Getting To Know: April Baer

Can you guess who on the OPB Radio staff would like to don a gold lame dress and sing torch songs in smoky bars?

Name: April Baer

Position at OPB: OPB Morning Edition host

Date and Place of Birth: 1973 Marysville, Ohio

Education: BA, Ohio State University

Career Highs: Hosting my own call-in show in Cleveland. Doing features for NPR was also fun.

Secret Ambition: To at long last don that gold lamé dress and sing torch songs in smoky bars.

Weirdest Job: Definitely my two-year stint at a public access cable channel. An exercise in democracy - warts and all.

Favorite Books/Authors Recently Read: "Little Dorrit" Charles Dickens; "Life of Pi" Yann Martell; "If On a Winter's Night a Traveller "Italo Calvino; "The Tin Drum" Gunter Grass

Favorite Films: "The Philadelphia Story," Dead Man, "Wings of Desire," "The Hudsucker Proxy," "Barton Fink," "O Brother Where Art Thou?" or almost anything else by the Cohen Brothers

Earliest Political Memory: My mother taking me to a 'choice' rally in Columbus. I couldn't have been more than 7 or 8. Then-governor Dick Celeste and his then-wife Dagmar spoke. They were an amazing husband-and-wife team, not unlike the Clintons - although their meltdown was much less spectacular and sordid.

Best Interview: Two come to mind:

1. A guy who was organizing Cleveland's Guerilla Queer Bar movement. He and about 50 GLB friends would "invade" strategically chosen straight bars on Friday afternoons. They weren't making noisy statements or anything - just hanging out and having a good time. This was waaaaaaay before the gay marriage issue became hot. I thought it was a brave and inventive stab at integration and understanding. Also, it was clear he was putting fun first. Politics really should be more fun.

2. Pete Cary was Cleveland's first black TV reporter. He was not the most obvious man on the front line of civil rights, but hearing this guy talk about the things he had to put up with in a non-integrated newsroom was incredibly moving. And the way he faced the challenges could teach anyone a lesson in patience, dignity and class.

Most Interesting Interview: Hands down - Robert McNamara when he was doing the book tour for "Argument Without End" which he wrote about going back to Vietnam and meeting with his former adversaries. He's come into a remarkable and intense state in the last act of his life. Actually you can skip my interview and go see Errol Morris' excellent documentary, "The Fog of War," to get the full effect.

Most Challenging Interviewee: The author Susan Sontag. She eats nice little reporter girls for breakfast. But I still love her books.

Most Fun Interviewee: The Reverend Ivan Stang of the Church of the Subgenius. Praise Bob! Stang is the co-founder of a freewheeling fake religion that worships a square-jawed, fictional icon names J.R. Bob Dobbs. Stang's manner is one part Jimmy Swaggart, one part George Carlin. Hilarious.

Story You Wished You Had Covered: The 2002 race riots in Cincinnati. There is very little to prevent other American cities from boiling over the way Cincinnati did that spring. Looking at the lives of the disenfranchised - especially African-Americans in Ohio - I am still mystified about why it hasn't happened more often.

Favorite Music: I'm all over the road. I like some pomo rock, a lot of country and roots music. Working in Cleveland gave me an appreciation for jazz. But the stuff that's closest to my heart is I'd call salon music - Blossom Dearie, Paolo Conte, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Gillian Welsh, Billie Holiday … music that reads like a good book. I'm also very, very hot for the Kronos Quartet and their interpretations of Phillip Glass. The one area where I'm running a deficit is club music. I have no idea what people are dancing to right now. I guess it's something to do with my sleep schedule.

Least Favorite Music: Whatever sells.

Favorite Recording: Probably Stevie Wonder's "Fulfillingness First Finale." It's got everything! Love, religion, politics and some great beats.

Favorite Musicians/Groups: Morphine, Johnny Cash, Laurie Anderson, MeShell NdegeOcello, Jimmy Scott, David Byrne, Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

Favorite Music as a Child/Young Adult: Country!!! I've got a photo you will never see of me at age four, wearing Mickey Mouse ears, underwear and little else, singing "I Walk the Line."

Hobbies: Cooking, knitting, drinking, oops I mean reading. Moderate hiking and biking. I love movies, too.

Four Fantasy Dinner Guests: Edna St Vincent Millay, my friend Larry Collins, Tallulah Bankhead, and Mark Sandman, the late great lead singer of Morphine. Make sure he sits next to me.

Most Significant Event in Your Lifetime: Newswise? Probably 9-11. Personally, I think it was the death of my grandmother.

Hot Topic You Could Care Less About: Reality TV.

Most Unusual Job: Soda Jerk (three years in college)

Most Unforgettable Person You've Ever Met: He knows who he is.

Number One Pet Peeve: People who don't notice that the way they live affects others.

Worst Radio Blunder: Long story: This has to do with a live interview with a correspondent in Havana around the time of the Elian Gonzales flap. Sometimes you just have to know when to stop.

Favorite Radio Personality: Brooke Gladstone, the co-host of ON THE MEDIA. Her show is super-concentrated formula NPR... so smooth and brainy. I love Scott Simon, who taught me that radio journalists don't have to be alcoholic, ill-dressed, and bitter (not as though that's stopped some of us... ) And of course Ira Glass. The man revitalized a generation of radio people. Also NPR reporter John Burnett. I wish I could write like him.

Best Thing About Your Job: Meeting all those people! Also, it's nice always being on the leading edge of the day.

First Job: Pool girl at my grandparents' condo.

Best Vacation: The Lost Weekend in New Orleans! I'd love to tell you about it but I'd have to kill you.

One Thing Most People Would be Surprised to Know About You: I am not - repeat, NOT - a morning person.

The Oregon Symphony on OPB

You can now enjoy the Oregon Symphony's 2004-2005 Season — conducted by Music Director Carlos Kalmar — the first Friday of every month on OPB radio from 9-11p.m. starting January 7 with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony No. 6.

Learn more about the Oregon Synphony