Prologue
Berrien Springs, Michigan
A Midwestern family records a "letter on tape" to their son, who is in medical school in California. Three decades later, the recording somehow ends up in a thrift store. The tape gives a complicated portrait of what goes on among the family members. Mother wishes that Father were more religious. Daughter is miffed because Dad won't help her solve her financial problems. Dad tells corny jokes and talks enthusiastically about machines, extrusions and drills used for the family business run from the basement — a business everyone else in the family resents. And after the old tapes, Ira interviews the son they were sending these to, Arthur Davis. (26 minutes)
Baltimore
Ira plays tapes of his own father, Barry, who was a radio deejay in the mid-1950s. Barry gave up spinning records when he decided that he couldn't make a decent living at it, and for over a decade he was against his son going into radio, not wanting him to waste time the way he did. (14 minutes)
Chicago
Nora Moreno with tapes of her father, a pioneer in Spanish-language broadcasting in America. Her mother fell in love with her father because of his poetic character on the radio, but in real life, the very things that attracted her to him over the radio drove them apart. (13 minutes)
Related
Act Three: A Bad Day For Plates
Act Three: A Small Personal Act
Act Four: Noble Calling
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