Hearing Voices from NPR®
014 Fans and Bands:
Groupies, Gravediggers & Rock n’ Roll Singers
Host: Ian Svenonius of Weird War
Airs week of:Â 2009-5-13 (Originally: 2008-04-06)
Features a tribute to Bo Diddley (December 30, 1928 -Â June 2, 2008):
Host Ian Svenonius, of the band Weird War, introduces “The Groupies,” an album of 1969 interviews by producer Alan Lorber (Iris Music Group, Alan Lorber Orchestra).
We visit with the pilgrims at Pere LaChaise cemetery, come to see “Jim Morrison’s Grave” (a sound-portrait by Mark Neumann of Documentary Works and Barrett Golding).
Every year amongst the Radio-Mercury Awards Winners are some real radio gems. This year one ad turns radio’s fear of dead-air on its arse. It’s for the revolutionary new car, “Aptera” (1:00 mp3):
Others to check are winners in the PSA, Political, and Student categories. Or just listen your way thru Mercury’s Ad/PSA winners library.
Hearing Voices from NPR®
013 Crossing Borders: From Mexico to US
Host: Marcos Martinez of KUNM-Alberquerque
Airs week of: 2012-01-18 (Originally: 2008-05-28)
In “Sasabe,” a Sonora, Mexico border town, Scott Carrier talks to immigrants on their hazardous, illegal desert crossing, and to the border patrol waiting for them in Sasabe, Arizona.
Luis Alberto Urrea reads from his books Vatos and The Devil’s Highway, about death in the desert.
“And I walked…”, by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler, is a sound-portrait of Mexicans who risk their lives to find better-paying jobs in the United States.
Immigrants walk around the corner of a restaurant named Pollo Feliz (Happy Chicken) on Sasabe downtown. Charcoal roasted chicken is offered as main dish to people also known as “pollos”, on an area where deaths related to heat exposure are frequent among immigrants.
A boy drives a Ford Expedition on the streets of the border town of Sasabe, Sonora. Polleros in the town make as much as 6500 dollars per day smuggling people into the United States, resulting in a town where the tops of the houses are crowned with satellite TV dishes and kids are seen driving brand new Ford F-150s and SUVs.
Putting bars over the bed of an old pick-up in Las Ladrilleras, on Sasabe outskirts. The fee for the final ride from this place to the gates for crossing costs 20 dollars, and polleros (people smugglers) try to maximize the capacity of their vehicles.
From Las Ladrilleras to East Sasabe.
Three mothers and their children make a stop before crossing the desert. They are part of a group of 27 immigrants departing from East Sasabe on June 5th this year to Arizona.
With their destination at sight, a group of 27 people leave East Sasabe. The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refugee and Arivaca, AZ are on the American side.
A group of ten immigrants who succeeded on crossing the border illegally (one out of frame) use pay phones to call their relatives in the United States at the Greyhound bus station in Tucson before boarding their bus to Phoenix and Los Angeles. To avoid detection the pollero advise them: “Don’t make a big group. Spread.”
Reporter Scott Carrier recovers from the effects of hot weather on his body while doing a story on illegal immigration for NPR show Day to Day. Scott reported from Sasabe, Sonora and Arivaca AZ.
A remembrance by Major Robert Schaefer, US Army Special Forces, the Green Berets. (with the sounds of a Military Honor Guard funeral for a fallen Navy Seal.) For Memorial Day and for the memory of the Major friend and fellow Green Beret, Joe “Super” Suponcic. Airs today on NPR Day to Day; by producer Barrett Golding. “Memorial Day Memory” (8:41 mp3):
The Military Honor Guard at Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island was recorded by Charles Lane. The voices were Navy Lt Commander Snyder; Captain Coe and Staff Sergeant Trigger, U.S Marine Corps; and Petty Officer First Class Curt Wolz, US Navy. The bugler was Lt Denny Lortez , U.S. Sir Force Reserve. “Echo Taps” was played by the US Marine Band.The Military Honor Guard at Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island was recorded by Charles Lane. The voices were Navy Lt Commander Snyder; Captain Coe and Staff Sergeant Trigger, U.S Marine Corps; and Petty Officer First Class Curt Wolz, US Navy. The bugler was Lt Denny Lortez , U.S. Sir Force Reserve. “Echo Taps” was played by the US Marine Band. Major Schaefer is currently serving at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at Fort Belvoir, VA. He was also in this 2006 HV/NPR report.
