Help Me Recall This Radio Show/Podcast

November 26, 2008 12:59 PM

Forgotten Radio Show/Proto-Podcast Filter -- I first found these recordings in '99 or '00. I have only hazy memories, but I'm hoping this will jog someone's memory. One program/episode that I recall in some detail was in the form of a traffic report (Possibly called "Fine Day For A Drive) with deadpan descriptions of horrible accidents and such.

Other episodes may have had recurring themes/names with "Fat Man" in the title. I'm afraid I don't recall much else. The delivery was in a fairly monotone fashion, and I *think* the guy's first & last name were two common-ish names (ex. Tom Brown or something of the sort). Some tales were humorous, some were sad, it was a good mix.

I believe these programs were originally on the radio, and he had collected recordings of them on his website. I know this is all terribly vague, but any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

posted by ekstasis23 to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: You're talking about Joe Frank, Radio God. He's got a web site www.joefrank.com (duh) and you can listen to sample shows streamed from there; you can purchase a membership and stream any or all shows going back to the late 70s.

The show you are asking about is called "Eye In The Sky" and it is a great one, to be sure, one of the first of his shows that I heard. I came across his stuff from reading an article on Salon.com; many of his programs were streaming on KCRW out of Santa Monica at that time, which was the station he spent many years with.

I think that his brand of lunacy is one of the best going; I've considered putting a post 'on the blue' about him because I've not seen anything here about him and/or his shows.

I'm not sure if you'll be able to stream Eye In The Sky with a free membership there or not; I do know that you can listen to excerpts of most shows and that a few entire shows are streamed with a free membership, just not sure which shows. I've got his entire catalog of shows, or damn near all of them, a couple of hundred -- before he got his web site up, there was a band of people who collected tapes in the early years and then mp3'd them and had them available for download; Joe didn't mind but when he got his web site up he asked that those people stop making them available and they did so.

He had a falling out with KCRW and is no longer streamed there and he has not produced but just a handful of shows since maybe 2004. Those few shows are high quality, and you can stream them with a membership; I bought a quarterly membership or maybe a yearly, a couple of years ago, to support him and his work, though I had almost all of his work anyways.

If I recall correctly he streams excerpts off of iTunes also; you might want to check there; I don't think there are any full shows there though.
posted by dancestoblue at 1:59 PM on November 26, 2008

More info in the Joe Frank FAQ plus there's also a wiki of his shows.
posted by Rash at 2:38 PM on November 26, 2008

"Eye in the Sky" is one of my favorite Joe Frank shows. Here are some more of my faves, most of them in a similar monologist vein.

An Enterprising Man
At the Dark End of the Bar
Bible Salesman
Blues Singer
Endings
Fat Man Down
I'm Not Crazy
Just Get Me Out of Here
Mercy
Mountain Rain
The Road to Calvary
The River
Three Shingles
White Moon
Windows

Hope that gets you addicted started. Have fun exploring his shows!
posted by shinybeast at 3:08 PM on November 26, 2008

Response by poster: Thank you all!

Dancestoblue - You should definitely work something up for The Blue to share this...thanks for all the info!!
posted by ekstasis23 at 3:00 PM on November 28, 2008