It's a long, long way from WFMT in Chicago to KRCB in Sonoma County. But there's a living link between the two stations.
You can hear it loudly and clearly on "Walks of Life," communications professor Jonah Raskin's weekly radio program that airs every Friday at 6:30 p.m. at 91.9 FM and 90.9 FM on the dial.
Inspired by Studs Terkel, WFMT's legendary broadcaster, as well as the author of "Working," "Division Street: America," and "Hard Times," Raskin says he has created a short radio program "about ordinary people who do extraordinary things."
There's Michael Saaks who makes waking sticks from the limbs of fallen trees, Chester Aaron who grows more than 90 different varieties of garlic, Rim and Razzan Zahra two Syrian-born sisters who teach Arabic, and Martin Andrews who has spent his whole life tuning and playing pianos all over America.
Like Terkel, Raskin says he has a profound curiosity about people in all walks of life. Like Terkel, he has a willingness to seek them out wherever they may be and he has an eagerness to listen to their stories and bring them to an audience of radio listeners.
To do his show, Raskin travels throughout northern California. He talks to men and women who were born here and raised here, and people who have only just arrived from the East, the South and from all over the world. Tom Gonnella bakes bread, like his grandfather who emigrated from Italy. Lee and Shirley Walker go on growing apples, while their neighbors have turned to grapes.
Jim Sullivan, who was born and raised in Santa Rosa in a large Irish family, devotes his life to keeping land in agriculture and in wilderness. Constance Miles is a nurse and a mid-wife who has delivered thousands of babies to all sorts of couples. Mauricio Torres is a Chilean who works in the vineyards in Sonoma County.
Raskin's program offers profiles of unique individuals, and at the same time it offers a profile of a unique place. "Walks of Life" celebrates the work that people do and the passions that govern their lives, says Raskin.
"It reveals northern California as a place of surprising cultural diversity and depth. It's a program that regular listeners call Terkelesque, a program that's poignant and funny, folksy and sophisticated."
Raskin is chair of the Communications Department at Sonoma State University.
