RADIO: TELLING AMERICAN TALES

Joe Caracciolo didn't think he was making history when he delivered a baby on a subway car. Neither did Reggie Jones when he stuck with his lifeguard job at New York's Jones Beach for 60 years. Now, thanks to StoryCorps, a nationwide oral-history project, their stories just might. The effort is a throwback to the Works Progress Administration's projct that recorded stories from ordinary Americans from 1936 to 1940. StoryCorps will open soundproof studios across the country--the first opens on Oct. 18 in New York's Grand Central Terminal--where people can interview friends and family members about their lives with the help of a trained facilitator. You may just learn something new about Grandma: "A microphone allows you to talk about things you wouldn't ordinarily say," says the creator of StoryCorps, David Isay. The project, financed by a $50,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, will also make oral-history recording kits available at libraries for those who can't make it to the StoryBooths. At the end of each 40-minute interview session, participants will receive a CD with their story; another copy will go to the StoryCorps archive. The StoryBooth in Grand Central has paired up with its local public-radio station, WNYC, and Isay is hoping other locations will follow suit. WNYC will choose interview excerpts to play on "The Brian Lehrer Show," while the best of the best will make it to National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." Potential historians will be able to schedule their interview at storycorps.net, which will also have tips on how to record and edit oral histories. "I dream of the day that kids will trade these things as MP3s," Isay says. But while you may not want to groove to Grandma's sound bite, it will sure get you to listen up.