Click below to learn more about each event and to hear selections from the season's Listening Room programs.

November 11, 2006 - The Sounds of Conflict, presented in collaboration with the Chicago Humanities Festival
September 20, 2006 - 99 Ways to Tell a Radio Story
June 20, 2006 - Re:sound on Stage
March 8, 2006 - What's the Big Deal with Podcasting, Anyway?

November 11, 2006 - The Sounds of Conflict
Presented as part of the 2006 Chicago Humanities Festival

Program:
In keeping with the Chicago Humanities Festival 2006 theme of “Peace and War,” this afternoon’s presentation featured a range of radio stories both real and imagined about one of the most relevant and emotional subjects of our time - human conflict.

‘Til Death Do Us Part
by Sasha Aslanian, for the TCF’s 99 Ways to Tell a Radio Story project, 2006

Producer Sasha Aslanian's divorced parents listen to a recording of their 1963 wedding vows, remember what went wrong, but still can't get over each other. (2:30)

Oakland Scenes
by Youth Radio, 2002
Youth Radio producers Ise Lyfe, Gerald Ward II, and Bianca Yarborough chronicle the tense summer of 2002 in Oakland, California, when an alarming number of youth homicides weighed heavily on the community. Oakland Scenes uses as its centerpiece a poem by Lyfe -- a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. (5:44)

You Know You’re in Baghdad When...
by Claudia Taranto for the ABC’s Street Stories, 2006
Former Australian human shield Donna Mulhearn returns to Baghdad to do voluntary humanitarian work with street kids. Through her emails home she describes what’s happened to her and ordinary Iraqis over a period of nine months. (8:07 excerpt)

Dreaming of Osama
by Pejk Malinovski, for WNYC’s The Next Big Thing, 2004
Ever since 9/11, the United States government has been searching for Osama Bin Laden, the elusive leader of Al Qaeda. Though he surfaces on video tapes every once in a while, no one knows exactly where he is. But, as it turns out, unbeknownst to many, there have been sightings here in America...at night....in people's dreams. (7:35)

Guantanamo by Kelly McEvers, for sixbillion.org, 2004)
Adapted from a production based solely on the spoken and written words of suspected terrorists detained at the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Guantanamo follows the story of Moazzam Begg, a British citizen who was taken from his apartment in Pakistan by U.S. soldiers in early 2002. (6:40 excerpt)

They Didn’t Get Along
by Rick Moody and Michael Hearst for the TCF’s 99 Ways to Tell a Radio Story, 2006
An inquiry into the nature of human relationships over the course of eons, featuring musical accompaniment in diverse time signatures, and a British narrator. (2:30)

September 20, 2006 - The TCF Listening Room Presents: 99 Ways to Tell a Radio Story

Program:
Earlier this year, the Third Coast Festival challenged producers to make short audio works while following a set of specific rules: each story must start with "To begin with, they never got along," must include the following sounds: a pre-recorded voice, a rhythmic noise and an exclamation, and must last exactly 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

For tonight's Listening Room, TCF Managing Director Julie Shapiro and Re:sound host Gwen Macsai
talked about the 99 Ways to Tell a Radio Story project, and explored other variations on the idea of "creativity triggered through constraint" in film, comics, music and literature. Along the way they played the four Ways chosen as the 2006 TCF ShortDocs, and a few others made by Chicagoans who were present and talked about their experience with the 99 Ways project.


Reality Depends on Where You’re Standing, by Saya April Hillman
Three inner-city sisters randomly discuss their reality, intercut with the perceived reality of the country's distant puppet masters.

Henry Ford Wouldn’t Have Called In Sick, by Tammy Terwelp
Feuding co-workers in an auto parts factory conspire to assemble the big one.

The Interloper, by Kay Collins
The story of a woman's fifth breast biopsy.

They Didn't Get Along, by Rick Moody and Michael Hearst
An inquiry into the nature of human relationships over the course of eons, featuring musical accompaniment in diverse time signatures, and a British narrator.

'Til Death Do Us Part, by Sasha Aslanian
Sasha Aslanian's divorced parents listen to audio of their 1963 wedding vows, remember what went wrong, but still can't get over each other.

Talk To Me About Love, by Jill Summers and David Whitcomb
Two curious siblings finally get what they think they've always wanted.

Au Debut, by Zoe Irvine
Translation - Sylvain, Bruno, Zoe and Youssef at the PRIM Centre in Montreal, summer 2006.

Boris the Mover, by Carma Jolly
A crush on a telemarketer results in betrayal.

Further information about other projects discussed:

Matt Madden’s work: http://www.exercisesinstyle.com or www.mattmadden.com
More on Oulipo
More of Kenny G’s cake rants. (search for ‘cake’)

June 20, 2006- The TCF Listening Room Presents: Re:sound on Stage

Program:
Each week the TCF's program Re:sound presents an hour of documentaries, music and audio collage, all painstakingly produced to create an engaging listening experience. For tonight's Listening Room, the Re:sound production team of producer Roman Mars and host Gwen Macsai along with TCF Executive Director Johanna Zorn will dissect show #32 (aka "The Transmissions Show"), revealing where its components (from the docs to the archival audio bits) were found, and some of the techniques that make the show a dynamic and sound-rich radio adventure.

