Peter Segal: Cash-for-Tote-Bags Scandal…

And other 2012 news hypotheticals from XKCD regarding the NPR Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! host:

Fulton’s Frogs

The ZBS Foundation has long been at the forefront of the dramatic radio arts. Their podcast is a great survey of their audio excursions, mixing flights of fancy with real sound effects.

Check Podcast #8, “Weird Frogs” (7:55 mp3):

“Meatball Fulton plays really weird frogs he recorded in the Amazon, Bali, Lombok, Mexico, and the Brazilian Pantanal.”

There’s more “Singing Frogs of the Pantanal” in this story produced by ZBS for us and Living on Earth (3:54 mp3):

HV026- Prime Candidates

Hearing Voices from NPR®
026 Prime Candidates: Portraits of Past Presidential Primaries
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-12-28 (Originally: 2008-08-27)

“Prime Candidates” (52:00 mp3):

The plight of pols on the campaign trail:

From the 1980 primary: politicians who fancy themselves president tromp thru the mill town of Claremont, New Hampshire. Produced for NPR by Larry Massett and Art Silverman, with Betty Rogers.

From the 2000 primary: The media spin myths out of misquotes; produced by Alex Blumberg and Ira Glass for the “Primary” episode of This American Life.

From the 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall: Douglas Fleishut and the Language Removal Service concoct the world’s first wordless political debate in their “California Recall Project.”

From the 2008 primary: Losers in the March “Super Tuesday” vote re-appear, w/ music by Robert Wyatt and Bruce Springsteen, from Peter Bochan‘s series Presidential Shortcuts.

Photo: Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller administering the oath of office to Benjamin Harrison on the east portico of the U. S. Capitol, March 4, 1889; from the Library of Congress “I Do Solemnly Swear…”: Presidential Inaugurations.

Maccabeats Miracle

Light ‘em up, folks, it’s a g-ddam “Miracle”, more Hanukkah harmonies from the Maccabeats and for their Miracle Match Bone Marrow Foundation fundraiser:

Need more Maccabeats? So did Adolf:

HV129- HanukkahChristmashup

Hearing Voices from NPR®
129 HanukkahChristmashup: Season’s Greets and Beats
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-12-21

“HanukkahChristmashup” (52:00 mp3):

Mixes and mashes and seasonal samples, and song stories:

NPR talks to troops in a U.S. military hospital at Bagram Air Base, outside of Kabul. Quil Lawrence interviewed Sergeant Wallace Trahan, Sergeant Aaron Kelly, Sergeant Zachary Scoskie, and Colonel Diane Huey. Mix: Jim Wildman. Music: W.G. Snuffy Walden “The First Noel” Windham Hill Holiday Guitar Collection.

From the Apollo 8 capsule, December 24, 1968.

More…

United States Artists Xmas

A nice Christmas greeting from United States Artists — who we love for majorly supporting American artists, including radio artists, such as this years USA Rockefeller Fellows Kara Oehler & Ann Heppermann:

Mission Control: SomaFM

NASA recently helped launch the net radio channel Third Rock Radio, playing questionable to good rock n’ roll along with NASA news updates.

But Rich Rarey of NPR Labs pointed out (on Pubradio) there’s already a fine NASA-centric, space music channel on SofaFM called Mission Control, “Celebrating NASA and Space Explorers everywhere.”

The feed is full of ambient music well-mixed with astronaut transmissions from space and conversations with Earth. Warning: the real-time reality feel and ambi/astro synchronicity is a bit addicting. Suggest you sample their 128K stream; other bitrates and a popup player are also available.

Sez Mission Control DJ (& SomaFM co-founder) Rusty Hodge :

A while back, on a whim I decided to mix in live audio from a Space Shuttle launch with our Space Station Soma music. I got a lot of great feedback on it, and did it again for the next launch.

I’ve always been fascinated by space exploration, since I was a very young kid watching the Moon landing on a 9″ black and white TV. So when NASA celebrated the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 by rebroadcasting the mission audio in real time, but 40 years delayed in July of 2009, I knew that SomaFM had to add a soundtrack to it. That’s how our Mission Control channel started.

Now whenever the Space Shuttle is up, I mix in the real-time audio feed from NASA with ambient music. When it’s not up, we mix in historical recordings of he Apollo missions. I hope you like it as much as I do!

HV128- Prisoners of War

Hearing Voices from NPR®
128 Prisoners of War: Battle of the Bulge
Host: Erica Heilman of Vermont Folklife Center
Airs week of: 2011-12-13

“Prisoners of War” (52:00 mp3):

Four American soldiers share their WWII experiences, before, during, and after their time in a German POW camp:

Produced for the Vermont Folklife Center: In December 1944 the Allies were closing in on Germany. Hitler had a desperate plan to save the Third Reich, a massive assault he believed would so demoralize that the Allies, they would seek a separate peace, leaving only the Russian army on the eastern front. On December 16 the Germans unleashed an offensive that would become the most brutal battle of the European war: the Battle of the Bulge. Nineteen thousand Americans were killed, about the same number were taken prisoner. We hear from four Americans soldiers about their time in — before, during and after — a German POW camp: Cliff Austin, Harrison Burney, Bill Busier, and Robert Norton.

VFC Radio published a transcript and a CD of “Prisoners of War.” Harrison Burney wrote “From The Bowels of Hell, a soldier’s memoir of World War II, 1944-1945 (143k PDF). Music: “Reitba” and “Concerto No. 3 for Double-Bass and Piano,” composed and performed by cellist Francois Rabbath; “String Quartet in C Major”, the second movement in the “Emperor” by Franz Joseph Haydn, performed by the Concord String Quartet; and “St James Infirmary” from pianist Allen Toussaint’s The Bright Mississippi.

More…