Listen to Ray Brown’s Talkin’ Birds
Back in the early 1990s, Ray Brown hosted a weekend call-in talk show on Boston’s WBZ radio, which featured a wide range of world, national, and local issues. But the topic that generated the greatest number of calls, lighting up the lines throughout the program and for half an hour after the program ended, was bird watching!
This phenomenon was demonstrated again and again as Ray re-introduced this topic on subsequent programs. And the call volume was followed by a remarkable flow of mail from backyard bird watchers, adventure birders, bird-watching clubs, and groups with special projects.
That experience convinced Ray that a radio program about birds was a viable concept, and, he finally set about putting such a program together. He convinced WATD-FM on Massachusetts' South Shore that this concept could work, and in April of 2005 the show had its debut. It has proven to be a great success, drawing phone calls from over 25 cities and towns in southeastern Massachusetts, and earning great support from listeners and advertisers alike.
BWD editor Bill Thompson, III, was a guest on the show in October to talk about his new book Identify Yourself: The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges (Houghton Mifflin, May 2005).
Now everyone can tune in to hear the program. It is live every Sunday, 9:30 to 10 a.m. on 95.9 WATD-FM or by streaming on 959watd.com. Listening to past broadcasts of Talkin' Birds is easy by subscribing to a podcast feed or by directly downloading files from our "Talkin' Birds Show Archive" section. Information about both options is available on the show’s website. Check out www.talkinbirds.com/about.html for more information.
