Accessibility links
U.S. News and National Top Stories NPR coverage of national news, U.S. politics, elections, business, arts, culture, health and science, and technology. Subscribe to the NPR Nation RSS feed.

National

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

LOST & FOUND SOUND: WHER - One Thousand Beautiful Watts

A story about radio station WHER in Memphis, billed as the first "All-Girl Radio Station" in the nation. It was started by Sam Phillips of Sun Studio fame in 1955 - just after he sold Elvis Presley's contract to Colonel Parker. Phillips gave women a chance to work both on the air, and in the sales department. It lasted 17-years. Independent producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson located 14 of the 40 women who worked at WHER.

LOST & FOUND SOUND: WHER - One Thousand Beautiful Watts

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

LOST & FOUND SOUND: The Transistor on the Schoolbus

Our series Lost & Found Sound remembers the explosion of transistors radios for the first time in the early 1960s. Washington lawyer Jonathan Cuneo recalls how every kid had to have one when they first became small enough to carry around in a pocket. With portable radios, sports like the World Series could be listened to in school - and on the school bus ride home. Cuneo tells how the final game of the 1960 World Series was a highlight of his life -- thanks to his transistor and where he heard the game.

LOST & FOUND SOUND: The Transistor on the Schoolbus

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: The Man Who Loves Sound

Eighty-five-year-old Don Hunter plays us a few of his acoustic "trophies" from a lifetime of recording the sounds of his Pacific Northwest. The Eugene, Oregon man has been making stereo recordings of his region since the late 1950s -- and has been interested in sound since he was a boy. We hear a "planer," fog horns and a Douglas Fir being cut down.

Lost & Found Sound: The Man Who Loves Sound

Listen · 6:47
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1065098/65098" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

LOST AND FOUND SOUND: Fred Friendly at Quonset

In this week's installment of "Lost and Found Sound," Quest for Sound curator Jay Allison presents audio found by a listener in Newton Massachusetts. David Gullette found the disk at a flea market. It turned out to include the recorded voice of one of this country's most important broadcast producers at a young age. The disk featured 1941 Mutual Broadcasting System coverage of the inauguration of the Quonset Naval Marine Air Station in Rhode Island. The announcer is none other than the great Fred Friendly, who died just last year.

LOST AND FOUND SOUND: Fred Friendly at Quonset

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost And Found Sound: R.A. Coleman's Electronic Memories

As part of our series "Lost & Found Sound," we present an un-narrated story about R. A. Coleman, a black man who recorded the sound of African-American weddings and other events in Memphis during the same period that Sam Phillips was recording those of the white people of the city. Coleman was originally just a photographer, but he began to provide recordings to enhance the memories of couples. He even recorded at funerals. He's remembered by his friends and family.

Lost And Found Sound: R.A. Coleman's Electronic Memories

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost and Found Sound

The year long series, Lost and Found Sound, presents the story of Sam Phillips, the man who founded and ran the Memphis Recording Service. Phillips was a rural boy with the dream of capturing songs of poor Southern people on records. He started in radio. Then, in the late 1940's, he opened a studio in Memphis. The sound he captured has helped shape rock and roll and American music ever since. We hear from Phillips, his family, friends, music experts and some of his recording talent, as they recall the years when Phillips came to realize his dream.

Lost and Found Sound

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost and Found Sound: 20th Century Cylinders

Lost and Found Sound presents a story about present-day uses of the most ancient of recording technologies: the wax cylinder. On the occasion of this month's release by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis's album of wax cylinder recordings, we hear what it is about wax that appeals to some. For Marsalis it's the authentic sound, which reminds him of the jazz greats of the past. Also featured: Les Paul and the band They Might be Giants. John Flansburgh of the "Giants" learns that to get recorded, he has to stick his head into a brass cone and sing in a very pronounced way.

Lost and Found Sound: 20th Century Cylinders

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

CKLW: The Hits Just Keep on Coming

In this latest installment of our Lost and Found Sound series, NPR's Don Gonyea remembers the heyday of powerhouse AM radio. Gonyea grew up in Detroit, where the big station in the 60's and 70's was CKLW. It broadcast from across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario. It was a loud, glitzy noise-making enterprise. Everything was shouted -- even the news. The 50,000-watt giant spewed rock and roll and hyped-news across 28 states and mid-Canada. Gonyea describes the formula that made CKLW and its imitators successful.

CKLW: The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: A Lover of Lost Fans

As part of our series Lost & Found Sound, Quest for Sound Curator Jay Allison introduces us to a collector of old electric fans. We are treated to solo performances of individual old fans, and an orchestra of fans blowing at once, and learn that in days gone by, a good electric fan was a blessing -- and expensive. Some models cost the average American worker two months pay.

Lost & Found Sound: A Lover of Lost Fans

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

LOST AND FOUND SOUND: One World Flight

Today on Lost and Found Sound, we delve into the audio archives of radio writer and director Norman Corwin. In 1946, while Corwin was working for CBS, producing very popular radio dramas and documentaries, he was the first recipient of the "One World Award." The award was created after presidential candidate Wendell Wilke made a diplomatic world wide tour during World War Two. The prize was a four month flight around the world for Corwin. It resulted in 13 radio documentaries about his travels. Together with producer Mary Beth Kirchner, Corwin re-listens to these tapes and remembers the variety of people he met in his travels; from great leaders such as Nehru, to a young girl in devastated Manila. He returned home with the stories of post-war reality in the outside world. In some cases people had lost entire families. He also found hope for a better world.

LOST AND FOUND SOUND: One World Flight

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Lost & Found Sound

Lost & Found Sound: The Sounds of Silents

Today in our continuing series, "Lost and Found Sound," we have two stories about the era of silent movies. Jay Allison, the curator of our Quest for Sound phone line introduces us to listener Bob Borgen, who has discovered tape of silent film star Buster Keaton at a party in 1962. The tape originally belonged to Keaton's wife. Keaton was a child star of Vaudeville with his family--on the tape Keaton sings songs and tells stories from those days. Our second story comes from our movie reviewer Bob Mondello, who pays tribute to the "silence" of early films. He remembers the time when movies were a purely visual medium---the introduction of sound took away some of the grace of what was taken place on the screen--this was most true for the silent film comedy stars.

Lost & Found Sound: The Sounds of Silents

Audio will be available later today.

Friday

Friday

Friday