Blackfaced Ira Glass To Host New Radio Program ‘This Urban Life’

Story by Greg Bright 

| Published Nov 8, 2011

A clearly elated Ira Glass stated yesterday during his weekly radio program “This American Life” that he would be adding another radio program to his resume, “This Urban Life,” which will allow him to achieve his lifelong goal of wearing blackface while hosting.

The show will follow the same basic format as “This American Life.” But, instead of attempting to attract an upper-middle class audience, Public Radio International, the owner and distributor of “This American Life” and now “This Urban Life,” will attempt to attract a target audience long ignored by government-funded radio: the poor, urban, ethnic population.

An audience Glass believes he can help attract.

“The producers wanted a more ethnic vibe for the new show, and I thought, ‘well, I’ve always wanted to to wear blackface,’” Glass said during his radio program. “And on public radio, blackface is about as close as you’re ever going to get to ethnic.”

Public Radio International did acknowledge that the organization was taking a sizeable risk with the show, as poor minorities are not usually known for listening to public radio. But a spokesman did state that regardless of whether or not they listen in, he’s sure that enough “upper class white kids” will listen in for the show to be worth it.

“It’s just like hip-hop music. It was meant for an urban audience, but who’s buying that stuff now? It’s all the rich, white kids,” the spokesman said.

“In the end it’ll be the same audience for both shows, but it’ll get Ira off our backs about the whole blackface thing. He’s been trying to find a way to do that for years.”