Rock and roll bands do have a tendency to burn through drummers. The phenomenon has been so noticeable over the years that Spinal Tap did a memorable parody of it. But when Led Zeppelin’s powerhouse of a drummer John Bonham died unexpectedly at the age of 32 on September 25, 1980, there would be no replacing him.

Blank on Blank, the nonprofit group that uses the magic of animation to bring forgotten interviews back to life, has come out with a new episode featuring the Beastie Boys in their early days. “Beastie Boys on Being Stupid” (above) is built on excerpts from a 1985 interview with Rocci Fisch for ABC Radio.

Any investigation into San Francisco’s jazz heyday of the 1950s requires a stop at the Club Hangover. Operated by bandleader Doc Dougherty on Bush Street throughout the decade, the club became a Dixieland jazz headquarters.
Now home to an adult movie theater, the club is long closed.

As television news continues its pathetic slide into the abyss of celebrity worship, political partisanship and 24-hour punditry, its encouraging to note that in one area of traditional broadcasting there is actually something of a renaissance going on.

American radio dramas, once the pride of the medium, died out soon after the rise of television. But U.S. listeners in search of continued dramatic innovation over the airwaves need only turn their ears toward the other side of the Atlantic, where the BBC has kept the craft in sturdy working order.

Like the idea of totalitarianism, perhaps best articulated by Hannah Arendt in her post-war Origins of Totalitarianism, George Orwell’s post-war scrutiny of repressive governments has become a staple, catch-all reference for pundits on either side of the political spectrum, particularly the concepts of doublespeak, doublethink, historical revi

What connects Orson Welles, that quintessential American auteur of radio and film, to H.G.

Think of Masterpiece Theater and you might think of Downton Abbey, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, or even the Cookie Monster. But the man who really made the series famous was broadcaster Alistair Cooke, the series’ crisp, avuncular host.

Iconic Clash frontman Joe Strummer passed away a little over ten years ago on December 22nd, 2002. He was 50 years old, and died too soon, leaving his family, friends, and fans reeling with shock and sadness.

In late September of 2011, Maurice Sendak spoke one last time with Terry Gross for the NPR program Fresh Air. Ostensibly the interview was to promote Sendak’s final book, Bumble-Ardy, but as the conversation progressed it was clear they just wanted to talk.