Ben Manilla

In 1991, he moved to San Francisco and started Ben Manilla Productions which created national radio series including The House of Blues Radio Hour with Dan Aykroyd[3](with whom Manilla co-wrote the book Elwood's Blues: Interviews with the Blues Legends & Stars),[4] Philosophy Talk with Stanford University,[5] The Loose Leaf Book Company with Tom Bodett (syndicated to 227 stations with an audience of 250,000),[6] and The Sounds of American Culture on National Public Radio's All Things Considered,[7] which evolved into Inside the National Recording Registry on Studio 360, and ultimately The Sounds of America on 1A, where it is currently broadcast.

[8] In 2003, BMP with Martin Scorcese and the Experience Music Project helped lead a nation-wide, multimedia event called The Blues.

The year-long initiative included BMP’s thirteen-hour radio documentary, The Blues with Keb’ Mo’, which became the most widely distributed special in the history of PRI.

In 2003, Ben formed the multi-platform production and consulting company Media Mechanics with broadcast veterans Mike Henry and Paul Marszalek.

From 2005-2019, Manilla has been an instructor at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism where he taught Radio News Reporting, and was the Academic Coordinator for Audio.