Thoughts in Sound

This program succeeds on several levels.

It's a near masterfully programmed hour of music, an enveloping audio-sonic tapestry, and a compelling review of contemporary music history that never becomes audio or academically retentive.

Though this is an overwhelmingly musical program, it also serves as an ode and intro to sound and the sound that turns into what we call music.

To open our ears to sound in perhaps a new way, host and producer John Diliberto focuses on the once renegade and now generally accepted compositional movements known roughly as "music by random selection," "electronic," "pre-minimalism," "classical-pop fusion and "minimalism" innovated and championed by composers including John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, LaMonte Young, Terry Riley, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, John Adams and Steve Reich.

Illustrative, opinionated clips from these gentlemen-maverick composers are well chosen and well edited as they weave in and out of the musical examples. The talk is smart, informative and accessible. No degree required.

The talk-to-music ratio is 50-50, more or less, but there's so much colorful and pleasingly extroverted music supporting the ideas and information, the lasting impression is that this is ultimately an all-music show.

Again, music programmers of all music categories will be impressed, I think, with the sheer variety of music and how it's ordered to flow and fit the informational goals of the program while still making it a stunning 'listen-to music' experience.

John Diliberto is superb as host and guide - with a tight, guiding script and informed presence. "Thoughts in Sound" is organized and packaged in various lengths and formats for maximum programming flexibility.

"Thoughts in Sound" could work on a weekday afternoon on some stations with proper advance promotion. It will clearly work well in the evening or on the weekend on music and music/news stations. Promo materials are provided.