Programming Archive

One of Motown's first artists', his legendary recording of "Money (That's What I want)" was so successful that it allowed Berry Gordy the money to finance his label.  Strong later became know for his songwriting and producing w/partner Norman Whitfield, writing "Cloud Nine" "Papa Was a Rolling Stone " & "War" to name just a few. Join host Tom Shaker this Monday starting at 7pm!

In an all-new interview, Steve D'Agostino, principal of Best Rate of Climb, interviews Peggy Middaugh (shown, left), executive director, and Evelyn Herwitz (shown, right), a sponsor of the Worcester Tree Initiative. Evelyn is also the author of Trees at Risk: Reclaiming an Urban Forest. They talk about rebuilding Worcester's urban forests.

As Evelyn Herwitz writes on her website TreesAtRisk.com, “City trees matter. Without trees, our urban communities are hotter in summer, colder in winter and dirtier year round. Trees make cities livable. They cool us with shade, protect us from wind, filter pollutants, control flooding and soil erosion, provide homes for wildlife and a green respite from stress. Dying and neglected street trees signal a neighborhood in decline. Lush tree canopies mean higher property values.”

The Worcester Tree Initiative is a private, non-profit effort to reforest Worcester and surrounding communities. It was initiated in January 2009 by Congressman Jim McGovern and Lt. Governor Tim Murray, with the intent of planting 30,000 trees in Worcester and surrounding towns in the next five years.

The Initiative is a public/private partnership between the City of Worcester, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, many local non-profits, businesses and residents of Central Massachusetts. The program includes intensive outreach, education and training, and long-term tracking to realize significant environmental and quality-of-life improvements with this community-based approach.

The Initiative is using trees grown at local nurseries. As a result, its stock will vary based on availability.

NPR Music asks, What if there were lost big-band masterpieces by the great composer/arranger Gil Evans which never made it to record? In fact, there are plenty of them, and composer/arranger Ryan Truesdell has culled, researched and transcribed a handful of the best material for the CD Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans. Truesdell leads an orchestra in a live version at Newport.

Using a Tibetan Mandela as an inspiration, DAVID GEORGE HASKELL, Professor of Biology at the University of the South, trekked deep into some old growth forest and drew a small circle on the forest floor only a meter in area. Could repeated close observations of this small circle and all it’s denizens give insights into how the larger forest functioned? Professor Haskell came back time and again to this small circle, in fair weather and foul, in light and dark, in the humidity of the summer and the freezing temperatures of the winter.  He typically sat on a rock nearby and watched all the plants, fungi, insects, snails and vertebrates that lived in or went through the circle for an entire year. His observations and thoughts on what he saw and how that related to larger issues of biology, conservation and the environment are recorded in his book THE FOREST UNSEEN: A YEAR’S WATCH IN NATURE, one of the finest books on observing the natural world written in some time.