Listen to "The Transmissions Show".

Intro Montage
Find some music, lay over a bed of transmissions from Saturn, add a touch of AM Static, a pinch of Kid DJs, some Studs, some reverb, add a touch of CB radio lingo, a numbers stations broadcast, plus Wolfman Jack, Christian Slater and G-Mac. Remix to taste. Voila!

Listening at the Border
by Jay Needham
The airwaves are a tangle of transmissions: some people are cryptically saying something and others are desperately trying to decrypt it: our government agencies, other government agencies, spies, and who knows who else. Listening at the Border introduces us to someone who, for years, spent everyday, all day, trying to decipher scratchy transmissions from North Korea for the US government. (Gallery Presentation, St Louis, MO, 2004, 15:04)

Atencion: Seis Siete Tres Siete Cero: The Shortwave Numbers Mystery (excerpt)
by David Goren
If you tune into the the shortwave signals hidden in between the AM and FM band on frequencies from 3 to 30 Mhz, you can hear voices reciting endless streams of numbers, in numerous languages, all day, every day for decades on end. These "number stations", as they're called by ham radio operators and military communications experts, contain no information about where they are transmitting from or who they are trying to reach. (Lost & Found Sound, 2000, 5:18)

Pirate Station
by Sherre DeLys, Rick Moody, Emily Botein; narrated by John Lurie
Aside from the licensed radio stations, the citizens band, and shortwave operators, there are those who believe that the airwaves are public space and belong to everyone. They're often called 'pirates' and they want a little piece of airspace --whether the FCC wants to give it to them or not. This is an ode to a mythical pirate station. (PRI's The Next Big Thing, 2005, 11:40)

Max Neuhaus' Radio Net
Max Neuhaus makes sound works that are neither music nor events. He coined the term "sound installation" and has been the engine behind all sorts of new ways of thinking and experiencing sound.

March 8, 2006 - The TCF Listening Room Presents: What's the Big Deal With Podcasting, Anyway?

Listen to the evening's program. (1:35:52)
(Thanks to Michael Kraskin, from Catalogue of Ships, for the recording)


Guest Podcasters:
Bad at Sports
Bad at Sports covers arts review in Chicago once a week with a certain, refreshing flair. Richard Holland and Duncan MacKenzie started the podcast in September, 2005 and were joined by Amanda Browder in their weekly musings in early 2006. Occasionally their subjects bring knives to their interviews.

Catalogue of Ships
CoS originated as a live performance in the American Living Room Festival in 2001 and now features weekly stories from David Terry, remixed and scored by composer/sound designer Michael Kraskin. These sound-rich tales range from odd childhood memories to clever experiments in structure, time and storytelling. Sometimes they're even gross. CoS is an intra-state endeavor, with Terry hailing from Chapel Hill, NC and Kraskin chiming in from Chicago.

Youthcast
Youthcast brings you blunt, honest, emotion and very real voices from youths all over the country. The podcast features a new piece each week from Generation PRX -- a project managed by Jones Franzel that connects youth radio producers and brings youth voices to public radio and beyond via the Public Radio Exchange.

PRXcast
PRX is a web-based market for public radio stories. It features work from independent radio producers of all stripes and is open to anyone who seeks to listen, contribute or broadcast the work that collects on the site. Once a week the PRX staff chooses a favorite program to offer as a podcast.

Program:
The past year has seen the meteoric rise of podcasting as a new audio production format for everyone from public radio professionals to hobbyists who are picking up a microphone for the first time, to cautious but curious listeners who are downloading files with regularity. What's the big deal with podcasting, anyway?

This evening's Listening Room was hosted by Third Coast Festival Managing Director Julie Shapiro, took place at Steppenwolf's Garage Theater, and included the following excerpts and full podcasts.

Bad at Sports montage (6:00)
A montage of favorite moments from the BAS podcast, chosen by the staff.
To subscribe: http://badatsports.libsyn.com/

Gaper's Block - M*A*S*H: Chicago in Korea (2:30 excerpt)
Someone on the M*A*S*H staff was a big Chicago fan. The proof's in the episodes...
Produced by Dave Elfving.
To subscribe: http://www.gapersblock.com/podcast/audible.xml

Catalogue of Ships - Episode 5 - Saturday Night (7:00)
The unbelievable story of David Terry's 21st birthday. Which is unbelievable.
Produced by Michael Kraskin.
To subscribe: http://catalogueofships.com/

Love and Radio - Episode 5 - Get Me Away from Here (5:00 excerpt)
From the Love and Radio podcast, produced by Adrianne Mathiowetz and Nick van der Kolk.
To subscribe: http://loveandradio.org/

Youthcast - Boredom (7:24)
Dramatization of a summer day gone wrong, by Callie Dean from KBOO Youth Collective in Portland, OR.
To subscribe: http://generation.prx.org/

PRXcast - Back to the Lab (6:33 excerpt)
From WNYC's Radio Lab, where science bumps into culture and information sounds like music.
Produced by Jad Abumrad.
To subscribe: http://about.prx.org/podcast