In-depth reporting by AM 580 News
Listen to the latest AM 580 Newscast:
Play now:
Story category: arts and culture
"Extreme Makeover" and the Good and Bad of Reality TV
Story air date: Friday, October 23, 2009
Sunday night, America will see the fantasy that Philo residents Nathan and Jenny Montgomery and their family have been living since last August. The ABC reality show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” destroyed the family’s dilapidated home and built them a new one, filled with new furnishings. Nathan Montgomery’s creation of the Salt and Light food bank helped get them selected.
“Extreme Makeover” belongs to a TV genre that’s often pummeled by critics for hype, over-commercialization and lowest-common-denominator values. But University of Illinois media observer James Hay says reality TV has real roots. He tells AM 580’s Tom Rogers the shows grew out of an ethic that took hold as the century changed and Americans chose a conservative government.
Audio archives:
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Story extras:
Listen to the full interview with Professor James Hay:
Play now:
Story categories:
arts and culture • community life • entertainment • mediaThe Movies and Science
Story air date: Friday, May 29, 2009
Researchers have found an opportunity for public education in a Hollywood blockbuster. “The DaVinci Code” offered a rich backdrop of religious history in laying out its plot. And in its sequel “Angels and Demons,” author Dan Brown injects physics – the Vatican is threatened by a bomb planted by the shadowy organization the Illuminati. Its explosive charge is based on antimatter stolen from CERN, the Swiss particle physics laboratory that produces antimatter in its Large Hadron Collider. Physicists want to step in with some caveats. University of Illinois professor Kevin Pitts says CERN, the collider and antimatter are very real, but he tells AM 580's Tom Rogers that antimatter’s potential is just starting to be realized.
Audio archives:
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Story categories:
arts and culture • entertainment • science • technologyMarrying Technology with the Arts and Humanities
Story air date: Monday, April 20, 2009
From your computer screen to your cellphone to much of what you hear on this radio station, the world is filled with digital media that make it possible for people to express themselves in ways unheard of a generation ago. Now, the University of Illinois is launching a new institute dedicated to promoting arts that use digital media. It’s called the edream Institute. AM 580’s Jim Meadows spoke with its director, Dr. Donna Cox.
Audio archives:
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Story extras:
Listen to the full interview with Donna Cox:
Play now:
Guy Garnett, U of I Associate Professor of Music and edream Institute Research Director, talks with Jim Meadows about his music/digital media composition, which will be performed as part of the digital media performance, “Bluelights in the Basement.":
Play now:
Story categories:
arts and culture • culture • media • science • technology • University of IllinoisIllinois Wines Make Headway
Story air date: Monday, February 09, 2009
Illinois has recently seen a surge of wine production. But is it on par with legendary wine regions elsewhere? AM 580 intern Whitney Wyckoff traveled to Vermilion County, where a part of the prairie has become a vineyard.
Audio archives:
Play now:
Download: mp3 file
Story links:
Story categories:
arts and culture • business • community life • lifestyleA Comedic Look at Urbana History
Story air date: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
A six foot long cake loaded with historical pictures and live music highlighted Urbana's 175th birthday celebration at Lincoln Square Village. History was the theme -- and not just in edible form. Historians tell us that Urbana's founding fathers had a name before they even found a perfect location for the city. The Zoo Theatre Improv Group (R to L: Sean Whitsitt, Aubrey Wachtel and Brian Hagy) has put its spin on the unusual founding of Urbana, and how it might have been when Abraham Lincoln came to Urbana for the very first time.
