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Soundcheck

Thursday, May 03, 2007
  • WKRP

    'WKRP' Changes Its Tune

    For years, legal issues prevented a DVD release of WKRP in Cincinnati. Today on Soundcheck, find out why a workaround solution has fans of the TV classic in an uproar. Plus, Israeli clarinetist and composer Anat Cohen talks about releasing two albums at once on her own label. And, a Scottish church featured in the bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code reveals a 600-year-old musical mystery.

Don't Touch That Dial

With DVD versions of classic TV shows invading the retail market, fans of the late 1970s show WKRP in Cincinnati wondered when they would get their due. But the real-life rock songs heard on the fictional radio station presented tricky music-licensing issues. Star Tribune reporter Randy Salas reveals how Twentieth Century Fox solved its dilemma and why some fans are tuning out.

Randy Salas' story on 'WKRP' DVD
List of changes in DVD release
Video compilation of deleted scenes and music

Anat Cohen

Israeli clarinetist and composer Anat Cohen is into traditional jazz, Brazilian choro, Argentinean tango and Middle Eastern music. She joins us to explain how she mixes them all in two different new albums, Noir and Poetica. She performs May 8 and 9 at the Jazz Standard.

Anat Cohen's website

More Mystery in 'Da Vinci Code' Chapel

A chapel featured in the bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code is the site of a remarkable musical discovery. Composer and pianist Stuart Mitchell tells how he and his father worked for 27 years to decode a musical score hidden in symbols carved in the chapel's arches.

Introducing our Video Contest

Soundcheck

John Schaefer gives the lowdown on Soundcheck's music video challenge with the Fiery Furnaces.

In Studio: Angel Deradoorian

Soundcheck

The 22-year-old multi-instrumentalist performs live in our studio.

Cucu Diamantes Performs Amor Cronico

Soundcheck

Cucu Diamantes went from a tough childhood in Havana, Cuba, to an art school in Rome to underground New York City, where she co-founded the Latin alternative band Yerba Buena.

In Studio: Stephanie McKay

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The local singer-songwriter performs "Jackson Avenue," a nostalgic toast to her childhood in the South Bronx.

In Studio: The Decemberists

The Portland, Ore., band's latest album, "The Hazards of Love," is a concept album with a mythological flair. They joined Soundcheck to play live for a studio audience in WNYC's Greene Space.

Sound Off

Soundcheck

Throughout May, Soundcheck presents “Sound Off” a Friday series on the many aspects of noise in music and our lives. The series -- which coincides with “Better Hearing and Speech Month” -- looks at issues like New York’s noisiest neighborhoods, the latest research on iPods and hearing loss, and what happens when noise becomes a musical ingredient.