THE REBIRTH OF RADIO?

The other night I forgot to switch my clock radio to "sleep." I woke up at three or so in the morning just as Peter Newman introduced Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. I was awake and alert for the next hour.

The piece was the Airborne Symphony, written during World War II by Marc Blitzstein, and first performed in 1946. It's a vocal work that dramatizes the birth and development of flight, complete with narration. On Bernstein's 1966 recording, the great radio artist Orson Welles narrates.

Yes, KING-FM, Seattle's commercial non-profit classical station (listen at king.org), played the Airborne Symphony uninterrupted at three in the morning. How's that for a commercial-free hour?

I was surprised to be so moved by this piece of, yes, radio. Great writing, great music, great orchestra, great conductor, great choral performance, great production, and arguably the greatest radio actor of all time at his peak. It inspires me. I want to write and produce great radio like Marc Blitzstein did.

Go get the album and be inspired by what radio could have been. And could yet be.