ADIRONDACK ATTIC RADIO SERIES

Go behind the scenes at many of the Adirondack region’s museums and explore history in the Adirondack Attic.

Your personal guide, Andy Flynn, will dig up some of the most interesting artifacts in storage and on display in the North Country’s museum collections. It’s time for some Adirondack history.

Andy has one challenge: Pick an object, any object, and let’s see what stories it can tell. With thousands of artifacts in museums across northern New York, there are thousands of stories just waiting to be told. Join Andy as he discovers your history in the Adirondack Attic.

The Adirondack Attic Radio Series airs the first Tuesday of the month during the Eight O'Clock Hour with Todd Moe on North Country Public Radio (find your frequency here). Each program is about 5 minutes.

THE PROGRAMS: Season 1

Show #1: Blue Mountain House Sketchbook, Adirondack Museum (April 23, 2010)
Show #2: Highway Hi-Fi, Automobile Record Player, Adirondack Museum (May 25, 2010)
Show #3: Horseshoe Forestry Company Wine Bottle Corking Machine, Adirondack Museum (June 1, 2010)
Show #4: Mohawk pottery from the Six Nations Indian Museum (July 6, 2010)
Show #5: Photo Album from the Clark Family Farm in Cranberry Lake, Adirondack Museum (Aug. 3, 2010)
Show #6: TBA (Sept. 7, 2010)
Show #7: TBA (Oct. 5, 2010)
Show #8: TBA (Nov. 2, 2010)
Show #9:TBA (Dec. 7, 2010)
Show #10:TBA (January 2011)
Show #11:TBA (February 2011)
Show #12:TBA (March 2011)
Show #13: TBA (April 2011)

Listen to the Adirondack Attic 60-second promo.

SPONSORS

The radio program is sponsored by Hungry Bear Publishing, Dan Berggren and the Adirondack Museum and will be found exclusively on North Country Public Radio in Canton, N.Y.

Listen to the "Adirondack Attic" song by Dan Berggren.

ADIRONDACK ATTIC: ABOUT THE HOST

Andy Flynn is a curious guy with a taste for history. When he was a kid, he was first fascinated by history when his family visited President Theodore Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Family vacations always brought them to museums, and Andy was hooked from the start. Now he can’t get enough.

Andy wrapped his curiosity around his love for writing and telling stories. Now he’s an award-winning author and publisher living in Saranac Lake, N.Y., where he owns/operates Hungry Bear Publishing with his wife, Dawn. In 2008, he was awarded a Certificate of Commendation from the Upstate History Alliance for the Adirondack Attic History Project, which he founded in 2003 to actively preserve Adirondack history by collecting artifact-based, human-interest stories.

Andy has written and published a six-volume series of “Adirondack Attic” books that feature stories about the artifact collections at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, and his popular “Adirondack Attic” column ran in several northern New York newspapers from 2003 to 2009. Andy also publishes the Meet the Town community guide series for seven communities in the North Country. He continues to promote the heritage and communities of the Adirondack region with his publications and lecture programs.

From 2001 to 2009, Andy was employed as the Senior Public Information Specialist at the Adirondack Park Agency Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) in Paul Smiths. Prior to the VIC, he was a writer and managing editor for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake and the Lake Placid News, a correspondent for the Plattsburgh Press-Republican, an announcer for WNBZ 1240-AM in Saranac Lake, and a general assignment news reporter and radio documentary producer for North Country Public Radio in Canton. He is a graduate of the SUNY College at Fredonia (B.S. Communication/Radio Production) and the Tupper Lake High School.

ADIRONDACK ATTIC: ABOUT THE MUSEUM

The Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake serves as “History Headquarters” for Andy Flynn’s Adirondack Attic radio show. They first teamed up in 2003 to produce a weekly newspaper column, “Adirondack Attic,” which ran until May 2009. Now they’re taking their history lessons to the airwaves of North Country Public Radio.

