This is Rumble Strip. I'm Erica Heilman. Last week, my favorite radio producer died. His name was

Larry Massett. When I was learning how to make radio, I would listen to his stories over and over and

over and try to understand what made them work and why I loved them so much. And it was because

his stories were insane and brilliant and beautiful and sublime.

Larry was also my mentor.

He hated it when I said that, but it was true.

He told me when my stories were bad, he would say, I don't like it because it's not good.

Sometimes he did like what I made, which meant pretty much everything to me.

Larry was also really a pain in the ass when he would come to visit and he'd make a pie.

He used every dish in the kitchen. And a lot of times he set things on fire by accident,

like dish towels. He was always setting something on fire in the kitchen.

And if you drove anywhere long distance with Larry, it would take twice as long because every

37 minutes or so, you'd have to pull over so he could smoke. Larry Massett was around at the

beginning of public radio back in the 70s when it was still experimental, and there were more stories and less news.

Then in the early 80s, small stories, experimental stories, they sort of lost out to straight news.

And in a way, Larry Massa became the poster child for what NPR did not want to be anymore.

In fact, Robert Siegel, who was NPR's news director at the time,

named one of Larry's stories as the sort of story that NPR would not be doing anymore.

It was a story about Larry being high on nitrous oxide at the dentist.

It's a great story. Larry went on to be a senior producer

for NPR's Hearing Voices, and he was the co-founder of Soundprint, which he hosted many, many times

and very, very well. And he encouraged me as a radio producer, and he was honest with me in his

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