Pioneer Radio

Pioneer Radio was a monthly, one hour mosaic of stories, interviews, research, music, and more.

Each episode centered loosely around a theme – but we strayed pretty far, sometimes. The production team gave themselves three rules to follow for each episode – rules about time, sound, and topic (for example). We were based in Guelph, Ontario (Canada!) at a campus and community radio station called CFRU 93.3FM. 

Here are some of my favo(u)rite pieces from almost four years of episodes.

There is a cemetery just outside of Toronto – nestled between two diverging highway overpasses, under the flight pattern of daily jumbo jets, and within smelling distance of an enormous brewery. Believe it or not, the cemetery is called “Richview” and at least 110 of the bodies buried there came from plots nearby.

Instructions for how to hold your breath while your life's work is subject to a controlled explosion.

Spicy. Smooth. Unsavoury. Delectable. The words we use to describe our food are anything but neutral. So, how much does it matter that we call about half of Toronto a “food desert” and the people that live there “food insecure”? In this piece, made at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, I  tried to find out – about the power of language to shape communities – and about the moments when food speaks louder than words.

Kudzu is an invasive species of vine, introduced to the southern United States' highway system by my great, great Uncle Friday. Music by Reilly Jones

Back before my buddy Chris Ryan was in the band Deer Tick, we were college kids together. We didn’t have any money, and we weren’t cool enough to party like our peers. But we had gumption, and 13 other supportive, crazy, devil-may-care friends. This is a story about our youthful hijinx and just one of the ways we abused the public property of the State of Rhode Island.

Pleasant Pond, New Hampshire. The site of one of the most epic battles in Survivor history.

An expedition into the Fisher Rare Books Library at the University of Toronto.

For years, Jenny Mitchell (of the Barmitzvah Brothers, Jenny Omnichord, and Bird City) traveled across Canada, playing music in bars and giving haircuts in back rooms in exchange for stories. She hoped to compile those stories into a coffee table book – she even got an excited shout-out from Stuart McLean about the project before it was done. But her plans were derailed and, in the face of hundreds of audio files spread across dozens of hard drives and tape recorders, she just can’t seem to gather the will to finish the project. Yet…