Radio Special / Desert Air

A Hot & Dry Summer Special, hosted by Ben Adair, Weekend America
Fly Geyser, Black Rock Desert, Nevada; photo by David Matherly © David Matherly

Desert Air 1 (23:00) This text is replaced by the Flash movie.

Coyotes, owls, frogs and songbirds are part of Desert Solitudes, recorded by Bernie Krause and Ruth Happel in the Sonoran and Chihuauan deserts, part of New Mexico's panhandle. Host Ben Adair heads down to the ghost towns, Opera Houses, century-old abandoned mines, and billion-year old boulders along Death Valley's "Mojave Road." And Kraut-rockers Faust dial in "Long Distance Calls in the Desert," from their album Rien.

Desert Air 2 (29:00) This text is replaced by the Flash movie.

The Quiet American (Aaron Ximm) sound-captures the forbidding warning signs rattling in a harsh wind and "Desert Sun" outside the nuclear Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas. Back in the early 1990s, SLC producer Scott Carrier found the Basin & Range, near Nevada"s "Battle Mountain," beautiful, lonely, dreary, and full of sagebrush, solace and stories. And more Desert Solitudes.

American desert photos courtesy and © David Matherly:


Sand Dunes in Death Valley, California Death Valley sand dunes in California Arches in the Utah Desert Century plant, Mojave Desert in California Fly Geyser, Black Rock Desert in Nevada The Joshua tree, a conspicuous inhabitant of the Mojave Desert Joshua tree, Mojave Desert in Nevada Native California Fan Palm oasis, native to California found in Borrego Palm Canyon in Anza Borrego State Park Mojave Desert in Nevada Ocotillo in bloom, Sonoran Desert in Arizona Prickly Pear cactus, Great Basin Desert in Nevada Indian Paintbrush in sage (Great Basin Desert, Nevada), one of the first desert wildflowers to bloom Teddy Bear Cholla cactus, Sonoran Desert in Nevada Yuccas just west of Las Vegas,  Mt. Charleston (11,918 feet), the highest in the Spring Mountains Great Basin Desert in Nevada

Image Gallery script by Eric Puidokas. Hearing Voices Specials are crafted from new and classic radio shows. Funders include the Willard L. Eccles Charitable Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Endowment for the Arts. Executive Producer is Barrett Golding. Technical Director is Robin Wise of SoundImagery.com. Story Editors are Scott Carrier and Larry Massett. Marketers are Creative PR.