Libraries’ Radio Show, ‘Sound Beat,’ Added by Major Outlets

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and Accessible Media Inc. have added “Sound Beat,” a 90-second daily feature highlighting the holdings of the Belfer Audio Archive. Belfer is part of the Syracuse University Libraries and is one of the largest sound archives in North America.

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio serves parts of seven northeastern states, including New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Stations and translators are in 20 locations throughout the region. Accessible Media Inc. is the second major outlet to pick up “Sound Beat” in recent weeks. Based in Toronto, AMI is the largest reader service in the world, serving more than five million Canadians who are blind, partially sighted, deaf, hard-of-hearing and/or mobility and print restricted.

Heard in nearly 200 markets across North America, “Sound Beat” takes listeners through the history of recorded sound. Each episode focuses on one particular recording from the archive and provides a back story detailing its place in recording history. Episodes feature both popular and seldom-heard recordings of musical performances from a spectrum-wide range of genres. Sound Beat also features speeches and spoken word performances from some of the great thinkers, political figures and luminaries from the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries.

The program’s on-air host is Brett Barry, a voice-over performer and SU alumnus, whose long list of credits includes national television and radio commercials, promos and audiobook narration. Jim O’Connor is head writer and producer. Students assist in the research and writing of episodes through the “Sound Beat” Class Partnership. “Sound Beat” is made possible in part by generous support from George W. Hamilton, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust.

For more information on “Sound Beat,” visit http://www.soundbeat.org.