I'm beginning to like these first efforts at radio more and more, like this musically illustrated commentary from a young skateboarder, reflecting on why others view kids like him with suspicion. This piece could even stand without the music, and it would then rank even higher in my book.

This would work great as a morning drop-in segment during drivetime when many kids actually listen to public radio...strapped in the back seat of their parents' car, on the way to school.

This edition of the Tavis Smiley Show features Tavis Smiley, jazz historian John Hasse, Tavis Smiley, McCoy Tyner, Tavis Smiley, Al Jearreau, Tavis Smiley...well you get the idea.

If you love Tavis and can't get enough of him, you'll love this show.
If you're looking for an hour filled with great Jazz music, well, you might have to look elsewhere.

The caliber of the guests are unparalelled, but it takes nearly 35 minutes for the the first music piece to appear in this live show, if you don't count the regular station cutaways.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month. For more information on this show go to the Tavistalks.com

A well researched look at Al Jazeera & the emrgence of pan Arab TV news. Would be good as a drop-in for afternoon news in drive time.

Two hooves up for this jaunty look at the bovine history of Marin County just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Producer Claire Schoen delivers an udderly captivating 1/2 hour of facts, stories, music and voices of the dairy industry in an area usually thought of as a repository of hot tubs and BMWs.

Despite a few odd sound effects in the beginning, the use of audio is quite effective.

Air this one on a saturday afternoon... a sunny saturday afternoon, and enjoy.Your listeners will find it informative, inspiring, and quite moooving.

A great youth produced piece on the uses and perceptions of Slang from the Youth Document Durham Summer Youth Project in Durham North Carolina. The hosts explore contemporary urban slang by interviewing people on the street, college professors, and more. Their enjoyment is only slightly masked by their matter of fact narration, but the ride is a fun one, perhaps leaving the listener to wonder just what "crunk", and "for shizzle" really mean.

Whether you figure it out or not you've got a fine radio piece on your hand that would be great to air during pm drive time or on a Saturday afternoon. Who knows you and your listeners might "blow up real big"

Peace.

Underage Gambling in America...what? Sounds like a parody title in The Onion, but unfortubately it's very real. The engrossing facts are spun out in this fast paced one hour documentary. From gambling counselors, to formerly gambling addicted youth, the growing popularity of online poker is explained as well as it's addictive nature.

A cautionary tale that would go well on a Sunday afternoon or a weekday evening, like a Tuesday evening

Susan Stone's audio artistry reigns again in this sonic exploraion of earthquakes around the world. I'm reminded of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", a movie which managed to capture an emotion and telegraph it.

Stone's dense, rich palate of sound and tales of earthquake experiences ( the story of the woman buried alive in her house had me checking my earthquake kit ) yield a unique and chillingly different radio experience.

This radio presentation showcases living with the possibility of total destruction and will do more for awareness of disaster preparation than any PSA or well intentioned city official could ever do.

Air it now, or on the 100 year anniversary of the great earthquake ( April 18 ) in San Francisco...then go check those batteries

The best thing about this program is the music and voice of Louis Armstrong, and the interviews with Wynton Marsalis and other musical luminaries, but unfortunately the audio on most the interviews, as well as the ambiant recordings of New Orlean's French Quarter, are of a substandard quality. This is surprising coming from a usually thorough producer. Given the energy of the music, the narration, feels unfocused, unenergetic, and uninspired.

I reember the surprise of parades I wasn't expecting or hearing the lonely horn of a busker echoing off the glass and steel towers of downtown San Francisco. I got te same longing feeling listening to
"the Music Boat Man", Reinier Sijpkens as he tells the story of playing to empty bridges in Amersterdam from his musical boat or putting on shows for children all over the world. T

hough there a slight lag in the middle of the show, the tale of what smacks of a true free spirit gives hope for the pure power of art and music to move and too inspire.

A fun listen, would be great in the 7:30pm to 8:30pm weekday slot.

In this well researched and executed documentary, one goes on a journey into a troubling side of the American prison system, where profit is the motive and private prisons is a growth industry. I listened fascinated and slightly horrified at this fact rich story of an industry that seems boundless in it?s opportunities, yet relies on the incarceration of one?s fellow countrymen in huge numbers in order to sustain itself.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked with this program?s producer Jo Ann Mar for many years at KALW in San Francisco, so the meticulously gathered facts and wide range of coverage of ?Crime Pays? comes as no surprise. Mar is thorough and focused in anything she puts her mind to. It shows here in this deeply engrossing hour, very worthy of the prestigious George Polk award it has garnered.

You can reward your listeners with an hour of great investigative journalism that is getting scarce on public radio these days.

Host Suzanne Kryder speaks with 3 African Americans on their views of race relations in the US. They are of different generations and experiences and they have a dialogue for 30 minutes on life in race conscious America.

While this is a valuable discussion, there's nothing here that couldn't be done by one's own local radio station, and probably has been done as part of public affairs programming.

In this short 3 minute feature, we're introduced to 3 youths, one narrarator and two young men, all of whom explain the basic choices they have to make to survive in the relative poverty of eastern Kentucky, coal mining country.

Machlyn Blair's presentation is reminicent of a Richard Avedon photograph, unadorned portraits that speak volumes in their perfect simplicity.

This piece could be run as part of a series on work, youth and poverty, or a discussion of minmum wage.

Producer Miae Kim presents this simple, first person account of New Orleans jazz singer Charmaine Neville's experience of surviving Hurricane Katrina, and it is utterly disarming in its matter of fact delivery of her personal story, mixed with snipets of her music. The recording quality is excellent, and Neville's rich voice and starling visions of New Orlean residents and their experiences are compelling.

This would be great as part of a 2005 year in review program. The 27 minutes never drags, and Neville is as eloquent an ambassador as any for The Big Easy, revealing aspects of the flood and the people of New Orleans that deifinitely escaped mainstream news. Chilling and inspirational in its execution, Miae Kim's production of this piece shows a steady hand in guiding a phenomenal story, supporting it with appropriate music, and bringing the story to a hopeful close, with Neville's wishes for her city, and for all of us.

This well-known composition is revealed in generous detail by Radio Netherland's The Story of the Carmina Burana?. For many the opening of the composition evokes images of slow motion horse-backed warriors flaying away with engraved broad swords.

Here, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana is explored and explained both socially, and musically. A bit technical at times, but an enjoyable ride all the same.

A fascinating look and listen to a distinctive style of music that emerged in the 1950's, well researched and explained by Reese Erlich, with lots of musical examples and comparisons presented for the listener.

The half hour moves along easily, at a steady pace, as geat jazz musicians give the lowdown on a curious and cool era.