Ben Manilla
President
benm@bmpaudio.com

A pioneer of contemporary audio production, Ben has been at the vanguard of creative radio since the mid '70s. Recognized by professionals around the world for his award-winning programming and innovative production style, he has held executive positions at Radio Today, RKO Radio Networks, WOR Radio, WLIR Radio, and the Progressive Radio Network.Beginning with his work as a Top Ten metro market production director and morning man, Ben has initiated programming for virtually every format. He has directed or produced hundreds of features, specials, documentaries, ongoing series, commercials, and audio presentations.

Brian McKay
Production: House of Blues Radio Hour
brian@bmpaudio.com brian@thebluesmobile.com

Brian originally dreamt of becoming a radio DJ, but couldn't stand his own ineloquence. After spending countless hours editing his recordings, he discovered he was enjoying the production far more than the voicework. Ever since, he's been messing with audio at Ben Manilla Productions, and is now the producer of the House of Blues Radio Hour. Brian is also the Designated Driver of TheBluesmobile.com, which means he produces the podcasts, updates the information, and generally keeps the rest of the website from exploding. Brian's a firm believer in editing through verbal persuasion, and can be found begging and pleading his audio tracks to sound just right.

Devon Strolovitch
Production: Philosophy Talk
devon@philosophytalk.org

Devon began working for Ben Manilla in 1979, on the floor of his bedroom in Montreal, Quebec, and last year finally introduced himself. He has lived, worked, and studied in Wales, France, New York, and Ohio, where he was the host of "Rags, Stomps, & Blues" at WOBC-FM in Oberlin. He is currently Production Coordinator of "Philosophy Talk" and "The Sounds of American Culture," and Host of "Fog City Blues," on KALW 91.7 FM. Devon is an amateur steel-drummer and speaks over a dozen languages, some used by more than .01% of the world population. He is author of "The Paris Café Chronicle" (2005), "Strolecisms" (forthcoming), and a much-cited Ph.D. thesis on medieval Judeo-Portugese. When he's not ensconced in traffic on his bicycle, Devon can be found considering whether to sue BMP for back pay.

Polly Stryker
Reporter
hamrashaar@gmail.com

Polly began working as a public radio producer in 1997, while earning a graduate degree in history. She realized that public radio work is remarkably like being a perpetual graduate student, so she stayed. Polly has worked for a variety of news and public affairs programs, including "AirTalk" on KPCC Radio, and "These Days" on KPBS Radio. She considers herself to be a citizen of the world, having grown up in Cairo and having lived in Vienna, Germany, England and Kenya before coming to America. She speaks Arabic and German and can say, "I want a Martini" in Swahili.

Zoe Corneli
Reporter

Zoe made her radio debut at WNYU, the college radio station of New York University, where she ran the News Department. She also interned at WNYC New York Public Radio in the newsroom and on the Brian Lehrer show. From New York (via Italy, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, China, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Egypt), she made her way to the Bay Area. In addition to her work for Philosophy Talk, Zoe reports for KALW News, NPR, PRI's The World, and Weekend America. She was the co-recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California award for Explanatory Journalism in 2006. Oh, and not to be one-upped by the other bios on this page, Zoe speaks French and Mandarin Chinese, and pretends to speak Spanish, Italian, Arabic and various other languages with varying degrees of success.

Karoline Hatch
Agent Provocateur
karoline@nub.com

Karoline Hatch has been infiltrating Ben Manilla Productions since September of 2002.  She was "discovered" broadcasting on San Francisco Liberation Radio 93.7 FM (liberationradio.net) by Mr. Manilla and "invited" for a lunch.  Little did Mr. Manilla know what was in store for him and his business.  Since then she has been "working" for BMP as a insider informant and producer-in-training and finagled her way to New York where she was the proud interviewer of such luminaries as Chuck D and Mos Def.  She has worked on House of Blues Radio Hour and Breaks, as well as The Blues.

Merle Kessler
Writer

Merle Kessler is a writer, humorist, and performer, best known perhaps by his pen name, Ian Shoales.  

As Ian Shoales he had been churning out cranky yet strangely humorous commentaries since 1979. First heard on NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, he has been featured on MORNING EDITION, ABC's NIGHTLINE, and the on line magazine, Salon. His commentaries also air once a week or so on ABC's overnight news program, WORLD NEWS NOW. In addition, his pieces have been published in the New York Times, LA Times, the San Francisco Examiner, USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Minneapolis Tribune, among other publications. Merle (as Ian Shoales) recently co-starred in Slouching Towards Disneyland, a wild story of the history of the world. 

Kessler is also a founding member of Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre, the legendary yet obscure sketch comedy group, and he co-created, with Dan Coffey, the character of Dr. Science, of Ask Dr. Science.  He is the author or co-author of five books. Despite this, he was actively employed in the nineties at various videogame and dot com industries - until everything went ker flooey. He is thrilled to be working in radio again, because it is more fun than anything. As a bonus, on the radio nobody knows if you've shaved or not.

He is married to Amy Kessler, who likes bad movies almost as much as he does. His new performance piece, BROKE, will be performed this fall (November, 2003) at the Marsh, in San Francisco.

Andy Valvur
Writer

Andy Valvur is a writer, actor and comedian living in San Francisco.

 

His writing credits include the House of Blues Radio Hour for Dan Aykroyd, PBS's Emmy nominated "The Durst Amendment" starring Will Durst, Talk Soup for the E! Entertainment Network, the Guitar Hour for Kevin Bacon, The Hi-Fi Show for Drew Carey, BBC Radio 2, the California Music Awards/Bammies for hosts Chris Isaak and Greg Proops and the Northern California Emmy Awards.

 

He has also written for the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Atlanta Constitution, Philadelphia Daily News, Maxim, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and other national publications.

 

As an actor or voice actor heís appeared in video games such as Star Trek: The Next Generation for Paramount, Stolen Song for Sony Playstation, "Secret Weapon" for Lucas Arts as well as other television programs.

 

Born in New York, he grew up in Japan and Europe before settling in San Francisco. He is currently working on his first novel, "Classic Rock."

 

Finally, Andy Valvur finds it very odd referring to himself in the third person.

Jeff Dwyer
Partner In Crime

Learn more about Jeff