American RadioWorks Sets Schedule for Fall Documentaries
Contact: Brad Robideau
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American RadioWorks Sets Schedule for Fall Documentaries
Fall Lineup Includes "Sonic Memorial" and "Japan's Pop Culture"
(St. Paul, Minn.) August 10, 2006 — American RadioWorks,® the award-winning documentary unit of American Public Media,™ announces its fall lineup of radio documentaries. In September, American RadioWorks will observe the fifth anniversary of 9/11 with a rebroadcast of "Sonic Memorial," a documentary featuring stories and sounds of the World Trade Center, its neighborhood, and the 9/11 attacks. In October, American RadioWorks presents "Japan's Pop Power," a documentary that examines Japanís growing impact on American pop culture.
Program Summaries
August — "Rebuilding Biloxi: One Year After Katrina"
Hurricane Katrina devastated the lives of thousands of Mississippi Gulf Coast residents. Rebuilding Biloxi tells the stories of several families in the coastal community of Biloxi, Miss., and their struggle to survive and then recover from the storm. While much of the national attention has focused on New Orleans, this new American RadioWorks documentary reveals a very different story — though equally dramatic, complicated and important — just 90 miles away.
Set to broadcast on the one-year anniversary of the hurricane, "Rebuilding Biloxi" will give public radio listeners a deeply personal look at how racial and economic inequality surfaces in the daily struggle to rebuild after Katrina.
September — "Sonic Memorial"
For the fifth anniversary of 9/11, American RadioWorks offers a rebroadcast of the beautifully haunting documentary from the Sonic Memorial Project. In the weeks and months after 9/11, National Public Radio's "Lost and Found Sound" and the public broadcasting community collected audio traces of the World Trade Center, its neighborhood and the events of September 11, 2001. Listen to this surprisingly intimate portrait produced from voicemails, archival tape, on-site recordings, oral histories, remembrances and stories.
October — "Japan's Pop Power"
For decades, the United States has been the dominant exporter of pop culture. In the 21st century, it has a powerful new competitor: Japan. Young people across the globe watch anime, read manga comic books from right to left, listen to J-pop and play with Japanese toys and video games. What's so cool about Japan? Will the ancient nation rise again, this time as the world's leading exporter of fantasy? "Japan's Pop Power" is an entertaining journey from Tokyo to Middle America.
November — "Early Signs: Reports from a Warming Planet"
The early signs of climate change are showing up across vastly differing landscapesófrom melting outposts near the Arctic Circle; to disappearing glaciers high in the Andes; from the deepest lake in Africa, which keeps getting warmer; and to the deltas of Bangladesh and the atolls of the Pacific, where the water's edge creeps closer. The documentary project from American RadioWorks, independent producer Sandy Tolan and students from the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism demonstrates how climate change is no longer restricted to scientific modeling about the future. It's happening now.
Check local public radio listings for broadcast dates and times.
About American RadioWorksAmerican RadioWorks is based at American Public Media in St. Paul, MN, and has staff journalists in Washington, DC, Duluth, MN, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Durham, NC. The American RadioWorks team features some of the most accomplished names in public radio journalism, including executive producer Bill Buzenberg, executive editor/correspondent Stephen Smith, economics correspondent Chris Farrell and host Ray Suarez.
American RadioWorks is on the Web at www.americanradioworks.org.