My true life heros are the men and women of public radio. It all started for me with Susan Stamberg, co-host of National Public Radio's (NPR) All Things Considered. I started listening to Stamberg and ATC as college junior in 1977. My routine was to come home from class and cook dinner for my housekeeping-challenged roommates at the University of Kansas and listen to Susan. I can almost time my life to certain stories on NPR: fretting over a failed relationship while laughing at story involving smashing Clorets in a dark closet with a hammer to watch the sparks fly; starting my fledgling career with the beginning of the NPR morning news program Morning Edition explaining the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979; or sitting in the car with my girlfriend in the early 80s because the car radio was the only radio I had that could receive the station that broadcast the new weekend program's humorous "serial" novel (each episode written by a different author).

This may seem like a strange obsession, but I meet other converts to public radio all the time. Iowa City is full of dedicated public radio listeners. While living in Atlanta and bicycling, I almost never heard NPR news programming coming out of a car window--Atlanta is a Clear Channel radio clone kind of town. In Iowa City, I hear WSUI from car windows all over town.

Sarah Vowell is one of the talents that emerged from Public Radio International's This American Life. Her oddly pragmatic view of American History and commentary on popular culture have made her an alternative icon.

Photographer credit:
Bennett Miller

The programs on public radio that may not appeal to huge audiences (yes there's way more to it than Car Talk and Prairie Home Companion), but what revival radio has experienced as a media has happened solely on public radio stations and mostly in the United States and Canada. If you think Limbaugh, Laura, and Stern are radio revival, you can probably stop reading now.

Ira Glass' This American Life (produced by WBEZ Chicago and Public Radio International) takes a theme and invites producers to create a segment based on the theme. TAL has promoted the careers of some talented writers and performance artists such as David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, and Scott Carrier to name a few. If you haven't heard the program, visit the website for archives dating back to 1995.

Harry Shearer may be better known for his participation in films like This is Spinal Tap and his many voices on the animated television show The Simpsons, but to public radio fans, he's the voice behind KCRW Radio's (Santa Monica) LeShow. Shearer skewers politics and popular culture on his hour-long, weekly show while playing some of the best new music. Listen to archived LeShow programs here.

Sandra Tsing Loh

Also from KCRW, Sandra Tsing Loh talks about domestic and artistic life from the "valley" (Van Nuys) in her short monologues. Unfortunately Sandra Tsing Loh was fired from KCRW in the wake of the Janet Jackson hysteria. She has recently been picked up by KPCC in Pasadena. You can listen to Loh's archived programs here.

NPR's On The Media is truly the 'no spin zone' to which Bill O'Reilly says he aspires (O'Reilly just revolts me--listen to his antics on NPR's Fresh Air). Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield give truly fair and balanced reporting on reporting the news and how the media works and manipulates an audience. This program is produced by New York public radio station WNYC for NPR.

After moving to Iowa City I began volunteering for the radio stations licensed to the University of Iowa, WSUI AM910 and KSUI 91.7FM. I started off screening calls on the locally produced program Iowa Talks and weaseled my way up to redesigning the department's website and quarterly-produced program guide Radius. I'm not staff at the radio stations, but my participation with Broadcasting Services at the University of Iowa is the best use of my skills as a graphic designer.

I listen to public radio stations all across the United States using the Internet and streaming software and a CCrane FM transmitter that sends computer audio to all radios in the house in stereo. You'll find links to some of the stations I particularly like in the navigation bar directly to the right of this window.

I am also a constant listener to our unwitting neighbors to the north, Canada, through the auspices of the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC). An hour of the CBC program As It Happens is broadcast on WSUI AM910 five nights a week and is an introduction to Canadian news, viewpoints and humor (or is that humour?). The CBC webcasts from stations all across Canada. One of my favorite CBC programs is The Current and is broadcast on weekday mornings.

I think one way of finding out the sort of person I am is to listen to examples of public radio that raise the hairs on the back of my neck. Here are a few examples (Requires Real Audio player which you can download here without having to search for the free option until you've gone blind):

• Hollis Gillespie is an Atlanta writer and flight attendent. Gillespie writes for Atlanta's Creative Loafing and is a commentator for NPR's afternoon program All Things Considered. Listen to her radio commentaries on Escaping and Your Soul.
• Francine Prose is a novelist. Her tenth and most recent novel, Blue Angel lampoons American academic life and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Set in Euston College, a fictional place where kids go if they don't get into Bennington, the novel follows the misadventures of Ted Swenson, a self-absorbed writing instructor who failed to produce much after his first successful book. Swenson falls in love/lust with one of his students, the talented Angela Argo. The affair becomes the flashpoint of an explosion of academic politics involving a host of current issues, from sexual harassment to conflicts between schools of interpretations (deconstruction vs. common sense, for example).in a lecture to Seattle Arts and Lectures. In this speech to Seattle Arts and Lectures, she talks about the craft of writing.
• I've loved the music of Randy Newman since high school. Here is a thirty minute concert from KCRW's program Morning Becomes Eclectic.
• It's not easy to take one episode of This American Life and set it aside as the 'best' example of the program. Almost all of these shows are fantastic and archived all the way back to 1995. In this 90 minute show called "What Are You Looking At?" two of my favorite TAL contributors participate: David Rakoff and Sarah Vowell. This episode tweaks my obsession for all things canadian.
• Here in Iowa City, The WSUI Live from Prairie Lights series (of which I am proud to say, I am the webmaster) produces some memorable programming. Check out this performance by author David Sedaris. Also, this is a great reading by author Tony Early whose short story "Somehow Form a Family" generally makes the contact lenses slide out of my eyes.
• The Current is the CBC's weekday morning program. On this episode you can hear a very pissed-off Henry Kissinger answer questions about war crimes. I like it when Henry Kissinger is mad, but I'd rather see him in jail.
• Listen to these parodies from the NPR media watchdog show On the Media. Also, On the Media skewers cable news shows obsession with missing white women.
• Joe Frank is a master of radio storytelling and performance art. This is a comprehensive site of all of his work that is available for listening on the web.
• Alice Furlaud on the image of Paris in the eyes of Americans called "April in Paris." One of my favorites from the early 90s and it's available here (it's early Real Audio so the fidelity isn't so great). This is from Public Radio International's Soundprint program.
• And finally, the CBC cancelled one of it's best programs, but The Great Eastern was certainly one of the funniest. Listen to this excerpt describing a possible clinical basis for stupidity.