FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 25, 2014

MEDIA CONTACT: Mariesa Bus, Marketing Coordinator Phone: 253.573.2507 | Email: [email protected] | Web: BroadwayCenter.org

Reinventing Radio: An Afternoon with Takes a Look into May 4 at Tacoma’s Pantages Theater

Media Sponsors: Anagram Press, KPLU, KUOW

Tacoma, WA – On Sunday, May 4 at 3:00 p.m., NPR host Ira Glass takes a riveting looking into This American Life, the public radio show that continues to push the boundaries of broadcast journalism. For one afternoon only, join Ira Glass – radio pioneer, host, and creator of This American Life as he recreates the sound of the show by mixing live onstage stories with pre-taped quotes and music. Glass will discuss how his popular show is created, what makes a compelling story, and where he and his staff find the amazing people behind the stories featured on the show. Tickets are on sale now.

This American Life is a weekly public radio show broadcast on more than 500 stations to about 2.1 million listeners. It is produced by Public Media, distributed by Public Radio International, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards. It is also the most popular podcast in the country, with around one million people downloading each week. This American Life, with NPR News, is a co-producer of the economics podcast and blog Planet Money. And a half dozen stories from This American Life are being developed into films.

Ira Glass began working in public radio in 1978, when he was 19, as an intern at NPR's headquarters in DC. Over the next 17 years, he worked on nearly every NPR news show and in nearly every production job they had: tape-cutter, desk assistant, newscast writer, editor, producer, reporter, and substitute host. He spent a year in a high school for NPR, and a year in an elementary school, filing stories for All Things Considered. He moved to Chicago in 1989 and put This American Life on the air in 1995.

Tickets for Reinventing Radio: An Afternoon with Ira Glass are $29, $49, $59, and $75. Tickets may be purchased through the Broadway Center Box Office at 253.591.5894, toll-free 1.800.291.7593, in person at 901 Broadway in Tacoma’s Theater District or online at www.broadwaycenter.org.

# # #

The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the following for support of the 2013-14 Season: ArtsFund, Ben B. Cheney Foundation, The Boeing Company, City of Tacoma, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, The News Tribune, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and Pierce County Arts Commission.