It's hard to know what health care costs--even if you've paid your bills.

Health Care Pricing Is Complicated

On the 7th day, there were hotdogs. A week into their trip, the Dispatches from the Swing State team stumbled across Hot Diggity Dog, a roadside hotdog stand in Palm Coast. Reporter Kenny Malone brought us this dispatch, a grandfather/grandson team working near Palm Coast.


Dispatch from a Hotdog Stand

Dan Stratton, 53-yr-old billboard man from Jacksonvilles says hanging billboards is just business. He does admit, though, "it's a little easier" to hang a sign for his guy. This dispatch: the 2012 election from billboard guy's perspective.

Dan Stratton - A View from the Billboard

Today, November 6th 2012, is the 57th presidential election in United States history. Soon enough, our airwaves will be focused entirely on figuring out who is the winner of election number 57. But in this brief moment before the numbers start pouring in, we wanted to take a breath and talk about election number 37. From our Dispatches from the Swing State series, WLRN-Miami Herald Reporter Kenny Malone explains.

80 Years, 20 Elections, One Woman

Once a year, for the past 20 years, a group of Naples locals have been showing up for the annual "Old Timers Reunion". It's an event all about the way Gulf Coast life used to be. You can only get in if you lived through Hurricane Donna, which hit Collier County in 1960. Our Dispatches from the Swing State team happened to be driving through town during this year's reunion and brought us this dispatch, on walking to work and changing Naples.

Old Naples, New Politcs

(NOTES: The Storm uses stereophonic panning effects, best if listened to on headphones or a pair of hifi speakers. Every second of natural sound in this piece was recorded 20 years ago, during Hurricane Andrew.)

"The Storm," a non-narrated account of living through Hurricane Andrew, was the showpiece of WLRN-Miami Herald News' coverage of the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew.

Producer Kenny Malone wove together contemporary interviews, archival news footage, 911 calls, home videos and a reading of diplomatic document to create a one-of-a-kind experiential radio piece.

The Storm uses a chorus of voices that includes now-legendary weatherman Bryan Norcross and then 17-year-old Jenny Del Campo, whose house was destroyed by Andrew. The piece takes listeners from the early rain bands to the height of the chaos, when Jenny Del Campo's tough, Cuban father finally admitted defeat.

The sound and voices featured in "The Storm" come from more than 30 hours of interviews with more than three-dozen Hurricane Andrew survivors as well as more than 24 hours of archival audio and video. Phillip Grice, the British voice you'll hear reading the diplomatic document in the longer version of The Storm, was the actual British consul-general in Miami when Hurricane Andrew hit. WLRN-Miami Herald News tracked him down in Camarthen, Wales.

The "shortened version" of The Storm aired nationally on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. The full-length version aired locally on WLRN as a standalone feature. It was also included in WLRN's hour-long documentary Remembering Andrew. The documentary was carried by NPR member stations across Florida as well as by two of the country's most prominent stations: KUT in Austin, TX and WUNC in Chapel Hill, NC. 

Remembering Andrew: The Storm (full-length)

"The Storm," a non-narrated account of living through Hurricane Andrew, was the showpiece of WLRN-Miami Herald News' coverage of the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew.

Producer Kenny Malone wove together contemporary interviews, archival news footage, 911 calls and home videos to create a one-of-a-kind experiential radio piece.

The Storm uses a chorus of voices that includes now-legendary weatherman Bryan Norcross and a then 17-year-old girl whose house was destroyed by Andrew.

The sound and voices featured in "The Storm" come from more than 30 hours of interviews with more than three-dozen Hurricane Andrew survivors as well as more than 24 hours of archival audio and video.

The "shortened version" of The Storm aired nationally on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. The full-length version aired locally on WLRN as a standalone feature. It was also included in WLRN's hour-long documentary Remembering Andrew. The documentary was carried by NPR member stations across Florida as well as by two of the country's most prominent stations: KUT in Austin, TX and WUNC in Chapel Hill, NC. 


Remembering Andrew: The Storm (short version)

[NOTE: This is the first 30 minutes from the hour-long Remembering Andrew documentary]

On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew slammed into Miami-Dade County, destroying homes and lives and changing the landscape of South Florida forever. Twenty years later, WLRN collected stories from more than 100 homeowners, government officials and journalists who lived through the storm, commemorating the disaster for those who experienced it and recounting it for those who hadn't. Months of shoe-leather reporting, combined with aggressive use of social media, allowed us to uncover never-before-told stories. The Remembering Andrew project included a one-hour radio documentary, 15 drive-time radio features, and a regular feature at the Miami Science Museum planetarium.