With tens of thousands of artifacts in the storage and display areas of the Adirondack Museum, and a team of knowledgeable curators by his side, Andy finds human-interest stories that help define the history of this unique region of New York state.

Founded in 1957, the Adirondack Museum is located on the grounds of the former Blue Mountain House, a hotel serving travelers from 1874 to 1953 in the Hamilton County hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y. The museum is renowned for the breadth of its collections that include historic artifacts, photographs, archival materials, and fine art documenting the Adirondack region's past. Twenty-two exhibit spaces and galleries tell the stories of the men and women who have lived, worked and played in the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi River. The museum includes a research library, publications program, and an active education department that offers special events, classes, symposia, workshops, demonstrations, field trips, and engaging hands-on experiences for thousands of visitors each year.

ADIRONDACK ATTIC: ABOUT THE MUSIC

Dan Berggren was Andy Flynn’s radio professor at SUNY Fredonia from 1988 to 1991. Their Adirondack roots and deep appreciation for regional history set the stage for the Adirondack Attic radio show collaboration. Dan, by the way, wrote the “Adirondack Attic” song in 2008 as a tribute to Andy’s work with the Adirondack Museum.

Dan’s roots are firmly in the Adirondacks where he was raised, but his music has branched out across many borders. The award-winning musician and educator grew up in the Essex County town of Minerva on the land farmed by his mother's family for four generations.  Dan has entertained audiences throughout New York state, from Kentucky to Texas, Vermont to Michigan, and overseas in Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Transylvania and Central Africa.

Dan held various jobs before devoting his life to music full-time: working in the woods with a forest ranger and surveyor; radio producer in Europe; and professor of audio and radio studies for SUNY Fredonia. He currently lives in Ballston Spa, N.Y. where he owns and operates Sleeping Giant Records which has produced 14 albums since 1985.

Dan’s most recent release is the 2009 album “North River, North Woods,” a collaboration with John Kirk, Chris Shaw, Cedar Stanistreet and Ann Downey of the Canadian folk group Finest Kind. The CD features a blend of instrumentals and ballads from New York state's North Country.

Dan is professor emeritus of audio and radio studies at the State University of New York College at Fredonia, where he received the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1992. In that same year the New York State Outdoor Education Association presented him with its Art and Literary Award. Dan was recognized in 2001 by St. Lawrence University as a Distinguished Alumnus, by the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks with its Heritage Award and most recently, he was the recipient of the Adirondack Mountain Club's Education Award.

Listen to the "Adirondack Attic" song by Dan Berggren.

ADIRONDACK ATTIC: ABOUT THE RADIO STATION

Adirondack Attic host Andy Flynn is no stranger to North Country Public Radio. When he returned home to the Adirondack Park in 1991 after graduating from SUNY Fredonia with a bachelor’s degree in radio production, he began volunteering at NCPR to produce radio documentaries. In October 1992, he was hired as a part-time general assignment news reporter. Alas, the mountains beckoned and Andy returned to the Adirondacks in August 1993, homesick and hungry for a career among the wild lands surrounding his hometown of Tupper Lake. Yet, like Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines, Andy finally returned to North Country Public Radio.

Based in the St. Lawrence County village of Canton, N.Y., NCPR operates a network of 32 transmitters broadcasting to the entire Adirondack North Country, western Vermont and southeastern Ontario. The commercial-free format includes a wide variety of programs from National Public Radio including All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Fresh Air and more. NCPR's award-winning news team can be heard weekdays at 8 a.m. with regional news broadcasts, features and interviews. The station also airs an eclectic mix of locally-hosted music programs.

Donations from listeners sustain NCPR's day-to-day operation. In fact, the single largest segment of our funding comes from household members and regional businesses. Total community giving exceeds $1.3 million annually.

In addition to North Country Public Radio's on-air signal, the station operates a comprehensive Web site, and is the emergency broadcast service for many communities in the region. North Country Public Radio is licensed to St. Lawrence University.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS