Who's Who
Brian DeShazor
Role: Archives Director
Life Before PRA: Theater Arts
Favorite PRA Tape: James Baldwin reading from "Giovanni's Room"
Favorite Recording Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
Memorable PRA Experience: Sitting under the Sequoia trees in the John Muir woods with Dr. Helen Caldicott, recording an interview
After-Hours Recreation: Communing with nature, camping, hiking, travel
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Brian DeShazor is from Yorktown, Virginia with a background in theater arts. In 1997 Brian came to Pacifica Radio Archives as a temporary employee and became entranced by the archives' collection. Brian entered into the radio game by forcing his way into an interview with the late Quentin Crisp. After his passing in 1999 Brian wrote and produced the "Quentin Crisp Memorial Recording" that received the Golden Reel Award at the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. With PRA co-producer Mark Torres, Brian has went on to produce many Pacifica National programs including the award-winning "John Hersey's Hiroshima", "A Passion for Survival with Dr. Helen Caldicott", "Sorry Wrong Number" starring Shirley Knight and Ed Asner, and "W.E.B. Dubois: 100 Years of the Souls of Black Folk."
Mark Torres
Role: Operations Director/Senior Producer
Life Before PRA: Student-for-Life
Favorite PRA Tape: Conversation between Henry Miller and Anais Nin
Favorite Recording Artist: French-Algerian Group ZEBDA
Memorable PRA Experience: Joking around with Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and legendary folk scene hosts Roz and Howard Larman during the 2nd annual PRA fundraiser. We raised $130,000 in 10 hours!
After-Hours Recreation: Bowling. Best score so far: 298
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Mark Torres studied Linguistics and Computer Science at UCLA from 1980-1986. In that time he was forced to study the groundbreaking and painfully intricate work of Noam Chomsky. When Noam Chomsky came to UCLA to address the Linguistics department on the latest in semantic theory, it turns out he also gave lectures on the United States role in Central American politics. He then learned you could hear these lectures on Pacifica Radio 90.7 fm in Los Angeles. He began volunteering at KPFK as a board operator and in 1990 he began working at the Pacifica Radio Archives. So far he has an award winning radio program Travel Tips For Aztlan, produced several award winning programs for the Pacifia and has listened to about 1/4 of the programs housed in the PRA collection.
Mariana Berkovich
Role: Business Manager
Life Before PRA: Waited in lines all day for food and clothing in Soviet Union
Favorite PRA Tape: Anything in Russian, poetry read by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Favorite Recording Artist: Sergey Prokofiev
Memorable PRA Experiencee: Camping along Colorado River in Moab, Utah for Grass Roots Radio Conference
After-Hours Recreation: Playing with grandchildren
Shawn Dellis
Role: Office Administrator/Outreach Coordinator
Life Before PRA: Writing brochures for a model scouting company
Favorite PRA Tape: Any "Explorations"
Favorite Recording Artist: Groove Armada
Memorable PRA Experience: Painting the office red, purple, green, yellow, and blue
After-Hours Recreation: Camping in Los Padres National Forest
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Shawn Dellis earned a degree in marketing from Marquette University in Milwaukee and never expected his experiences hosting and producing a radio show for the campus station would ever be revisited. His Minnesota roots, while strong, could never pull him back home to the Land of 10,00 Lakes for good, and he spent the next 5 years meandering about the country. Pursuing a career in marketing and advertising, his addresses included Miami, Chicago, New York, and Phoenix. He was sucked in to the Hollywood entertainment vacuum four years ago, toiled as a corporate slave for a large film studio for almost two years, and then got out when he couldn‚t take another day of it. With corporate America in his past, Shawn began working for the Pacifica Radio Archives in 2002, and has been concentrating on national marketing and outreach.
Arline Chang
Role: Service Coordinator
Life Before PRA: Mother Extraordinaire
Favorite PRA Tape: An interview with Johan Galtung
Favorite Recording Artist: Glen Miller
Memorable PRA Experience: The shock of seeing the archives collection after
it came tumbling down as a result of the 1994 Northirdge Earthquake
After-Hours Recreation: Chasing her grandchildren around the world
Arline Chang was born in Minnesota but happy to be transplanted to the warm Southern California sunshine. She studied at UCLA but married a USC man and began a wonderful family that is now 3 children and 3 grandchildren. Arline Chang has worked for the Pacifica Radio Archives since 1983 when it was nestled in its own building on Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles. She is hopeful the Pacifica Radio Archives will return to its own building one day in her lifetime.
Edgar Toledo
Role: Production Coordinator
Life Before PRA: KPFK newsroom volunteer y un vago
Favorite PRA Tape: "There's too many!"
Favorite Recording Artist: Punk music, Pink Floyd
Memorable PRA Experience: Meeting and working with all the PRA volunteers and making the many field recordings where I got to meet incredible speakers and activists like bell hooks and Ralph Nader
After-Hours Recreation: Spending every moment I can with my four-year-old, companera and friends and family whom I don't get to see often or hang out with as much as I would like to
Edgar Toledo first came to the archives around May 2000. A native Angeleno, his interests and expertise include: micro-radio and rock-balancing, student of political/economic-philosophy/theory, Beyond Borders supporter. Belief that one must challenge and dismantle institutions and practices that divide and separate humanity, whether they be physical or social interrelations; a promotion of self-reliance, responsibilty for one's own actions and respect of culture and other people's lifestyles and beliefs, etc.....
Oleg Kagan
Role: Projects Assistant
Life Before PRA: Sandwich Artist at Subway
Favorite PRA Tape: Dylan Thomas reading at UCLA
Favorite Recording Artist: What genre?
Memorable PRA Experience: Having fun with everybody during the day-long fund drive.
After-Hours Recreation: Reading, writing poetry, blogging, seeing movies, other jobs at the Durant Library and as a computer consultant, etc. etc. (there are no after-hours, there are just hours).
Oleg is a graduate of UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He started at the Archives in 2007 as an intern, eventually getting hired to help with the digitization of historic folios. Since then his role at PRA has shifted to include web design, and general tech support. He is currently taking courses at the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA.
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