FRESH AIR
MUST HEAR RADIO: A Baptist deacon, R&B drummer and former gospel-music editor for Billboard magazine, Robert Darden is also an English professor at Baylor University, where he runs the Black Gospel Music
Restoration Project. He’ll play some rare recordings for us. ALSO, few modern American films have achieved the cult status enjoyed by Ridley Scott‘s Blade Runner. But the picture’s path to film legend was anything but straight, with bitter disagreement between director Scott and Warner Brothers about the film’s original cut. A flop when it premiered in 1982, Blade Runner stars Harrison Ford as Deckard, a cop who hunts renegade human-like androids — known as replicants — in a futuristic Los Angeles. It features a happy ending with a voiceover that explains how Deckard “gets the girl” — who is actually a replicant named Rachael. Ten years 
later, in 1992, Ridley Scott released a director’s cut of the film, in which he dropped the happy ending forced on him by the studio in 1982. And now, 25 years after the original release, the director gets the final say. He has re-cut the original film and brushed up the visuals and sound quality to create the picture he had always intended. Blade Runner: The Final Cut — which Scott insists truly is the final cut — will be released on DVD this week.
RADIO TIMES
Hour 1
Does the 2nd Amendment give an individual the right to own a gun? In 2008, The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments whether a municipal handgun ban violates the 2nd Amendment. At stake, legal observers say, is whether the Constitutional right to bear arms meant it for the National Guard or for individual citizens. We’ll debate this with DAVID KAIRYS, a law professor at Temple University and SANFORD LEVINSON a law professor at the University of Texas-Austin. Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3
Hour 2
(Rebroadcast tonight at 11)
The Hollywood writers’ strike is in its 7th week. We talk about the work stoppage and its impact on television with DAMON LINDELOF, creator and head writer of the series Lost, and television critics DAVID BIANCULLI and MELANIE McFARLAND. Listen to this show via Real Audio | mp3
THE WORLD CAFE
Monday December 24, 2007
Sessions with Charlie Louvin and Allison Krauss & Robert Plant kick off the World Café’s Best of 2007 encore week. The review of 2007’s best World Café interviews begins this week with encore presentations of two of our favorite sessions. First, host David Dye sits down with the new duo of Allison Krauss & Robert Plant to discuss their compelling collaborative project, Raising Sand. In the second hour, we’ll revisit a great session with Country Music Hall of Famer, Charlie Louvin, who’s teamed up with some notable names in contemporary music to create updated versions of his classic tunes.
Christmas With The Louvin Brothers