Richard Paul elegantly documents the rise and fall of the jingle. in deconstructing the psychology behind it we also get an interesting insight into American culture. Who knew that cable television and our ever- decreasing attention spans would put an end to this time-honored advertising tradition? Who knew that a day would come when the jingle would be eulogized? Like a jingle, this piece is hard to get out of your head. Unlike a jingle ,it won't be easily displaced by the next thing you hear.

This piece stands on its own. If you have the time you should braodcast it. This would also be a good fit for Market Place, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, and On the Media.

This poignant half-hour brings us close to the experience of this couple, both musicians of similar heart-rending background. Ruby describes the experience of being taken from her aboriginal home, put in a car, told she was going to see the circus, and instead ending up in a foster home. Archie was fourteen before he learned the truth of his own past, and simultaneously learned that his real mother had just died – his foster parents were told his family had died in a fire. Ruby and Archie met on the streets where they gathered with other aboriginals living on the margins of society. Their lack of bitterness is remarkable. The Australian narrator’s empathy and respect are clear. She lets their words, spoken and sung, carry the piece, but steps in to provide context, ask questions, and draw parallels between their music and country and western and blues music. As the program ends, the narrator expresses the hope that former struggles over land rights will be transformed into a uniting factor, because love of the land is something shared by all. What I’ll remember is Archie talking about the destruction of tribal people forced to see land as an economic base rather than a spiritual one, and the soft sound Ruby makes after she says, “Our homelands became national parks.” In many ways their story evokes our own country’s treatment of Native American children and could be included in programming on indigenous cultures. Would also fit with programming on family, community, music, survival, and racism.

Thank you. Thank you for this clever bit of writing poking fun at underwriting credits. Public Radio takes itself a bit too seriously -- just listen to the fund drives. This short piece, however, offers a great way for listeners and staff to giggle at our own expense. Thank you.

I'd like to hear pieces like this in between some not-too-serious fare so as to liven up the airwaves a bit. This is pretty dark and might get the phones going if that is what you are looking for. Any show or station looking for a little more attitude that most PR stations have might look to air pieces like "The Anniversary Party."

Hey, this isn't the kind of thing you hear every day. I sort of wished you knew which state *every* song was linked to, but most of them were self-evident and it was a really satisfying listen. If the piece were nested in the right context, it would be the kind of thing you'd tell people you heard and be grateful to the eccentric person who took the trouble to make it, and to public radio for putting it on.

I should mention that this piece is the tip of the iceberg. The producer has put up ALL 50 STATE SONGS IN THEIR ENTIRETY here on the PRX, enough for a weekly series for a year!

Solid arts feature. The kids voices at the top are full of life and the sonic arrangement flows well, although it bogs down a bit in the middle. If you were doing a series on artists or residencies, this would be a good addition. I think the visual environment might have been better drawn. I didn't get enough mental pictures and I know there must have been plenty available. You'll need to cut off Kurt Anderson's Studio 360 intro and outro, and you need to be careful of an ambience cut at the end. It would be better to upload pieces like this without the program hosts.

A solid straightforward news-type piece on the state of things at Freak Radio. Given it's a "pirate station", I was hoping for something a little more edgy, some more examples of what IS on the air. I was curious about the station's "personality" - (though everyone's on-air names are intriguing....Reckless, Skidmark, Uncle Dennis). Since there wasn't an actual news item then I think this might have been more engaging as a portrait piece - not just talking heads. In fact this piece is good background but this listener wants to hear/know more. notes to producer.

A very informative piece. Professional sounding - rich mix of narration, interview clips and sound effects. Awesome voice. This producer is certainly talented.

This story itself is very powerful and very moving. But Katie tells it in one fell swoop. I was waiting for a break, even just a pause in her story so the sad, poignant parts would stand out and I could process them. The story is told very clearly, one thing happened after the other. I just wanted some pauses so it could sink in.

Some truly lovely tape here. Kelly is totally sweet -- I love his opening scene, and there's another bit of wonderful tape from him towards the end. What we have here is a bicycle encased in vaseline, and a teenager who talks about the seat of a fast bike as being his favorite place to pray. Beautiful.

The mom, though, feels superfluous. I'd rather have spent the time getting deeper into Kelly's world. He's such a sweetie, and he somehow doesn't seem to know how appealing and unusual he is, but there's that loneliness -- he can't find a soul to shoot baskets with. What's going on with this kid?

Alternatively, you might go the less-is-more route, use the existing tape of Kelly, and tighten this into a 2-minute piece. Give us something that whirrs past headed down the mountain, and leaves us wanting more.

True confessions: I was lured to this piece by seeing that Gillian Welch is in the mix. So maybe I'm too close to the music to have a valid perspective, but my main quibble with this piece does have to do with the use of music. I often felt distracted from the main story by trying to track the correspondences, and the non-correspondences, between the song and the two characters. (The music levels are also a bit hot.) It may be that the only thing standing in the way of this being an utterly delightful piece is the urge to match the story to the music. Dare to lose it. Try to find the shape of the story that comes from Kelly. You might do better by having the narrative carried along by wild sound, instead of by the song -- you could figure out a way to tape Kelly actually cruising on his bike, then use that as your "traveling music." There's a lot of promise here, and I'd love to hear it fulfilled -- then, maybe, we could hear some Gillian Welch.