The Signal

Friday 7-8pm
Saturday 1-2pm

The Signal, a weekly radio magazine produced by WYPR, is devoted to exploring Maryland's thriving artistic and cultural scene.

The Signal, hosted by veteran WYPR personality Andy Bienstock, promises to transport listeners to the region's cultural back roads: the studios, recital halls and basement workshops where art is conceived and brought to life.

The minds behind The Signal senior producers Aaron Henkin and Lisa Morgan, as well as Bienstock -- share an abiding love for the tradition of radio storytelling. Every program is crafted like a book of short stories, a radio quilt sewn together with thoughtful narrative transitions and embroidered with contemplative musical interludes.

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Program Days:

Friday

Saturday

Short Program:

Only Archive

6.14.13: Sounds of Latinofest

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Summer officially begins in Baltimore next weekend with Patterson Park’s Latinofest, the city’s annual open-air celebration of Hispanic food, dance, and music. Latinofest organizers have booked an impressive roster of live bands for the occasion, including some high-quality local talents. Producer Aaron Henkin has been dropping in at some rehearsal spaces for a preview.

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6.14.13: Benn Ray’s Summer Book Picks

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Benn Ray from Atomic Books in Hampden is always happy to recommend a good read. He joins the Signal’s Lisa Morgan with a stack of books to keep you entertained and well-informed all summer long. (Benn's complete list of picks is at The Signal's Facebook page.)

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6.14.13: Mobtown Moon

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This year is the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s album, Dark Side of the Moon. In Baltimore, a cast of more than forty musicians has reimagined the album, and the project’s executive producers, ellen cherry and Sandy Asirvatham, join The Signal’s Aaron Henkin for an unveiling of Mobtown Moon

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6.7.13: Learned by Heart, Sung from the Heart: The New Gospelites

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The New Gospelites started their vocal harmony group in the 1970s, but they’ve been singing the old hymns since they were kids at Wharton Point’s Saint George Methodist United Church on The Eastern Shore. They’ve absorbed the musical style of their elders, they’ve made it their own, and today, they’re keepers of a rare and powerful repertoire of songs in praise of The Almighty. In this special coproduction of The Signal and Maryland Traditions, radio producer Aaron Henkin and folklorist Cliff Murphy pay a visit to Kent County, Maryland, to record stories and songs with The New Gospelites: Irene Moore, Hester Newman, Mary Hynson, Franklin Hynson, and James Phillips.

This episode's companion slideshow images by photographer Shane Carpenter

Here’s a link to more info on the 2013 Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival, where the New Gospelites are performing on Saturday, June 15th

Here’s a link to the New Gospelites album, Every Day is Sunday: A Heritage of a Capella Gospel

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5.31.13: Prayer in Motion

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A Lumbee proverb: “Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past. Wisdom is of the future.” Producer Aaron Henkin presents a profile of Baltimore resident and Lumbee tribe member Louis Campbell.

(Campbell performs with his dance group, Uhwachi Reh, on Saturday, June 15, at the 2013 Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival).

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5.31.13: Highs in the Low Fifties

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Marion Winik thought she knew what she was getting into when she started dating again in her early fifties. Then she went on a few dates. Her memoir, Highs in the Low Fifties, explores the ups & downs of middle-age romance and her comical misadventures on her quest to find Mr. Right.

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5.31.13: Murder in the Dog Park

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These days, when Jill Yesko shows up at the local dog park with her basset hound, the other folks there can be forgiven for keeping their distance. Yesko has written a crime novel titled, Murder in the Dog Park: Bad Girl. Good Cop. Bad Dog.

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5.31.13: Gift of the Cicadas

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The cicadas have resurfaced, and while we may not be experiencing the ‘swarmageddon’ we endured back in 2004 with Brood X, this year’s visitors, Brood II, have been buzzing up and down the East Coast form Georgia to Connecticut. Writer D R Belz has done some research on the subject, and he tells us there might be a bright side to these invasions - for our gardens and forests.

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5.24.13: Freedom is a Hammer

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Believe it or not, there used to be right-wing counterparts to the left-leaning folk troubadours of the anti-war movement, and their work has been collected in the anthology, Freedom is a Hammer: Conservative Folk Revolutionaries of the Sixties. Cultural historian Bill Geerhart talks with Lisa Morgan about this odd ‘counter-counter-cultural” music.

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5.24.13: Richard Huganir at The Stoop

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On May 20th, The Stoop hosted an evening of live storytelling called, “Eureka: Stories about discoveries, breakthroughs, and brave new worlds.” One of the storytellers was Richard Huganir. Dr. Huganir is Director of the Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. His research specialty is ‘learning and memory,’ and he’s trying to understand how memories are encoded in our brains. As you’ll hear, the doctor began his scientific quest 30 years ago, and its origins were… humble.