KJJP-FM 105.7 is currently operating at 15% of power, limiting its signal strength and range in the Amarillo-Canyon area. This due to complicated problems with its very old transmitter. Local engineers are continuing to work on the transmitter and are consulting with the manufacturer to diagnose and fix the problems. We apologize for this disruption and service as we work as quickly as possible to restore KJPFM to full power. In the mean time you can always stream either the HPPR Mix service or HPPR Connect service using the player above or the HPPR app.
From The Big Top Into The Big World: A Ringling Ringmaster's Final Bow
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has been entertaining audiences for a long time. Its history goes back 146 years — to about the time when professional baseball emerged and before Coca-Cola was invented.
But this substantial chapter in American history comes to a close on Sunday. After years of declining ticket sales and seemingly endless conflicts with animal rights groups, Ringling Bros. will stage its final show in Uniondale, N.Y.
Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson is one of hundreds of Ringling performers and crew members with extraordinary talents who will be out of a job come Monday. Recruited fresh out of college, where he'd been studying voice performance and training to be a professional opera singer, he became Ringling's first African-American ringmaster in 1998.
"Ironically enough, I will be the very last voice in the 146-year history of this show, so I will be the last person you hear to speak of 'The Greatest Show on Earth' — which is a wild little paradox, to be a first and a last at the same time. I don't know too many people who can say that, in any industry," he says.
In his nearly 20-year career with the circus, Iverson married a fellow performer — a Brazilian dancer turned production manager — and raised two children while traveling from city to city on the circus train. Now 8 and 12 years old, his children also perform with Ringling.
During the circus' recent slate of shows in Virginia, Iverson let NPR into his world. Between performances, he navigates what comes next.
On a trip to FedEx to ship out professional portfolios to prospective agents, he reflects on the absurdity of job-hunting for circus folks — recalling the time consultants came to help them with their resumes.
"How do you do that with circus people? How do you help them write that out? How do you write a resume for superman?" Iverson asks. "It's like, he flies, you know?"
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Jessica Deahl is an editor for NPR's award-winning program All Things Considered. There she works closely with NPR hosts in the shaping of program segments and arranges interviews with key newsmakers in the most central, relevant stories of the day.
Jerry Seinfeld has the become the latest in a string of public figures to blame "political correctness" for the death of comedy (among other societal ills). But what does the term actually refer to?
The singer-songwriter's fourth album is her best yet, with crisp, commanding songwriting, shades of '60s baroque pop and melodies that seem to have existed forever.
Katie Ledecky is used to getting medals, having earned 10 at the Olympics. But on Friday she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian can get from the U.S. government.
Hicks was a communications director for the Trump White House and prosecutors questioned her on her knowledge of the deals made during his first presidential run.