This is the On the Media Midweek podcast.

I'm for Gladstone.

For these final weeks of summer, we wanted to transport you away from the doom and gloom

of the daily news with a trio of stories produced by our friends at the public radio

documentary maker Radio Diaries.

The series is called Making Waves, and it profiles

three people who pushed the boundaries of radio, one to warn, one to rile, and one to preach.

What they had in common was that they were all controversial. They spoke to huge audiences in their time,

and today they're largely forgotten. Part one of the series is The Preacher. In 1934, the Washington Post called

Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaud, the best-known colored man in America.

His Sunday services were broadcast to over 25 million listeners on CBS Radio.

Black America saw Michaud as a leader for racial harmony in progress.

But during the civil rights movement, his reputation took an unlikely turn.

Good morning, from the nation's capital.

From the Church of God in Washington, D.C., we bring you now its regular Sunday morning service

conducted by Elder Lightfoot Solomon Nishaw. When I was a little boy and my father took me to the church, there were so many

people in that there was no seats. You see the band, the choir, and then you see him waltzed into the church

and jump up on the pulpit and then the see him waltz into the church and jump up on the pulpit

and then the choir starts singing,

Happy Am I?

Then he would begin his sermon.

And even as a child, you knew to be still and to listen.

...