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

The Signal, 11.25.11 & 11.26.11, Caleb Stine, Hugh Campbell, and Burton DeBusk: Conversations in Song

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It was a wintry Saturday afternoon, February 2011, in rural Cecil County, Maryland, at a one-room post office turned furniture shop near the town of Elkton. Outside the old building, a January wind whistled over snow banks, through the bare branches of trees. But inside this place, a warm camaraderie was emanating through the room. Three musicians sat together, acoustic guitars on their knees, trading stories and songs, and bridging an age-span of three generations between them. In this special edition of The Signal, producer Aaron Henkin and Maryland Traditions folklorist Cliff Murphy share a selection of recordings made on-site at this multi-generational meeting of the minds, a conversation in songs between folk musicians Burton DeBusk, Hugh Campbell, and Caleb Stine.

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The Signal, 11.11.11 & 11.12.11, The Roc-a-Jets, The Threepenny Opera, and Fertile Concrete

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The Roc-A-Jets were tough, they sported pompadours, and they made the ladies swoon… but they weren’t guys. We meet musicians Carla Mandley and Jo Kellum, members of this 1950s rockabilly band that pioneered a social scene for gay women in Charm City.

Baltimore’s Annex Theater takes on Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, and Signal contributor Baynard Woods talks with director Evan Moritz about the musical’s thematic resonance with modern-day politics.

At age 23, Robert A Douglas has published Fertile Concrete, a memoir about his young life in Baltimore, and we talk with him about his path from drug dealer to gospel preacher.

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The Signal, 11.04.11 & 11.05.11, a fallen Marine remembered in song, The Inverse Delirium podcast, and a tour of MICA’s disaster shelter prototype

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November 4th & 5th, 2011, on The Signal…

Tracy Miller is the mother of fallen US Marine Corporal Nicholas Zielkowski. He was killed in combat in Iraq in 2004. This year, he’s been memorialized in song. We talk with Tracy about her son, and we meet Michael Beresh, the musician who took it upon himself to make sure Nicholas’ memory is preserved.

We meet Geoffrey Welchman, host and writer of “The Inverse Delirium,” a podcast that pokes gentle fun at public radio and life in “This American Baltimore.”

Plus: MICA students are building an innovative emergency shelter for victims of natural disasters. We hear about their recent expedition to Haiti and tour the site where their new prototype is under construction.

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The Signal's Annual Halloween Mystery Show, 10.28.11 & 10.29.11

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nightmares, ghost stories, and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"...

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The Signal, 10.21.11 & 10.22.11, Full Circle Dance Company’s “B.A.R.E.”, CAmm Slam preview, and Edward Glaeser on the future of Baltimore as a ‘triumphant city’

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October 21st & 22nd, 2011, on The Signal…

“Bodies, Attitudes, Reflections, Exposed,” an upcoming performance by Baltimore’s Full Circle Dance Company, explores social pressures, sexual power, and body image. We drop in at a rehearsal and talk with director Donna Jacobs about what happens when controversy meets choreography.

The Creative Alliance is hosting the 10th annual CAmm Slamm 48-hour film festival, and we get a preview with one of the festival organizers and the host for this year’s gala event.

Harvard University economics professor Edward Glaeser is the author of “Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier” – we ask him how Baltimore fits into his optimistic thesis.

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The Signal, 10.14.11 & 10.15.11, the super-heroic red suit, Housewerks, and the doula & the funeral director – a love story

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This week (Oct. 14 & 15) on The Signal…

A real-life superhero saga that’s got to be heard to be believed: Hunter Smith and Kathryn Long had no idea what they were getting into when they decided to buy a mysterious red spandex suit at a thrift shop… What happened next would change their lives forever!