The Remembering Andrew documentary stitches together found sound, archival news footage, 911 calls, a diplomatic report and contemporary interviews into an unforgettable account. This single hour of radio comes from more than thirty hours of interviews with nearly 50 Hurricane Andrew survivors. Our team uncovered and sifted through more than 24 hours of archival audio and video to piece together an experiential hour of radio about which one listener wrote, “Your show has me in tears. I was in Broward County and was scared. I can't imagine being in the middle of it.”

You can hear the full hour-long documentary at http://wlrnunderthesun.org/2012/08/remembering-andrew-listen-to-the-one-hour-documentary/

Remembering Andrew (30m Excerpt)

On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew slammed into Miami-Dade County, destroying homes and lives and changing the landscape of South Florida forever. Twenty years later, WLRN collected stories from more than 100 homeowners, government officials and journalists who lived through the storm, commemorating the disaster for those who experienced it and recounting it for those who hadn't. Months of shoe-leather reporting, combined with aggressive use of social media, allowed us to uncover never-before-told stories. The Remembering Andrew project included a one-hour radio documentary, 15 drive-time radio features, and a regular feature at the Miami Science Museum planetarium.

The Remembering Andrew series pulled together found sound, archival news footage, 911 calls, a diplomatic report and contemporary interviews into an unforgettable series of stories. For Remembering Andrew, WLRN-Miami Herald News pulled together more than thirty hours of interviews with nearly 50 Hurricane Andrew survivors. Our team uncovered and sifted through more than 24 hours of archival audio and video to piece together a experiential radio pieces about which one listener wrote, “Your show has me in tears. I was in Broward County and was scared. I can't imagine being in the middle of it.”

These three stories (each separated by digital tones) are a sampling of both the feature reporting and the hour-long documentary that constituted our Remembering Andrew series.

Selected Pieces from Remembering Andrew for FAPB Awards

On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew slammed into Miami-Dade County, destroying homes and lives and changing the landscape of South Florida forever. Twenty years later, WLRN collected stories from more than 100 homeowners, government officials and journalists who lived through the storm, commemorating the disaster for those who experienced it and recounting it for those who hadn't. Months of shoe-leather reporting, combined with aggressive use of social media, allowed us to uncover never-before-told stories. The Remembering Andrew project included a one-hour radio documentary, 15 drive-time radio features, and a regular feature at the Miami Science Museum planetarium.

The Remembering Andrew series pulled together found sound, archival news footage, 911 calls, a diplomatic report and contemporary interviews into an unforgettable series of stories. For Remembering Andrew, WLRN-Miami Herald News pulled together more than thirty hours of interviews with nearly 50 Hurricane Andrew survivors. Our team uncovered and sifted through more than 24 hours of archival audio and video to piece together a experiential radio pieces about which one listener wrote, “Your show has me in tears. I was in Broward County and was scared. I can't imagine being in the middle of it.”

These story excerpts are a sampling of both the feature reporting and the hour-long documentary that constituted our Remembering Andrew series.

List of included audio:

0:00 to 3:17 - Excerpt from "The Storm," a non-narrated feature that weaves together contemporary interviews, 911 tapes, archival news footage, home recordings from Hurricane Andrew. First aired 8/25/12

3:18 to 4:26 - Excerpt from "The Best Intentions." In a reported essay, Rick Stone revisits a post-Andrew trip he took with a group of well-meaning volunteers. First aired 7/19/12

4:26 to 5:54 - Excerpt from "The Old Radio." Poet Geoffrey Philp explains how hurricanes force you to think about what you'd save in a disaster. In the days after Andrew, he wrote the poem "Heirlooms" about the old transistor radio he inherited from his mother. Producer Kenny Malone mixed Philp's poem reading together with archival sound from Hurricane Andrew. First aired 7/6/12

5:52 to 7:53 - Excerpt from "The Flamingo Photo." Reporter Arianna Prothero brings us the untold story of arguably the most iconic photo to come out of Hurricane Andrew. First aired 7/26/12

7:52 to 9:56 - Excerpt from "The Green Blotch." In this improvised essay, Danny Rivero channels his six-year-old self to explain why he thought Hurricane Andrew was just another "War of the Worlds" broadcast hoax. First aired 7/12/12

9:55 to 12:35 - Excerpt from "One Tough Little Girl." Reporter Sammy Mack dug up this story of a harrowing birth in the unsterile (and sweltering) Andrew aftermath. First aired 8/2/12

12:34 to 29:40 - Selected clips from our hour-long documentary. Among the excerpts are moments from the two main story lines we followed throughout the hour: a TV weatherman who went from unknown to hero and a 17-year-old girl whose traumatic experience during the storm led to strange episodes of memory loss. Also included is the Hurricane Andrew love/hate story of Jodie and Zach Ziskin.

WLRNews