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This American Life

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    So "NBC Nightly News" closed Friday's show with "My Way" playing
over a montage of Sinatra scenes?  That is precisely the sort of thing
Sarah Vowell warned against in an essay originally broadcast last year
on a "This American Life" show devoted entirely to Sinatra.  The essay
was later picked up by "All Things Considered."
    New Hampshire Public Radio aired that "TAL" show in a special slot
Friday night (displacing an hour of jazz) and no doubt other public
radio stations found a place for it this weekend as well.  As it
happens, WGBH-FM already was scheduled to air that episode this month
(May 31, 4-5 p.m.) and here's the way it's described in their program
guide: "This popular rebroadcast program tells stories about Frank
Sinatra, his greatness, his awfulness and why he may turn out to be the
most important singer of the 20th century."
    While I'm touting "TAL" please note that the program running this
weekend on most stations (but not WGBH) has some segments of special
interest to radio folks.  It's a rerun of the "Accidental Documentaries"
episode and in its second half features tape of host Ira Glass's dad
reading live spots and introducing the Crew Cuts and such around 1956 on
a Baltimore station and a very emotional poetry reading recorded by a
Spanish-language announcer in Chicago in the 1950s with reflections from
his daughter.  The senior Mr. Glass's love/hate relationship with radio
struck a chord with me--he knows it's no way to make a living, no way to
support a family, advises his son against going into it and yet in the
end he just can't stay away from it.
    This show is supposed to air today (5/17) at 1 p.m. on WBUR/WRNI, 6
p.m. on WFCR and Maine Public Radio, and 7 p.m. on Vermont Public Radio.

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<HTML>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So "NBC Nightly News" closed Friday's show with "My
Way" playing over a montage of Sinatra scenes?&nbsp; That is <I>precisely</I>
the sort of thing Sarah Vowell warned against in an essay originally broadcast
last year on a "This American Life" show devoted entirely to Sinatra.&nbsp;
The essay was later picked up by "All Things Considered."
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; New Hampshire Public Radio aired that "TAL" show
in a special slot Friday night (displacing an hour of jazz) and no doubt
other public radio stations found a place for it this weekend as well.&nbsp;
As it happens, WGBH-FM already was scheduled to air that episode this month
(May 31, 4-5 p.m.) and here's the way it's described in their program guide:
"This popular rebroadcast program tells stories about Frank Sinatra, his
greatness, his awfulness and why he may turn out to be the most important
singer of the 20th century."
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; While I'm touting "TAL" please note that the program
running this weekend on most stations (but not WGBH) has some segments
of special interest to radio folks.&nbsp; It's a rerun of the "Accidental
Documentaries" episode and in its second half features tape of host Ira
Glass's dad reading live spots and introducing the Crew Cuts and such around
1956 on a Baltimore station and a very emotional poetry reading recorded
by a Spanish-language announcer in Chicago in the 1950s with reflections
from his daughter.&nbsp; The senior Mr. Glass's love/hate relationship
with radio struck a chord with me--he knows it's no way to make a living,
no way to support a family, advises his son against going into it and yet
in the end he just can't stay away from it.
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This show is supposed to air today (5/17) at 1 p.m.
on WBUR/WRNI, 6 p.m. on WFCR and Maine Public Radio, and 7 p.m. on Vermont
Public Radio.</HTML>

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