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Membership

Why Membership?

It’s simple, really: To support the artist. Over the years, Joe has worked with little or no funding – using mostly his own and negligible arts foundation grants to pay collaborators, actors, engineers and musicians. He’s produced and edited all of his radio programs himself and composed music we hope to soon stream for Premium Members.

From the time Joe left radio in 2002, he’s worked independently to craft shows for his web site, and write and produce his live performances. It is only because of Members that we’re now able to bring you free daily downloads, plus a wide variety of free streams on every page throughout the site.

Membership is the avenue that will enable us to offer you more – and support Joe’s live performances in the future.

We thank you! - The Joe Frank Team

*Note: Memberships are recurring and will renew automatically until cancelled. You may cancel at any time. For details see Membership FAQs.

Which Membership?

Sample full shows and selections with a Free Membership, and then decide what you would like: A Premium Membership gives you access to everything available in Joe’s entire catalogue – along with all the extras (shows produced exclusively for the web site, short films, interviews and more) – all for less than $13 per month. Or, listen to the shows produced for a specific Series.

To find out more, click on the links below – or sign up now for any Membership!

You can also purchase a Gift Membership at any level!

Free Membership

Access to a selection of Joe’s shows
Joe’s newest shows being aired on KCRW’s UnFictional program
Notifications of Joe’s up-coming events

Premium Membership

Access to a selection of Joe’s shows
Notifications of Joe’s up-coming events
Full access to all of Joe Frank’s work spanning 200 programs over 23 years
Exclusive web-only programs and video
Archive of Joe Frank’s films

Series Membership

WBAI and NPR Playhouse : 1978 – 1984 : 16 shows
Work in Progress : 1986 – 1992 : 75 shows
In the Dark : 1993 – 1995 : 32 shows
Somewhere Out There : 1996 – 1997 : 41 shows
The Other Side : 1999 – 2002 : 73 shows

Reviews of Joe’s Work

"Joe Frank is an invaluable warrior who stands in defense of our fears, our vanities and our forever-eroding sense of ourselves. He transforms the everyday banality of the human comedy into an inspired weirdness that feeds on pathos and irony, and feels a lot like revelation. Sartre would have called it nausea; Frank makes it art."

Spin Magazine

"The perfect Joe Frank experience is driving down an unfamiliar highway alone at night. You turn on your radio and are greeted by a lush, resonant voice that lulls you into a seemingly simple tale of love: a man at an airport saying goodbye to his wife over the phone, which abruptly turns into a vision of betrayal, alienation and death - often from obscure disease - all brought about by some profound personal failing, which is redeemed at the last moment by a nearly transcendent moment of joy."

Salon

"[Frank] travels in the emotional landscape of Bergman and Fellini; there's a tension and sense of mystery halfway between Kafka and Chandler... and a satiric edge worthy of Firesign Theatre and Woody Allen... No one else in radio is doing what Frank does."

The Washington Post

"Joe Frank is a singular voice in radio. What he has done is hypnotic, psychotic, neurotic, sad, terrifying, and some of the funniest stuff I have ever heard anywhere. I can't think of another radio performer who has come close to achieving this kind of alchemy."

Charlie Kaufman, filmmaker

"Joe Frank is an original whose work has helped form some of the most eccentric, dark and interesting parts of public radio's personality. "

Terry Gross, Fresh Air

"You don't have to close your eyes to appreciate Joe Frank's dense audio universe cascading out of your radio. It helps, though, because there are so many layers - of sound, philosophy, of reality-coursing through his dramas... Come to think of it, after awhile, you won't want to close your eyes because in Frank's short stories for the radio, the tension and pathos are as enveloping as they are intriguing... "

The Washington Post

"To me, he's what radio is really for... his show makes me think he's getting to some great truth... so completely captivating and just unlike anything else."

David Sedaris, writer

"Frank [is] the apostle of radio noire... His free-form radio dramas... are sometimes moving, often funny, but always manage to confound the listeners' expectations. A maestro of verité, Frank exploits the power of radio..."

Rolling Stone

"Frank wanders deeply into the unconscious, producing Dionysian stories with a fairy-tale intensity whose effect is often funny, disturbing and deeply memorable."

Salon Magazine

"Mixing bizarre monologues, multi-sequenced dramatic vignettes and mock-solemn critiques, [Joe Frank's work] is both sophisticated and surreal. A sizable cult has been growing around Frank...a rare radio talent."

The Village Voice