This email today from my friend Marvin Granger, former GM of Yellowstone Public Radio:
It is with more than a little sadness that I report the death of Bruce ‘Utah’ Phillips. He died in his sleep at 11:30 last night following a long battle with heart disease.
Over the past 25 years I benefited from his music and his stories in person, his recordings and on his public radio program, Loafers’ Glory. Utah was a proud, card-carrying member of the International Workers of the World (IWW). I learned the meaning of ‘oral tradition’ largely from his stories of American labor history; that ‘truth’ is not a accurate account of facts so much as personal human experiences that are felt as much as known.
Bruce Phillips was a native of Cleveland, spent many years living and working in Utah, later in Spokane and Nevada City, California. He was a unique entertainer, folklorist, human being.
From Starlight On The Rails : A Songbook, Utah talks about his song “Talking NPR Blues” (1:15 mp3):
The folk music family took me in, carried me along, and taught me the value of song far beyond making a living. It taught me that I don’t need wealth, I don’t need power, and I don’t need fame. What I need is friends, and that’s what I found—everywhere—and not just among those on the stage, but among those in front of the stage as well.
The ethanol-injected Noise comes burning down the NPR airways today on Day to Day. Joe Skyward and myself capture the sounds of engines, drivers, and fans at this year’s Long Beach Grand Prix, an ocean-side street race with top pro race-car drivers from around the globe. One-hundred-and-eighty thousand aficionados around a two mile course of Fast & Loud in downtown LB — 186mph avg and 200+ on the straightaways.
Here’s the long version, “Long Beach Grand Prix 2008” (6:16 mp3):
Hearing Voices from NPR®
012 For the Fallen: For Memorial Day
Host: Major Robert Schaefer of US Army Special Forces
Airs week of: 2012-05-23 (Originally: 2008-05-21)
And we attend the daily “Last Post” ceremony by Belgian veterans honoring the WWI British soldiers who died defending a small town in western Belgium (produced by Marjorie Van Halteren).
Host Doug Fabrizio of KUER-SLC Radio West debuted excerpts today from our upcoming HV hour “A Slight Discomfort – My Prostate Diaries.”
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (2008-05-20) Jeff Metcalf is a writer, so when he discovered he had prostate cancer, that’s how he worked his way through the experience. He set about organizing a clear story out of the more abstract jumble of desperation, humiliation and revelation. Today on RadioWest, we’re playing excerpts from the latest incarnation of Jeff’s story – it’s a piece of radio theater. Jeff will join us to talk about the piece.
I’m a sucker for Emily Dickinson, and for Sean Cole‘s radio pieces, including his latest in which Billy Collins seduces poor Emily and Sean gets misty-eyed over a piece of string. From Studio 360‘s American Icons series, Sean Cole “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” (13:24 mp3):
Interviews gathered from Mae Sot, Thailand (same town from which all land-transported aid is entering Burma) with medical workers and Burmese migrant laborers who work in Thailand but sleep in Burma. From Jack Chance, aired this week on The World, “Burma Aid Efforts” (3:30 mp3):
Here’s Chance’s more accurate Cyclone report w/ the other story, not being told: the Burmese elections. No one would run this, so we’ll post it, “Irawaddy Delta Blues” (5:10 mp3): More…
The massive audio empire that is North Country Public Radio has added the HV series to its roster of fine programming. You can now hear HV hours weekly, Saturdays at 4pm, on NCPR‘s 7 station transmitters and 25 translators blanketing Northern New York.
