Photo by Steve Urquhart
First, Cuts and Bruises…
Producer Steve Urquhart takes us inside an unusual barber shop in Central London called Champs Barbers and Grooming. You'll meet a guy named Ian Hoyos who's a barber and a boxer, and he treats each profession with the same level of skill and reverence. As he trims the hair of his loyal customers, he trains for his first fight in five years.
This piece was funded by a Sound Bank grant from In the Dark. The Sound Bank is a UK-based initiative from In the Dark, dedicated to commissioning and investing in the best new crafted documentary features from around the world.
Steve Urquhart has been producing radio – and more recently sound art – for around twenty years. He creates short-form and long-form features for BBC Radio 4 (where he is also a continuity announcer) and BBC Radio 3. He has won several Sony Radio Academy Awards for his pioneering work with National Prison Radio in the UK, and he trains various students, including prisoners and ex-offenders, in radio production skills. Steve is also a musician whose sample-based compositions have been released commercially.
Photo by Steve Urquhart
La Avispa and Rey Jaguar
Photo by Jeff Emtman
Then, The Near Destruction of Rey Jaguar…
Producer Jeff Emtman, witnesses a battle between pure good and pure evil, as it's played out on a pleasant afternoon at a park in Seattle. In the highly entertaining world of lucha libre, or Mexican wrestling, there's only one thing that's never supposed to happen… until it does.
This is an expanded version of a story produced for KCRW's 24 Hour Radio Race, where we asked anyone to produce a compelling radio story in one sleepless 24 hour period.
Jeff Emtman is the creator of the strange and beautiful Here Be Monsters podcast. He's a photographer-turned-radio-producer living in Seattle.
Michael McGee, Lt. Col., United States Air Force, Retired
Photo by Kathy Tu
Finally, The Fighter Pilot…
Producer Kathy Tu produced this, one of her first ever radio projects. As we heard in the two earlier stories, a battle can be exciting, entertaining, even poetic. But this story is about the battles that don't happen in a ring, that you don't necessarily walk away from. Former Air Force fighter pilot Michael McGee describes the disorienting, claustrophobic, terrifying and oddly beautiful experience of sitting in the cockpit.
The story was produced for the Transom Story Workshop in Cape Cod, an eight-week program for beginning audio producers.
Kathy Tu is a Southern California based independent radio producer, who is also a lawyer.
Note: This program originally aired January 14, 2014.