The National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress will again receive air time on National Public Radio in the “The Sounds of American Culture” series.
Airing during “All Things Considered” on certain Sunday nights in November and December, the series examines an eclectic mix of recordings, ranging from blues to jazz to country to readings.
Subjects of the five programs will be blues guitarist T-Bone Walker, country music singer Kitty Wells, rock artist Roy Orbison and jazz musician Herbie Hancock.
The Nov. 16 program will focus on New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia reading comic strips from the city’s newspapers during a newspaper strike in 1945. In the show, former Mayor Ed Koch remembers hearing LaGuardia on the radio; WNYC archivist Andy Lanset outlines technical challenges facing radio broadcasting in the 1940s; and biographer Thomas Kessner describes the death of LaGuardia’s daughter and the mayor’s dedication to the youth of New York City.
“The Sounds of American Culture” uses the medium of radio to tell about important recordings preserved in the National Recording Registry. The shows do not use a narrator but are constructed around the recordings and the guests.
