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Category: Radio

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

American Yiddish Radio

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Yiddish was the common language of Jews who immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe. It is a German-based language thought to have developed in the 9th century. While all aspects of Yiddish culture, including literature, theater, film, recording, and journalism, existed in robust and diverse forms wherever Ashkenazi Jews lived, it was in …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

The Radio Research Project Manuscript Collection is Now Online

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

The January 1941 launch of the Radio Research Project marked the initial foray of the Library of Congress into broadcast media. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and supported by Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish, the project created numerous and diverse radio programs primarily relating to American history and folklore, and utilized groundbreaking recording and production …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Arthur Miller: A View From the Field

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This guest blog post by Matthew Barton about the playwright Arthur Miller is part of a series called “Hidden Folklorists,” which examines the folklore work of surprising people, including people better known for other pursuits.  It was written soon after Miller’s death in 2005 for the publication Folklife Center News.  Matthew Barton worked at the …

King Biscuit Time memorabilia on the walls of the Delta Cultural Center.

Folklife On the Air: A Tribute to Two “Radio Guys”

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Here at the American Folklife Center, we’ve always had an appreciation for radio. As the home of an archive with a lot of fantastic audio recordings, the “folk archive” has been ripe for use on the radio since its earliest days. John and Alan Lomax, heads of the archive back in the 1930s and 1940s, …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Alistair Cooke: Radio and TV Icon, Hidden Folklorist

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This article about the broadcaster, journalist, and writer Alistair Cooke is part of a series called "Hidden Folklorists," which examines the folklore work of surprising people, including people better known for other pursuits. It mainly details his work on the 12-part 1938 BBC radio series "I Hear America Singing," which was the first time Library of Congress field recordings were used on the radio. It also discusses Cooke's involvement in the Library's recordings of Jelly Roll Morton, and presents the first recordings of his voice, made for the purposes of a dialect study in 1934.

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Q & A with Peter Winne, independent radio producer

Posted by: John Fenn

Peter Winne is an independent radio producer based in Connecticut. Earlier this year he released an audio documentary on PRX that explores the fascinating history of a well-known American gospel song called, “Children, Go Where I Send Thee.” Peter’s research for the program drew him into the orbit of the American Folklife Center at the …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

AFC on The Thistle & Shamrock!

Posted by: Stephen Winick

For the last two weekends of November, 2016, AFC was honored to be featured on The Thistle & Shamrock, the long-running and popular Celtic music show produced and hosted by Fiona Ritchie and distributed by NPR. If you want to hear the shows, follow the links to part 1 here and part 2 here. The …