NPR

In an exercise sure to start arguments among music lovers, National Public Radio has created its list of the 100 most important American musical works of the century.There are plenty of standards here and a few surprises. "White Christmas," "Maybellene," "Appalachian Spring," and the songs from "Porgy and Bess" are works you'd expect on any compilation of this country's 20th-century music. What distinguishes NPR's list is that Robert Johnson's "Hellhound On My Trail," John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" also make the top 100.The list started with 300 songs suggested by a group of producers, artists and experts familiar to NPR. In mid-October, NPR allowed the public to vote on the selection.

Susan Stamberg doesn't mind being referred to as one of the founding mothers of National Public Radio, even if that does make her sound more like a museum piece than a working journalist.And, like all good mothers. Stamberg believes the best of NPR is yet to come."Oh, absolutely," she says over the phone from her Washington office, where she continues to report as a special correspondent for NPR, concentrating on cultural affairs (which includes, she jokes, everything that "is not Wall Street or the White House or Capitol Hill")

National Public Radio has its critics and continuing crises, including the never-ending battle against funding cuts and concerns about its programming inching toward the commercial mainstream.But to many U.S. record companies, it can do no wrong. For them, the nonprofit network, founded in 1970, provides un-rivaled publicity and air time for nonmainstream acts that translate into exposure and sales.The network (heard locally on WJHU, 88.1 FM) gives its largely upscale, adult listeners big spoonfuls of jazz, folk, roots, classical and world music, accompanied by explanatory chats that run anywhere from a minute to a quarter-hour.

It was serendipity that made the all-female instrumental group Ensemble Galilei into what it is today -- all-female.The group, best-known for medieval, Celtic and traditional folk music, had been together since 1990, but in different incarnations, says group member and spokeswoman Carolyn Anderson Surrick."

In the Today section of yesterday's Sun, a story about a new general manager at WJHU-FM (88.1) incorrectly reported the status of former general manager Dennis Kita. Kita left WJHU in July for a position with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.The Sun regrets the error.Perhaps it's only fair, considering it lost its last general manager to National Public Radio, that Johns Hopkins University's radio station has plucked its new GM from the same operation.Following a six-month search, Raymond G. Dilley, director of NPR's international service, has been named to head operations at WJHU-FM (88.1)

Three weeks into his job as general manager of WJHU-FM (88.1), Ray Dilley is sure of only one thing: He wants more.More listeners -- and more money from them. More locally produced programming. More discussion of issues relevant to Baltimore.Not, he's quick to stress, that he's unhappy with the direction WJHU has chosen, including its hotly debated shift in summer 1995 from classical music to National Public Radio. But when he talks about his plans for the station, he keeps coming back to the same word: potential.

Remember the film "The Great Race" (1965), with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as contending racers in the early automobile era? Ra- dio listeners can tune in a modern version of the event via WXCY-FM (103.7) in Havre de Grace on the Fourth of July.Tydings Park, in this town on the Susquehanna River, is the only Maryland stopover of the third annual "Great American Road Race," in which 100 vintage and antique autos are racing from Ottawa, Canada, to Mexico City.WXCY morning deejays Rico and Burt plan live coverage of the arrival of the cars from 5:30 a.m.-10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Robert Siegel says the best interviews on National Public Radio are often with old people.He should know. Mr. Siegel, a host of NPR's "All Things Considered" evening news report, is currently in the final stages of compiling a second volume of "The NPR Interviews," a collection of excerpts from NPR programs conducted in 1994 and due out in the fall.He also compiled the first "NPR Interviews" (1993 excerpts), released late last year (Houghton Mifflin, $24.95). And he will be talking about the process of translating oral interviews into compelling print in a Baltimore appearance next week on behalf of Friends of WJHU, a support organization for WJHU-FM (88.1)

Our customers are showing up on Saturday mornings armed with lists of titles reviewed in NPR's book sessons and in newspaper reviews. Titles such as William Trevor's "Felicia's Journey" and Alice Munro's "Open Secrets" have been "buzz books" of late. Bestsellers or backlisted, the titles our patrons crave are good literature, plain and simple.

Bob Edwards knows that when his reassuring voice opens "Morning Edition" every day at 6 a.m., he connects with millions of listeners, somehow intimately."

