Joe in the news

April 5, 1983 Joe Frank: Dramas With a Twist for NPR By Richard Harrington in The Washington Post November 22, 1987 Radio Noir: On the Air, a Voice Like Dirty Honey Tells Stories Grim as Nightmares. If You Think Radio Is All Top 40, You Haven't Heard Joe Frank. By Jamie Diamond in Los Angeles Times March 15, 1988 Radio's Prince of Darkness Rules the Freeways By Kathleen Hughes in The Wall Street Journal June 16, 1988 ‘Joe Frank's three-part series “Rent a Family” won the Corp. for Public Broadcasting's Radio Program Award for best performance.’ from the Los Angeles Times August 4, 1988 On Air: Joe Frank's Radio Makes Waves By Drew Wilson in Chicago Reader December 26, 1988 ‘Joe Frank Adds Own Realism to Radio Drama ’ By KRISTINE McKENNA for the Los Angeles Times September 1, 1989 Talk Radio: If video killed the radio star, why is Joe Frank alive? By David Carpenter in Spin March 22, 1989 Frankly, Joe's Branching Out By Dick Lochte in Los Angeles Magazine 'Rent a Family' Pays Price for Taking on a Radio Play By Sylvie Drake in Los Angeles Times March 24, 1989 Rent a Family hits Home on Issue of Commitment By Tom Stringer in Los Angeles Reader April 23, 1989 ‘Radio's Joe Frank Ventures Onto Stage’ By JANICE ARKATOV in the Los Angeles Times Joe brings “Rent a Family” to the stage April 25, 1989 Joe Frank Sets Radio Voice, Vision on Stage By Robert Koehler in Los Angeles Times May 5–11, 1989 Mr. Insomnia - the art of high anxiety By Steven Mikulan in LA Weekly September 1, 1989 View from the top By Kate Lynch in Penthouse November 1, 1989 The Dark Progress of Joe Frank By Ralph Rugoff in LA Style 1990 ‘One-armed guitarists and other “Works in Progress”’ - an interview with Joe Rob Bates's interview with Joe for “Boston Rock” - sometime in 1990 April 1, 1990 Press release, KCRW 1990 April From KCRW 1991 January Irwin Chusid interviews Joe Frank for WFMU, 1991 January November 6, 1993 ‘Joe Frank Is Quite Happy Being Back “In the Dark” : Radio: After a two-year hiatus from KCRW-FM, the writer-performer has returned to continue his exploration of love, death and values.’ By STEVE APPLEFORD in the Los Angeles Times 1994 Douglas Mcgowan's interview of Joe By Douglas McGowan March 1, 1994 ‘BOOK REVIEW / SHORT STORIES : Vivid Glimpses of Bleak and Isolated Lives : THE QUEEN OF PUERTO RICO AND OTHER STORIES’ by Joe Frank’ by MICHAEL DORRIS for the Los Angeles Times November 24, 1996 Joe buys Bonnie Bedelia's house in Santa Monica by Ruth Ryon for the Los Angeles Times Joe buys 1021 Georgina Avenue for 1.01M August 29, 1997 Signing off: Joe Frank is Off the Air By Steve Lowery in LA Weekly late 1998 - early 1999 ‘Joe Frank - Voice of Darkness’ Jeff Rice's article about Joe for SF Weekly October 1, 1999 ‘Joe Frank Plans Return to Airwaves on KCRW’ in the Los Angeles Times March 7, 2000 ‘Public radio's bad dream’ By Susan Emerling in Salon Joe Frank conjures up the nightmares that "This American Life" and "Prairie Home Companion" have when they go home at night. early 2003 Katherine Wessling's interview with Joe for ‘Speak’ magazine, early 2003 March 7, 2004 ‘The Bleep That Never Was’ by Sandra Tsing Loh. She explains why she lost her show on KCRW, mentions Joe. June 26, 2005 Joe Frank, Radio's Brilliant Purveyor of Postmodern Noir, Has Been in the Hospital By Andrew Hearst May 27, 2008 Mid-'80s Martin Scorsese Classic Also His Best Accidental NPR Rip-Off From Gawker The Scandalous Origins of Martin Scorsese's After Hours By Andrew Hearst September 17, 2008 Joe Frank: off the radio By Kristine McKenna in LA Weekly January 25, 2010 Radio Survivor's top radio shows - Matthew's #5: Joe Frank, Work-in-Progress Matthew Lasar's commentary on Joe for ‘Radio Survivor’ February 1, 2011 ‘Joe Frank, public radio icon, might chuck the $8 cane’ by James Rainey A review of Joe's live show February 2, 2011 On the Media: Joe Frank gets personal By James Rainey in Los Angeles Times The radio dramatist explains where some of this darkness comes from (but won't get into particulars on why he left KCRW). September 16, 2011 Alex Yablon writes about Joe for ‘The Point’ magazine March 14, 2013 Ira Glass on Joe March/April 2013 Jonathan Goldstein's interview with Joe By Jonathan Goldstein in The Believer January 16, 2018 LA Observed Notes: Joe Frank RIP By Kevin Roderick in LA Observed Madeleine Brand remembers Joe on KCRW's ‘Press Play’ By Madeleine Brand on KCRW HITS Daily Double on Joe ‘Hearing Voices’ remembers Joe January 18, 2018 KCRW remembers radio artist Joe Frank By Avishay Artsy on KCRW January 19, 2018 Fans of Joe Frank remember the storyteller’s dark sonic magic By Jon Kalish in Current ‘Joe Frank Signs Off’ By Mark Oppenheimer in Slate Joe's final interview. Joe Frank: The Known-Unknown By Brooke Gladstone on On the Media ‘Joe Frank, Spinner of Strange Radio Tales, Is Dead at 79’ By James Rainey in Los Angeles Times January 24, 2018 ‘Joe Frank, who pushed the boundaries of radio storytelling, dies at 79’ By Steve Marble in Los Angeles Times January 25, 2018 Joe Frank, Radio Host and Producer, 79 By Avishay Artsy in Jewish Journal Joe Frank and football uniforms By Frances Anderton on KCRW KCRW's Frances Anderton gets Joe's opinions about football uniforms. January 31, 2018 ‘In Memoriam: The Real Joe Frank’ By Esmé Gregson in The Argonaut Newsweekly January 2018 WNYC remembers Joe June 15, 2021 ‘Joe Frank: Somewhere Out There’ Explores Life of Radio Legend Pete Schwaba remembers Joe for Wisconsin PBS September 9, 2018 The Radio Auteur: Joe Frank, Ira Glass, and Narrative Radio by Andrew Leland for ‘The New York Review of Books’ - ‘Through his broadcasts over the course of forty years, Joe Frank, who died at seventy-nine this past January, brought the notion of the auteur to American radio.’

Spin Magazine, September 1, 1989

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Special Thanks
I thank Simson Garfinkel, who maintains a page of articles about Joe Frank and provides scanned PDFs as the only source for some of these articles.