Joe Frank, Spinner of Strange Radio Tales, Has Died
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
I have distinct memories of being out on dates, turning the car radio to KCRW and hoping for "Joe Frank: Work in Progress" to be on, to see if my date had a basic understanding and appreciation of surrealism.
https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/579097081/remembering-peabody...
The first time I ran across Joe Frank was traveling Phoenix <--> San Jose. I tuned into a public radio show, the background track was awesome, and an anthropology professor was discussing his experience at a conference, in a "confessional" interview style, and I thought "standard public radio fare". The storyline was plausible for about two minutes and then veered into a couple of off-kilter details ... then wandered into stranger and fantastical details. The result was thought-provoking, strange, and oddly satisfying. There were various other segments in like and different styles ... and the whole hour-long thing fit together so well.
In truth I haven't run across anyone ever that knows about Joe Frank's shows, I've enjoyed them over the years. I wish I could justify $1,510.
In the Dark was broadcast weekly (Saturday nights, IIRC) by KQED in San Francisco, and I had the same reaction to essentially all episodes: great production values, compelling initial narrative... then devolution into annoyingly unlikely twists, as if he had navigated a bunch of one-way streets into a dead end. And kept driving anyway. The sheer waste would anger me; I had to stop listening altogether.
[0] https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/joe-frank-return-eng...