A few other fine pubradio stations have added HV’s weekly hours to their lineup. WEMC-FM 91.7 in Harrisonburg VA now runs our series Sundays at 9pm. WPTC-FM 88.1 in Williamsport PA has us on a couple times weekly: Saturday 5am & Sunday at noon. And Pittsburgh’s WDUQ-FM 90.5 starts airing HV in July.
Our station list has all the HV times, places, and frequencies, now broadcasting on 41 stations and 38 translators.
Hearing Voices from NPR®:
009 Shoah— For Holocaust Remembrance Day
Host— Rabbi Samuel Cohon of Temple Emanuel, Tucson
Airdates— 4/30/2008 – 5/7/2008
Rabbi Samuel Cohon of Too Jewish Radio, presents stories of survivors, for Holocaust Remembrance Day:
In “Descended from the Holocaust” Dr. Alan Berkenwald records his trip with his parents to the Holocaust Museum — it was first time they talked openly about their experience in the concentration camps; this audio diary is of Jay Allison’s Life Stories.
“Yom Hashoah 1994” is Shoah services in Billings MT and Cleveland OH, survivor interviews, and the story of the Billings communities united “Not in Our Town” response that stopped a series of anti-Jewish crimes. The Rhino Records documentary project “Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust” is drawn from interviews with 180 survivors.
Also survivors sing Hebrew, for the first time in years, in a live May 1945 BBC report by Patrick Gordon Walker from the just liberated “Belsen Concentration Camp.”
I love it while traveling when an HV story comes on the radio. That happened a slew of times this past week (Mtn Gorrillas of Rwanda, Passover poem, Peace Rabbi). The first one I caught crossing the NV desert on NPR Day to Day. It’s another from Jack Chance, international man of trad music mystery…
The Kingdom of Nepal became a democracy this week, holding it’s first elections for representatives who will write the new constitution and are likely to abolish the monarchy. Chance speaks with a young musician in Kathmandu, Rubin Gandharba, whose songs (played on the Nepali sarangi) became a rallying cry for the Nepali Democracy Movement. The call Ruben the “Nepali Bob Dylan” (2:57 mp3):
A day-in-the-life of Rabbi Arik Ascherman with Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem. He interacts with Arabs and Jews, and intercedes when he can during Palestinian home demolitions. He looks for common ground amongst the the rubble and rocks, the M-16s and tanks, and the two religions that started as one. (Photos by Jake Warga.)
Aired on PRI The World; by producer Jake Warga, “Rabbi for Human Rights, Israel” (6:57 mp3):
The traditional, 1000-year-old song Dayenu is a part of the Jewish Passover (April 19-27 2008). This piece is an audio essay, a poem of sorts, on the song, the holy day, and what, if anything, the tales of Egyptian first-borns and parted Red Seas have to do with us today. Original music by Frank London, founder of the Klezmatics. Aired on APM Weekend America; by producer Judith Sloan of Crossing the BLVD, “Dayenu (for Passover)” (6:15 mp3):
This week on NPR ATC, HV’s Jake Warga had a story on the recovering mountain gorilla population in Rwanda. Seems the genocide decimated populations of more than just people. “Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda” (8:19 mp3):
Hearing Voices from NPR®
A remembrance by Major Robert Schaefer, US Army Special Forces, the Green Berets. (with the sounds of a Military Honor Guard funeral for a fallen Navy Seal.) For Memorial Day and for the memory of the Major friend and fellow Green Beret, Joe “Super” Suponcic. Airs today on NPR 
Host Doug Fabrizio of KUER-SLC 
I’m a sucker for 
Interviews gathered from Mae Sot, Thailand (same town from which all land-transported aid is entering Burma) with medical workers and Burmese migrant laborers who work in Thailand but sleep in Burma. From 
The massive audio empire that is 
Rabbi Samuel Cohon of 
A day-in-the-life of Rabbi Arik Ascherman with 
The traditional, 1000-year-old song Dayenu is a part of the Jewish Passover (April 19-27 2008). This piece is an audio essay, a 
This week on NPR