A visit to Housewerks, where Tracey Clarke and Ben Riddleberger show off some favorite pieces from their assortment of architectural antiques and industrial salvage, and share some of their renovating secrets and skills

And the unlikely love story of Andrew and Lanny Dowell. They’ve been together ever since they were high school sweethearts. Now they’re parents, and professionals: Lanny works in a delivery room as a birthing doula… as for Andrew, he runs a funeral home. Birth, death, and a love story that proves the old adage, ‘opposites attract’

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The Signal, 10.07.11 & 10.08.11, Lafayette Gilchrist, Joe Challmes at The Stoop, The Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra, Marion Winik, and the problem with superluminal neutrinos

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October 7th & 8th, 2011, on The Signal…

Before he ever tickled the ivories, Lafayette Gilchrist used to lace up the boxing gloves. We talk with the pianist and composer about his years as a fighter and the musical inspiration he’s taken from the sweet science.

From The Stoop - Joe Challmes made a promise to himself last year, the day he lost his leg. We’ll hear what it took to keep that promise.

This weekend, the Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra hosts a concert featuring 130 mandolin players on stage at the same time, and we’ll hear from members of the orchestra about why the instrument is uniquely suited to such a performance.

Marion Winik shares her secret recipe for the perfect dinner party.

And astrophysicist Mario Livio says he’ll eat his hat if neutrinos are actually traveling faster than the speed of light.

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The Signal, 09.30.11 & 10.01.11, “Vox Ukulele Cello,” “The Middle Passage: A Love Story,” and Dan Deacon’s Excellent Adventure

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September 30th & October 1st, 2011, on The Signal…

Local singer, songwriter, and ukulele enthusiast Victoria Vox stops by to preview her new CD, “Vox Ukelele Cello,” a harmonious blend of serious songwriting and playful instrumentation.

It took ten years of his life, but Joseph Norman has just completed an epic-scale mural project called “The Middle Passage: A Love Story.” We take a step back with the artist as he considers what he’s accomplished.

Plus: From Signal contributor Erin Gleeson, Baltimore DIY music legend Dan Deacon tells the tale of an early tour that tested his mettle – he went it alone, with only his instruments, a bag full of canned food, and a well-worn Greyhound Bus pass.

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The Signal, 09.23.11 & 09.24.11, Free Speech in the Digital Age: A Constitution Day Symposium

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September 23rd & 24th, 2011, on The Signal…

“In the past, personal and political liberty depended to a considerable extent on government inefficiency. The spirit of tyranny was always willing, but its organization and equipment were generally weak. Progressive science and technology have changed all that completely.”

-Aldous Huxley, 1948

Little could Mr. Huxley have imagined today’s internet and the digital apparatus that surrounds us all – cell phones, GPS, and ‘smart’ devices of all sorts, and so this week we ask: Are we better off with these tools, or are they making tools of us?

This episode of The Signal is a collection of highlights from the 2011 Constitution Day symposium, “Free Speech in the Digital Age,” organized by MICA and the Maryland ACLU and recorded in front of a live audience on September 17th at MICA’s Brown Center. The panel included ACLU policy analyst Jay Stanley, artist Trevor Paglin, and blogger Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish.

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The Signal, 09.16.11 & 09.17.11, Montford Pont Marine Charles Wells, ‘Partners' Portraits, jazz-man Carl Grubbs, and the Google Search as modern-day Father Confessor.

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September 16th & 17th, 2011, on The Signal…

World War II veteran Charles Wells served our country as one of the first African-Americans enlisted in the US Marine Corps. The Corps was segregated at the time, and Mr. Wells shares his memories of training at a remote outpost for black recruits called Camp Montford Point.

Katherine Meredith paints portraits in the traditional style of classical realism, but her recent series, Partners, has a distinctly modern twist: All of her subjects happen to be gay couples.

When jazz man Carl Grubbs was growing up, he had an older cousin named John – John Coltrane – and we explore the legend’s impact on his young admirer’s own music.

Plus: Essayist Marion Winik considers the Google Search as a window into the soul.

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