Dunaway @ Tumblr

For the last thirty years, I've documented the work of Pete Seeger, resulting in How Can I Keep From Singing? The Ballad of Pete Seeger, published by McGraw Hill in 1981 and revised, updated, and republished by Villard/Random House, 2008.

Having written half a dozen volumes of history and biography, my specialty is the presentation of folklore, literature, and history via broadcasting. I've been active in radio since 1972, but over the last dozen years I've been Executive Producer of award-winning national radio series for Public Radio International, including “Writing the Southwest” (1995); “Aldous Huxley's Brave New Worlds” (1998); “Across the Tracks: A Route 66 Story” (2001); and Pete Seeger: How Can I Keep From Singing? (2008). I'm currently a DJ for KUNM-FM and a professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
November 14

Today we baked a reel-to-reel tape in a food dehydrator.

Yes. You read that right.

We’re preparing some 45+ year-old reel-to-reel tapes for digitization. These are programs I’ve produced or recorded over the years and are in rough shape. Baking the old tape in a food dehydrator (like you would use to make jerky or dry fruits and vegetables in)for 2 to 3 hours revitalizes the tape and makes it usable.

It’s not recommended that you do it more than once, and you need to transfer the tape…