In a few minutes, Matthew Cunningham will hold his hand up and point at Sam Weller, who will begin reading the opening to the Chicago Public Radio program “Hello Beautiful.” Before that happens, however, Cunningham says something into a microphone in his studio that Weller hears next door through his headphones. Weller listens to Cunningham’s suggestion and looks at his guest: “I’m going to ask you what you think is beautiful at the end,” he tells her, “So you have an hour to think about it.”
Cunningham is the senior producer of “Hello Beautiful,” one of WBEZ’s weekly programs focusing on Chicago’s art scene. Each week, Cunningham and the show’s host for the week pick out an artist for a recorded hour-long interview, during which the host and guest discuss what she or he is working on, as well as the state of arts in Chicago. Weller is one of four hosts currently in weekly rotation, and the host rotates nearly as frequently as the guest. “It brings a different perspective, it’s a fresh idea,” says Weller, a professor at Columbia College and the author of a biography about sci-fi author Ray Bradbury’s, The Bradbury Chronicles. “It’s fun and it’s not as taxing.”
“Hello Beautiful” became one of the only shows on the station without a constant host a year ago when its former host left. The rotation was originally intended to serve for the interim before a new regular was found, but Cunningham found the fluctuation meant more flexibility within the show. “There’s something to be said about having a variable host; people with varying interests sort of pursuing those interests,” he explains in a conference room later that day. “When you have one host, they tend to want to cover visual arts or dance or just one thing or two things really well and everything else gets put sort of secondary,” he says. “By having a rotation, you can sort of pair a guest with a host a lot better.”
Sandwiched between Navy Pier’s Billy Goat Tavern and a stained glass exhibit, the Chicago Public Radio office feels a bit out of place. Resting high above the rest of the pier on the third floor, the office is comprised of clean, low-walled cubicles and flat-screen televisions. When I first meet with Cunningham, I find him in front of his desk discussing the upcoming recording with Weller. In the surrounding cubicles, other producers edit sound on their computers.
Today, Weller interviews Mara Fuller O’Brien of 826 Chicago, a non-profit organization that helps children become better writers. In addition to asking her about the organization, he asks her to read from the book of short pieces by high school students the group recently published. He then asks her opinion about a short segment on musician Lara Golan, who recruited a batch of hospitalized children to craft pop songs about comic book superheroes. “Comic books are for kids,” says Sarah Long, a senior at Columbia College and the show’s intern. “What?” ask Weller and Cunningham, with a mixture of surprise and anger. “Wow, it’s crazy that you think that,” says Cunningham, eyeing the sound monitor. Combining the show’s guests with the show’s separate artistic segment is often unpredictable, as guests may not have so much to say about someone else’s art as they have to say about their own. “Because we have the luxury of taping the show and editing, we are given the opportunity of taking the risks to ask questions that may not work,” Cunningham explains. “When they do work you can have a really fascinating conversation.”
Originally from Kansas, Cunningham moved to Chicago 15 years ago. He’s been working for Chicago Public Radio for nine of those years and producing “Hello Beautiful” for three. With those years behind him, he’s comfortable enough to admit he has no background in the arts. “I took a drawing class, I took a pottery class,” he says of his artistic experience before defending himself. “For the nine years I’ve been here, I’ve been a producer for arts. For the first seven of those, I was holding the microphone listening to people that were extremely knowledgeable have conversations,” he says. “It’s been a lovely way of learning about the arts.”