National Public Radio announced yesterday that it is canceling two programs and eliminating 64 jobs, blaming a "sharp" decline in corporate underwriting and other revenues. The move, part of an overall 7 percent work force reduction, comes as NPR's radio and Web audience has been growing. About 26.4 million people are listening to the NPR programs every week, while its Web site, npr.org, is getting 8 million visitors a month. NPR officials had projected a "manageable" $2 million deficit for fiscal 2009, on a budget of $168 million.

LEROY SIEVERS, 53 NPR commentator Leroy Sievers, a National Public Radio commentator who turned his battle with cancer into a popular and touching radio and online series, died of the disease Friday at his Maryland home, NPR announced Saturday. He received a diagnosis of colon cancer in 2001. In 2005, cancer was found in his brain and lungs. A report on his chemotherapy treatments in February 2006 was broadcast on Morning Edition and met with an enthusiastic response from listeners.

Jonathan Leshnoff has been the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra's composer-in-residence for two years, but his works have been featured every season since 2005. His trombone concerto will be performed in October, and he will have a CD coming out in February, featuring his violin concerto. "With an orchestra, you have an infinite amount of colors to play with," said Leshnoff. "It's like being a kid in a toy store. It's an infinite amount of fun and exhilaration." "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury I find it curious how this novel, written in the 1950s, speaks so directly to me today.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The major Democratic presidential contenders criticized President Bush yesterday for continuing to ratchet up danger warnings about Iran despite an intelligence report that shows Tehran has not pursued nuclear weaponry recently. In one of the final debates before Iowa holds its leadoff caucuses Jan. 3, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois also said he believed the next president might have to address the public on the need for "drastic" action to deal with global warning because research shows the problem might be accelerating.

Fronting his own band was initially an awkward experience for William Tell. For about five years, the former guitarist for the punk-lite pop group Something Corporate had become accustomed to standing on stage in the shadows, playing his instrument and adding background vocals. But all of that has changed with the release of his solo debut, You Can Hold Me Down. For the past three months or so, the Orange County, Calif., native has been on the road, promoting the record and working through his solo jitters.

But Forson has warmed to the idea of an Icelandic getaway -- and has resigned herself to being short of cash until she graduates this spring. Class, it's a moving-picture machine Variety recently ran an obituary on the nearly departed VHS tape. Picking up on that the other day, NPR's Morning Edition ran an old piece from 1972, with reporter Bill Toohey unveiling what was then a newfangled technology called "cartridge television." That aired Monday -- good timing for Toohey,an NPR pioneer who these days is spokesman for the Baltimore County police and an adjunct professor of mass communication atTowson University.

William K. Marimow, the former editor of The Sun, has resigned as head of news at National Public Radio, a position he had held only since February. The Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist will remain at NPR as its ombudsman, the listeners' representative and resident critic, a role that network officials said yesterday will benefit from his long experience as a journalist. Although he stepped down as vice president for news on Oct. 5, NPR executives told the staff about the move only yesterday.

Midway through his set of country rock at the 9:30 Club in Washington recently, Joey Burns of the band Calexico paused to say, "Hello to all of you out there in radioland." Never mind that the concert wasn't actually on the radio. Instead, it was on the Web. The show was streamed live on National Public Radio's Web site as part of a concert series that allows listeners to hear concerts in real time or download and save to their computers or iPods. For free. At a time when the music industry generally blames declining concert attendance and lackluster CD sales on the amount of free music available online, the NPR series represents an unusual cooperative arrangement in which everyone - the artist, the venue and the fan - is happy.

The top news executive at National Public Radio, who led the network to numerous awards and oversaw a large jump in listenership, announced his resignation yesterday. Bruce Drake, vice president for news for the past five years, said he would step down Sept. 30. Former Sun Editor William K. Marimow, now managing editor for national news at NPR, will become the acting vice president. Drake, 57, did not give a reason for his resignation after 14 years at NPR and declined to be interviewed yesterday.

MONTEREY, Calif. - Does the jilted former host of National Public Radio's Morning Edition ever listen to the show anymore? What a silly question. "Every morning," Bob Edwards said in a recent telephone interview. "Where else am I going to get my news?" And there it was - the famous voice, as thick and smooth as a chocolate milkshake. After 25 years, NPR switched that voice off in spring 2004. Now Edwards' career is up in the air, you might say, but in a good way - on XM Satellite Radio.