Different Voices
There are a ton of programs on public radio that never show up on your local station. I’m always interested when I come across one that I’ve never heard of that does something a little different. Public Radio cornerstone and program-spinner WBUR has a program they’re pushing called On Point. I dunno, it looks by and large to be just another news program, but they’ve got one interesting feature that intrigues me called "Radio Diary". They take unsolicited submissions from listeners of about 750 words earch for brief 3 minute or so essays. I’m always interested in hearing voices of non-professionals showing up on the radio. I’m not sure they range much beyond the usual public radio audience, but the idea is interesting. I’ll have to keep an eye on this to see if they hit a wider range of voices. I’m a little troubled by the fact that their current page for the feature ends on April 16, as if they stopped doing it or something. Anyway, it bears watching (or listening).
This reminds me of something on the radio I wanted to hear but didn’t get to. My friend John’s daughter spent a few months in Madagascar last year (before the recent unrest there). John mentioned her letters home to a friend of his who works at the radio station in his city, and the station decided they wanted to run excerpts from the letters as a weekly series for a few weeks. John said he would send me a copy; I’ll have to ping him to remind him. I’ve long had an interest in the music of Madagascar, which has an almost unearthly sound, so I’m particularly interested in what John’s daughter had to say. (In fact, I put together a CD of Malagasy music for John’s daughter before she left. John tells me she loves it.)
Posted at 3:50 PM