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
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We talk money with Jeff Dicken, of the Baltimore Green Currency Association, about the monetary and social value of the B Note.

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The Signal’s Aaron Henkin recently hosted the first installment in a new, live, vaudeville-style variety-show called Vauxhall at The Creative Alliance’s Patterson Theater.  This debut production featured live music, sketch comedy, and experimental dance, among other things - all of it tied together into one theme:  LIARS.  We’re happy to share an excerpt of the Vauxhall program with you on this episode of The Signal.

 

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The Baltimore-based band, Matmos, has built a reputation for creating a vast array of weird and wonderful experimental music over the past two decades, and their latest project continues that tradition. The Signal’s Lisa Morgan brings us this profile.

 

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His music has been called ‘thinking man’s country,’ and for fifteen years he’s been the steady anchor of a band that’s always hovered just under the radar of widespread recognition.  Singer / songwriter Andrew Grimm is the founder and front-man of June Star, and Aaron Henkin invited him to the program to share a little music and conversation.

 

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Childhood lies:  Why did we tell them?  And what in the world made us think we could get away with them?  From the Vauxhall vaudeville variety program “LIARS,” we hear guilty grown-ups come clean about the whoppers they told when they were kids.

Baltimore-based experimental electronic duo Matmos stops by to talk about its new record, The Marriage of True Minds. It’s the result of four years of parapsychological experimentation and musical collaboration that resulted in the most conceptually elaborate (yet weirdly poppy) record they’ve ever made. 

Plus:  A studio mini-concert with singer / songwriter Andrew Grimm of the Baltimore roots band June Star.

 

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We meet a man who grew up blind in a small village in Sierra Leone.  As a child, he taught himself how to play a rare instrument called the Kondi.  He adopted the name of his instrument, and we hear Sorie Kondi share his music and his story.

Kevin “Kal” Kallaugher talks about his new book and the resilient art of the political cartoon.

From The Stoop, Pastor Amy Sens of Six Eight Church shares a story about keeping the faith – and staying true to herself.

A brewery tour at Baltimore’s Union Craft Brewing.

 

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It all started with a YouTube video.  One day, an American traveling in Sierra Leone West Africa happened across a blind musician on the street.  The man was playing an instrument called the kondi, and the American was intrigued.  He recorded the musician, posted the video on the web, and soon musicologists around the world were watching in amazement.  Sierra Leonean musician Sorie Kondi ended up on an unlikely on an international tour, and when he passed through Baltimore last fall, he shared his music and his story with The Signal’s Aaron Henkin… 

 

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With his 35 years as an editorial cartoonist, Kevin Kal Kallaugher is a living testament to the resilience of the art form. His dual roles at the Economist magazine and at the Baltimore Sun give him an enormous breadth of material to work with each week, from geopolitical crises all over the globe to the latest shenanigans of local politicians. In short, no one is safe when Kal draws his pen. He joins The Signal’s Lisa Morgan in studio this week to talk about his latest projects and some of his favorite subjects…

 

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The Stoop Storytelling Series recently hosted an evening titled, “Believe it or Not:  Stories about Finding and Losing Faith.”  One of the storytellers that night was Amy Sens, the pastor at a church in Baltimore called Six Eight.

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Ben Franklin penned many a quotable proverb – but lesser known among them is this gem:  “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”.  With these inspirational words in mind, The Signal’s Aaron Henkin takes us to one of the happiest places in Baltimore - Union Craft Brewing

 


Contact Aaron Henkin or Lisa Morgan
thesignal@wypr.org