Frank Ferrel came to MPBN in 2005 as producer of Made in Maine. Since then he has received three Emmy nominations and won an Emmy for his work on the episode entitled “Small Boats.” He also produced feature segments for Maine Experience, receiving another Emmy nomination for his documentary work on a segment about Mellie Dunham, the Norway, Maine fiddler who achieved national fame in the 1920’s.
Prior to coming to MPBN, Frank spent 13 years producing and hosting news and features for the broadcast service of the Christian Science Monitor on both their worldwide radio and national television news programs. He won national awards for his radio programming, and was one of five Boston based correspondents reporting for their nightly news programming on the Discovery Channel's World Monitor News. He also served as host for the Monitor Channels new and features programs, and filed stories from throughout North America, Europe, and the Mediterranean.
In addition to his involvement with on-air broadcasting, Mr. Ferrel was also an associate professor at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, where he taught Communications, Journalism, and Visual Studies. He holds a Masters Degree in Visual Studies.
Frank lives in Bath, Maine where he pursues an active interest in traditional music and folklore. An accomplished fiddle player himself, he has made numerous recordings for such prestigious labels as Rounder, Flying Fish, and Voyager Records, and has published three collections of traditional fiddle music. His 1991 recording, “Yankee Dreams,” was chosen by the Library of Congress to include on their select list of, “25 Representative Recordings of American Folk Music.”
You can also see and hear Frank play a couple of Mellie Dunham’s songs (or download the segment to your video iPod) in the “Web Extras” section of the Maine Experience web site.
