So It Turns Out We're Famous

The problem, in this line of work, this inexplicable Internetblogradio set of daily tasks, is that it’s very difficult to explain what you do. “I, uh, see,” I say, “there are blogs, and then we take them and make radio. Also, we have a blog. And sometimes we just make radio.” Sometimes I can make it sound cool. Often people are left with the impression that I am the webmaster for an NPR show, neither of which is true. (Open Source is distributed by PRI.) I have no idea how difficult this is for everyone else who works at Open Source. Maybe I’m the only one who cares that his job sounds very, very cool.

Anyway, now I’ve got cool-job kryptonite: We’re in the New York Times.

With its long reliance on talk formats and call-in programs, radio was arguably the first open-source media form. Now a new Public Radio International program, “Open Source from P.R.I.,” will test whether the collective intelligence permeating the Web can make not just loud radio, but smart radio.

That’s right, Mom. The New York Times. That’s how important I am up here in Boston.

John Barth, station collaboration manager at PRX, a platform for the exchange of public radio programs, said one attraction of the blog is its openness about the program’s creation. It offers a ringside seat as the staff sorts through what works and what doesn’t. “I think they’re taking a really bold step,” Mr. Barth said.

Don’t tell anyone, but we know John Barth. But that doesn’t make him any less reliable.

Before his radio career, Mr. Lydon covered Washington politics for The New York Times in the 1970′s and anchored the evening news on WGBH in Boston for almost 15 years. Ms. McGrath previously was a producer for “The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour” and for a television program, now defunct, at The Christian Science Monitor.

So this is not so much a novelty for Chris and Mary.

Brendan Greeley designed the blog and maintains it. The blog differentiates the program from other public radio programs in that each listener can leave an immediate mark.

That’s right. Check out the kid.

To capture incoming blogs for the listening audience, Mr. Greeley will interrupt the program to read segments from the blog. “We conceived it sort of like the National League scores when you’re at a ballgame,” he explained.

First of all, this is Mary’s analogy. Second, I have already received the following IM:

Lane says: (12:07:52 PM)

National League scores? You’re in an AL town, man!