Quick Takes

OK Go’s Tiny Desk concert makes for an epic NPR move

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In a single video, for the song “All Is Not Lost,” rock band OK Go performed both the last-ever Tiny Desk concert at the former NPR headquarters and the first-ever concert at its new building. As Bob Boilen, Robin Hilton, Carl Kasell and others packed up and moved equipment from one location to another, the band played continuously (with the help of some creative editing) and even worked in some public radio–specific lyrics. OK Go, whose bandleader Damien Kulash formerly worked as an engineer for Chicago Public Radio, filmed the bit over two days in late March during NPR’s actual crosstown move. It took the crew 223 takes and six separate assemblies and disassemblies of the titular desk, according to Boilen. To all future Tiny Desk performers: The bar has been raised.

Programs/Content

Alaska Public Media’s new web-first series is part of its ‘video renaissance’

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Alaska Public Media has introduced a new weekly web-first series in what promises to be its “larger video renaissance.”

Indie Alaska, a weekly YouTube series profiling unique Alaskans, is co-produced with PBS Digital Studios and partially funded with a $10,000 Digital Entrepreneurs Grant from PBS. The show launched May 6 with an episode about a ski train polka band. Producers will deliver 52 episodes in total, with new ones debuting each Monday. Patrick Yack, chief content officer at Alaska Public Media, said the dual licensee plans to eventually repackage the episodes in a magazine-like format for TV broadcast and may adapt some for radio as well. The network broadcast promo spots for the series in addition to promoting it through social media.

People

Louis Cook, Native American broadcaster

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Louis Cook, a longtime host and producer for North Country Public Radio in Canton, N.Y., and a mentor to Native American broadcasters, died May 13 in Pine Ridge, S.D., of complications from a car accident. He was 66.

Quick Takes

David Sedaris is guest-hosting Selected Shorts all month

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Public radio favorite David Sedaris, a frequent contributor to This American Life and other programs, is hosting weekly episodes of Selected Shorts this month. The first show of the series, released for broadcast April 28, paid tribute to the late David Rakoff, a writer and This American Life contributor who died of cancer last year. Another episode includes readings of three Dorothy Parker stories, including one by actress Parker Posey. Sedaris himself read a story by Frank Gannon on the May 12 program. Selected Shorts is produced by WNYC and New York’s Symphony Space, and is distributed by Public Radio International.