark 1971 song and album by the late Marvin Gaye called "What's Going On?" which opened the doors for many African-American artists to openly express outrage over their repressed place in society - as well as addressing concerns over the Vietnam War and the decay of the environment.  And finally we'll remember the late activist and singer/songwriter Harry Chapin who died in a car accident 40 years ago this summer.  Paul talks with Chapin's son Jason as well as documentary director Rick Korn and Bill Ayres, co-founder of WHY Hunger about Harry Chapin's devotion to eradicating hunger around the world and raising awareness about other troubling social issues in his songs.  Harry's story is told in the 2020 documentary "Harry Chapin: When In Doubt, Do Something." 

PLAYLIST:
Excerpted songs - short excerpts from...

Lives in the Balance - Jackson Browne
Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Browne
A Little Soon To Say - Jackson Browne
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
What's Happening Brother - Marvin Gaye
Inner City Blues - Marvin Gaye
Taxi - Harry Chapin
What Made America Famous? - Harry Chapin

John Lewis: Profile in Peace

From Good Radio Shows, Inc. | Part of the Peace Talks Radio: Weekly Hour Long Episodes series | 59:00

The late 17-term Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis is remembered in a special that includes the memorial ceremonies at the U.S. Capitol when his body laid in state in the Rotunda, a week after his death July 17, 2020. Also included are other tributes, and archival tapes of John Lewis speeches and interviews.

Rep-john-lewis_small The late 17-term Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis is remembered in a special that includes the memorial ceremonies at the U.S. Capitol when his body laid in state in the Rotunda, a week after his death July 17, 2020.  Also included are other tributes, and archival tapes of John Lewis speeches and interviews.  Paul Ingles hosts.

Johnny Cash and Richard Nixon / plus Ndaba Mandela

From Good Radio Shows, Inc. | Part of the Peace Talks Radio: Weekly Hour Long Episodes series | 59:00

This two-part program includes an exploration of the Netflix film, "Tricky Dick and the Man in Black" about a 1970 concert at the Nixon White House by Johnny Cash which exposed Cash's turn toward the youth and anti-war movements in the country at the time. The second part of the program features conversation with the grandson of Nelson Mandela, Ndaba Mandela, who speculates about his grandfather's legacy in both South Africa, and the world.

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This time on Peace Talks Radio, a conversation with Sara Dosa, who co-directed the Netflix film "Tricky Dick and The Man in Black."  In the late 1960's and early 1970's, the divisions in the United States over the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement brought the youth of America in conflict with longstanding social and political norms.  The Richard Nixon administration sought to ingratiate itself to both the youth culture and the Deep South by trying to recruit the favor of music star Johnny Cash.  Cash, nicknamed “The Man In Black”, was invited to perform at the Nixon White House.  Nixon wanted him to play stereotypical country favorites that he didn’t even write.  But Cash's social consciousness was being lit by anti-establishment rock music performers like Bob Dylan and Neil Young.  The struggle in Cash's heart and the resultant song choices at the concert are at the core of the documentary.   It is Part One of the hour-long episode.
In Part Two of the hour-long version, conversations about how the legacy of Nelson Mandela might inspire today’s African leaders? Reporter Judy Goldberg leads a panel that explores history, identity and power structures embedded in the strategies to move Africans towards sustainability and independence.   Guests are Ndaba Mandela, mentor, political consultant and grandson of Nelson Mandela; Andrew Nalani, educational designer/evaluator who promotes positive youth development, and Teddy Warria, entrepreneur, author, and collaborator with Ndaba Mandela to transform leadership in Africa.  This segment was made possible in part by the Bartos Institute.  Recorded at the United World College-USA’s Migration and Belonging
Conference, 2019.

2021-02-07 W.E.B. DuBois

From Philosophy Talk | Part of the Philosophy Talk series | 53:58

The life and thought of sociologist, historian, philosopher, editor, writer, and activist W.E.B. DuBois.

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W.E.B. DuBois was one of the most influential intellectuals of the twentieth century. The first African-American Ph.D. from Harvard University, DuBois died in Ghana after having renounced his American citizenship. In between he co-founded the NAACP and wrote The Souls of Black Folk (1903) as well as a number of other influential books that had a decisive impact on the development of African-American culture in the twentieth century. John and Ken discuss DuBois' life and thought with Lucius Outlaw from Vanderbilt University, author of On Race and Philosophy.

Martin Luther King Jr. Is Still On The Case!

From PRX | Part of the Esquire Classic series | 29:57

In 1968, just hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the future Pulitzer Prize–winning author Garry Wills—then a young writer for Esquire—rushed to Memphis, Tennessee, where he watched as King’s body was embalmed at the mortuary; later, Wills traveled twelve hours by bus with mourners to King’s funeral in Atlanta. Nearly fifty years after its publication, Wills’s “Martin Luther King Jr. Is Still on the Case!” remains one of the most revealing and lasting portraits of King and his turbulent era ever written. Writer and director John Ridley—who won an Oscar for his screenplay for 12 Years a Slave—joins host David Brancaccio to discuss why Wills’s wrenching profile of King continues to resonate today, what has changed in America since it was written, and, most important, what still needs to change.

Cover170x170_medium_small In 1968, just hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the future Pulitzer Prize–winning author Garry Wills—then a young writer for Esquire—rushed to Memphis, Tennessee, where he watched as King’s body was embalmed at the mortuary; later, Wills traveled twelve hours by bus with mourners to King’s funeral in Atlanta. Nearly fifty years after its publication, Wills’s “Martin Luther King Jr. Is Still on the Case!” remains one of the most revealing and lasting portraits of King and his turbulent era ever written. Writer and director John Ridley—who won an Oscar for his screenplay for 12 Years a Slave—joins host David Brancaccio to discuss why Wills’s wrenching profile of King continues to resonate today, what has changed in America since it was written, and, most important, what still needs to change.

A Shortcut To The Mountaintop

From Peter Bochan | Part of the Shortcuts series | 29:27

Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute Mix

Martin_luther_king__jr A tribute to Martin Luther King Jr, featuring many of his most famous speeches mixed with music from Stevie Wonder, The Freedom Singers, Jimmy Cliff, James Taylor, Nina Simone, Bill Lee/Branford Marsalis, Moodswings,U2 and more---

The Invention of Race

From The Center for Documentary Studies | 54:00

One-hour historical documentary that tells the story of the construction of race, and racism, as we live with them today.

Scor_ep32photo_emphasis_small This history special traces the development of racial, and racist, ideas, from the ancient world -- when "there was no notion of race," as historian Nell Irvin Painter puts it -- up to the founding of the United States as, fundementally, a nation of and for white people (despite the "all men are created equal" language of the Declaration of Independence). Relying on the work of Painter, National Book Award-winning historian Ibram Kendi, and a recorded workshop presentation by the Racial Equity Institute, host and reporter John Biewen tells a story that names names: The Portuguese writer who, commissioned by the slave-trading leaders of his country, literally invented blackness, and therefore whiteness, in the 1450s, according to Kendi. The enlightenment scientist who first divided humanity into five "races" and coined "caucasian." The black runaway indentured servant in 17th century Virginia whose capture, and sentencing to lifelong servitude, marked the first official sanctioning of chattel slavery, and the first time a black person was treated differently from a white person in the law, in colonial America. And Thomas Jefferson and Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose "Anglo-Saxonist" thinking gets a fresh look.  

The Invention of Race is adapted from several episodes of the more in-depth 14-part series, Seeing White, on the Scene on Radio podcast: 
http://podcast.cdsporch.org/seeing-white/
 

The Real Ambassadors: Dave Brubeck, Iola Brubeck and Louis Armstrong — A Rallying Cry for Integration, Cultural Exchange, and Social Justice

From The Kitchen Sisters | 52:00

The Real Ambassadors is a poignant tale of anti-racism, cultural exchange, jazz history— and it’s a love story—between life-long husband and wife partners, Iola and Dave Brubeck and their vision for a better world.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson), and Brandi Howell. Mixed by Jim McKee

During the late 1950s as the Civil Rights Movement escalated, Dave and Iola Brubeck created a jazz musical for Louis Armstrong. The original show, featuring Louis Armstrong, Carmen McCrae, Dave Brubeck and Lambert Hendricks and Bavan, was performed live only once, at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1962. The 60th Anniversary of the performance is coming up at this year’s Monterey Jazz Festival, September 23-25, 2022

The musical is based on the Jazz Ambassadors Program established by President Eisenhower and the US State Department during the Cold War. In an effort to win hearts and minds around the world, jazz musicians were sent out to represent the freedom and creativity of America. The irony was that Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and most of the other Jazz Ambassadors were Black—they were treated like royalty around the world but could not stay in hotels or play in integrated bands in their own country. The Brubeck’s musical was a chance for Louis Armstrong to speak out about his deep feelings about racism and segregation in this country — feelings he rarely expressed publicly.

The story features original music, rare archival recorded letters back and forth between the Brubecks and Louis Armstrong about the project, rehearsal recordings and interviews with Dave and Iola Brubeck. We hear from the Brubeck’s sons, Chris and Dan Brubeck; Keith Hatschek, author of newly released book, "The Real Ambassadors;” Ricky Riccardi, Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum; and singer/actress Yolande Bavan, the last surviving performer involved in the project.

The Peabody Award winning Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, have created hundreds of stories for NPR, public media and their Webby Award-winning podcast “The Kitchen Sisters Present.” Brandi Howell is a member of The Kitchen Sisters team and the producer of The Echo Chamber, a podcast about music and its social impact.

Dbp_62-26_real_ambassadors_in_sf__credit-_v

The Real Ambassadors is a poignant tale of anti-racism, cultural exchange, jazz history— and it’s a love story—between life-long husband and wife partners, Iola and Dave Brubeck and their vision for a better world.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson), and Brandi Howell. Mixed by Jim McKee

During the late 1950s as the Civil Rights Movement escalated, Dave and Iola Brubeck created a jazz musical for Louis Armstrong. The original show, featuring Louis Armstrong, Carmen McCrae, Dave Brubeck and Lambert Hendricks and Bavan, was performed live only once, at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1962. The 60th Anniversary of the performance is coming up at this year’s Monterey Jazz Festival, September 23-25, 2022

The musical is based on the Jazz Ambassadors Program established by President Eisenhower and the US State Department during the Cold War. In an effort to win hearts and minds around the world, jazz musicians were sent out to represent the freedom and creativity of America. The irony was that Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and most of the other Jazz Ambassadors were Black—they were treated like royalty around the world but could not stay in hotels or play in integrated bands in their own country. The Brubeck’s musical was a chance for Louis Armstrong to speak out about his deep feelings about racism and segregation in this country — feelings he rarely expressed publicly. 

The story features original music, rare archival recorded letters back and forth between the Brubecks and Louis Armstrong about the project, rehearsal recordings and interviews with Dave and Iola Brubeck. We hear from the Brubeck’s sons, Chris and Dan BrubeckKeith Hatschek, author of newly released book, "The Real Ambassadors;” Ricky Riccardi, Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum; and singer/actress Yolande Bavan, the last surviving performer involved in the project.  

The Peabody Award winning Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, have created hundreds of stories for NPR, public media and their Webby Award-winning podcast “The Kitchen Sisters Present.” Brandi Howell is a member of The Kitchen Sisters team and the producer of The Echo Chamber, a podcast about music and its social impact.