Voices of the Cape and Islands

These short vignettes, "sonic IDs," are sound portraits and short stories that weave throughout the broadcast day of the Cape and Islands NPR Stations. Below are a sample of the hundreds in our archives.

Hear excerpts from Nautical Minutes

Hear excerpts from Hidden Voices, Hidden Stories

Listen Megaphone
Nantucket's Ruth Chapel Grieder

Listen Clapping Scallops
On Martha's Vineyard

Listen Hanging the Wash
Eileen McGrath's tips on hanging laundry on Nantucket

Listen The Clockkeeper Retires
The West Tisbury clockkeeper retires

Listen The Open Sea
Dave Masch on the lure of the open sea

Listen Baseball for the Blind
The sounds of baseball for the blind

Listen Blueberries
Warren Hiller: King of the Blueberries

Listen Sea Shanties
Mary Malloy on Sea Shanties

Listen Provincetown
Alice Brock on P'Town

Listen Stairwell in B Flat
Glenway Fripp's musical alcove

Listen Metal Detector
Hunting for loose change at the beach

Listen Cooking Eels
The late Milton Jeffers on a Cape delicacy

Listen Cello
Chelsea Doohan's love-hate relationship with her instrument

Listen Hide the Bacon
An unorthodox summer in Wareham

Listen The Baltics in West Yarmouth
Pat Warren on why her grandmother bought a shack on Cape Cod

Listen Elvis Costello
What deep-sea divers listen to

Listen Wampanoag
Earl Mills on the Wampanoag language

Listen Maynard Silva
A Vineyard guitarist and sign-painter

Listen Lunchbox Stories 1

Listen Lunchbox Stories 2

Listen Swamp
Richard Kerry of Nantucket demonstrates his specialty

Listen The Gift Book
A biologist's lament

Listen The Worst Thing About Nantucket
A teen's perspective

Listen Mechanicky
A Brazilian on the Vineyard

Listen Squid Fishing
Ronnie Baretta's birthday treat

Listen Felicity the Llama
Maureen Collette of East Falmouth on her pet llama

Listen New York City and the Vineyard
Ian compares his hometown to Martha's Vineyard

Listen Lobster Boat
George Cadwallader goes lobstering

Listen The Pet Husband
Elaine Bowen on how to control one's spouse

Listen Erastus at the Circus
Nantucket's Ruth Chapel Grieder on Erastus Chapel

Listen Could I Have My Leg Back, Please?
Nantucket's Michael McCone on the perils of being handicapped

Listen Bugs
Polly Hill of the Polly Hill Arboretum on those nasty creatures

Listen The Old Mill
Built on Nantucket in 1847

Listen Buck
Buck the boat dog saves the day

Listen Bass Derby
Pulling scales, going down the back bone, over the ribs - cleaning fish

Listen Chowder
Making chowder from cohogs to soup

Listen Skunk
Alberta Costa on the taming of a skunk

Listen This Halloween
What Halloween would be, if Ben Bianchini had his way

Listen Next Halloween
Dreaming about next year's costume

Listen No Magic
When Halloween loses its magic for a 6th grader

Listen Indian Summer
A haiku reflecting Indian Summer

Listen Jackson Five
A different kind of litter at the MSPCA

Listen Nobska Fame
When your home is a destination

Listen Preteens
Stretching the truth... just a little

Listen Lullaby
A lullaby from Jason Baird of the Wampanoag-Aquinnah Tribe

Listen Chappy
A memory of Chappaquiddick when it was primitive

Listen Organist
The Good Rich Organ of Nantucket

Listen Nathaniel Philbrick
On the ever-changing and everlasting ocean

Listen Up to the Neck
Ruth Chapel Grieder on the hurricane of 1938

Listen Ms. Brazil
Riding the Menemsha bike ferry with Miss Brazil

Listen Marge on Mille
Ms. Mille and her store in Maddicott

Listen Spooky World
The things people do...

WGBH This project was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and WGBH, Boston.

Atlantic Public Media helps create the "Sonic IDs," the core producing team for Sonic ID project is Jay Allison, Viki Merrick, Jim Sulzer, Helen Woodward, Chelsea Merz and the staff of the Cape & Islands NPR stations.

See what the broadcasting newspaper Current has to say about the Sonic ID project.

The Sonic ID project was awarded a regional Edward R. Murrow award for the best use of sound by the Radio Television News Directors Association.