WNYC® Radio's Dean Olsher Hosts "The East Coast Listening Room"

A Special Evening of Award-Winning Radio Works From the Third Coast International Audio Festival

Thursday, November 18 at Galapagos Arts Space, Williamsburg

The Third Coast International Audio Festival is taking its Listening Room on the road!

WNYC, New York Public Radio®'s Dean Olsher, host of the nationally broadcast program The Next Big Thing, will host the "East Coast Listening Room," a special evening of award-winning radio works and favorites from the 2004 Third Coast Festival.

The event will take place at on Thursday, November 18 at 7:30pm at the Galapagos Arts Space at 70 North Sixth Street in Williamsburg , Brooklyn . Tickets are $12 and are available at the door or by calling WNYC Radio at (212) 669-3333.

The East Coast Listening Room, a "book club for radio," presents intriguing, unforgettable audio documentaries from all over the world in a group setting, providing listeners with a unique opportunity to listen together and share opinions about what they hear.

Olsher, joined by Third Coast Festival Directors Johanna Zorn and Julie Shapiro, will lead the conversation. Select producers will be on hand to satisfy radio fans' curiosity about the medium by sharing innovative storytelling techniques and audio production methods.

The featured pieces will include:

• She's Alright, My Mum Is (**Gold Medal Winner) When mothers suffer from mental or physical illnesses, their eldest children often take on responsibilities far beyond their years. With candor and humor, young caregivers Jade Nicholles, Lewis Shoulders and Stacey Richards talk about the challenges they face looking after a parent with a debilitating illness. First aired on BBC's Radio 4 April 2004
• Thirteen Ways (**Director's Choice) This lyrical piece, produced by Pejk Malinovski for The Next Big Thing, takes listeners into a classroom in Queens, New York, filled with restless eleven-year-olds. At the front sits Sam Swope, a visiting writer who is determined to teach these children the pleasures of reading the Wallace Stevens poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Commissioned by WNYC's The Next Big Thing; aired July 2004
• 2004 Short Docs Each year the Third Coast Festival commissions four new radio stories based on a single topic, and in doing so invites producers and listeners to think about the versatility and flexibility of the documentary form. This year the theme was darkness. We'll play winners from among the 120 submissions.

Dean Olsher began his career in broadcasting at the age of 14, as a freshman at Hunterdon Central High School in Flemington, NJ . After being awarded a Bachelor of Arts at Simon's Rock College , he studied and worked in Chapel Hill , NC , before joining NPR in 1987 as a cultural reporter. At NPR, he defined his beat broadly, from the grand ("Major American Poets Gather at the White House") to the grandly absurd ("Lorena Bob bitt Found Not Guilty"), landing at WNYC in 1999 to create something new—The Next Big Thing.

The Next Big Thing is PRI's weekly radio features magazine. On The Next Big Thing, creator and host Dean Olsher collaborates with some of America 's most talented writers and performers, including Meg Wolitzer, Henry Alford, David Cale and Jonathan Katz. Olsher's producers seek out unusual, sometimes quietly affecting subjects: they may ride along with former prisoners who bring puppies to those still behind bars; risk life and limb on homemade roller coasters; listen in as a young man attempts to cure his stutter; and track down an illegal immigrant facing deportation after 9/11. The program's variety is designed to appeal to the broad interests of its public radio audience. The result is a sound-rich, intimate, frequently funny, and always engaging radio show.

About the Third Coast Festival Listening Room: This series regularly invites the public to listen to and discuss a wide range of documentary work in a group setting, giving radio fans a rare opportunity to hear from and talk to some of the leading producers in the country.

About the Third Coast International Audio Festival: The Listening Room series is just one element of the TCIAF, an ongoing celebration of the best documentary and feature work being made worldwide for radio and the internet. Based at Chicago Public Radio, the TCIAF is made possible with lead support from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, major corporate sponsorship from the Sara Lee Foundation, additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Open Society Institute. For more information about the Listening Room series or the Third Coast Festival, please visit www.thirdcoastfestival.org or contact info@thirdcoastfestival.org.

WNYC®, New York Public Radio®, is New York 's premier public radio station, comprising WNYC 93.9 FM and WNYC AM 820. As America's most listened-to public radio stations, reaching more than one million listeners every week, WNYC FM and AM extend New York City's cultural riches to the entire country and air the best national offerings from affiliate networks National Public Radio® and Public Radio International®. WNYC 93.9 FM broadcasts a wide range of daily news, talk, cultural and classical music programming, while WNYC AM 820 maintains a stronger focus on breaking news and international news reporting.