From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of stories and Original Documentaries.

It's a part of the Independent Producer Project.

And on this episode, another program from radio producer Joe Frank.

And a lot of people are familiar with Joe's career producing entertaining mind-vending

and award-winning programs for the last 30 years.

While some people may only be discovering his stuff now. But certainly if you're a public radio producer,

Joe Frank is a legend. My name is Benjamin Walker and I do a radio show called Too Much

Information on WFMU and I have a podcast called A Theory of Everything.

Occasionally we've been hearing from producers who have been inspired by Joe Frank, like Benjamin Walker. His work combines documentary, personal stories, and fiction

in a way that few people can pull off, but Benjamin does, and it's a style that Joe Frank pioneered.

The first time I heard Joe Frank, I was working at my college radio station in Montana and

Bozeman, Montana, and they would still play the program and it would come in on the real- real tapes. I think it was one of the episodes

in his Iceland saga. And I remember, you know, like immediately, like after five minutes it was clear, that oh yeah, radio can be art too.

You could just hear the ambition in it that this was something that was going places, that

was taking you somewhere, somewhere pretty grand.

What Joe Frank has always done is showed us that one person was just a microphone and a recording

device,

maybe a little music to throw in there,

can create the whole entire universe.

And I think you can hear that just by listening for a few minutes.

Still today, I wish we would hear more of that.

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