Ben Manilla's Bio

Ben Manilla is president of Ben Manilla Productions, Inc. of San Francisco and a partner in Media Mechanics, Inc. of Denver. In his thirty year career in radio, Ben has developed, directed, and produced thousands of successful programs for commercial and public radio stations. He got his start in national radio in 1975 with a three-minute daily short-form feature for free-form rock stations called The News Blimp. He has held executive positions at Radio Today, RKO Radio Networks, WOR Radio, WLIR Radio, and the Progressive Radio Network.

In 1998, he dipped a toe in the world of public broadcasting with a weekly music show called The Putumayo World Music Hour. From 1999-2002, he made the leap to public radio full-on with the Loose Leaf Book Company, an hour-long weekly radio series dedicated to children's literature, hosted by Tom Bodett.

Ben Manilla's recent 13-hour award-winning radio documentary, The Blues, was broadcast on more than 330 stations in the US, across Canada, the UK, and Australia. The radio project was the most successful special ever distributed by PRI Public Radio International. It was part of a national initiative that included a seven-part PBS-TV series, the executive producer of which was Martin Scorsese, a book published by Harper Collins, a traveling museum exhibit created with Experience Music Project, a middle-school curriculum, 25 music CD's released by Universal and Sony, and several websites.

Ben Manilla is the co-author with Dan Aykroyd of "Elwood's Blues" published by Backbeat books and released in November 2004. Dan Aykroyd is the host of The House of Blues Radio Hour, which Ben Manilla Productions has produced for more than a decade.

In January 2004, Ben Manilla launched a weekly call-in series with Stanford University called "Philosophy Talk" which is currently being incubated on 8 stations across the West Coast. He is also teaching a course at the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism called "The Journalism of the Blues."

Audio samples of Ben's work are available at http://www.bmpaudio.com./our_shows.htm. To learn more about his new consulting alliance, Media Mechanics, visit www.media-mechanics.com.

Image above: Ben Manilla awarded Gold World Medal by Geo Beach for "The Blues" / Culture & The Arts (Series) at the 2004 New York Festivals -- International Radio Awards