Radio producer brings outdoors inside.

Byline: Profile by The Register-Guard

Name: John Cooney, 53, Eugene

Claim to fame: Writer/producer of KLCC's "Natural World," a weekly program that received an Oregon Associated Press Broadcast Association award for best use of sound this year.

Cooney's world: Since 1999, Cooney, who has a bachelor's degree in biology, has gone out into the woods, the wetlands, the mountains, even his own backyard with a digital audio recorder and a directional microphone to capture the sounds of nature.

Be here now: With a background of birds chirping, frogs chittering, dried leaves blowing, and water trickling over rocks, Cooney brings nature indoors for listeners.

How he got started: He walked into the KLCC offices back in 1979 and said he'd like to learn radio. Back then, the public broadcasting station didn't have a news department, so Cooney helped start it. He created "Natural World" in 1999.

Cooney didn't want to do a program with any sort of agenda or ideology. "I thought that by merely taking people along with me on a walk that they would feel the same natural connections I do," he said.

Outdoor snapshot takes time: Cooney's program lasts 4 1/2 minutes, but takes about 10 hours to create. Most of the time he devotes to the writing.

Close to home: Cooney has produced shows in Canada, Arizona, Southern California and Washington, but prefers to stay within bicycle-riding distance of Eugene. People don't have to go far to hear what he hears, he said.

"You can find beautiful sounds early in the morning before traffic. You can hear varied thrushes' haunting calls in downtown Eugene," he said.

A week or so ago he woke up at about 3 a.m. and heard migrating snow geese, the sound of their cries not quite as raucous as those of Canada geese, he said.

Great medium: Cooney loves radio because listeners experience it almost viscerally and differently from print or television broadcasts.

"You can be brushing your teeth and I've got your full attention," he said.

Patience, flexibility: To get good sounds, Cooney has learned to stay still and wait for them. And he can plan a segment, but has learned to take whatever he gets. Recently he hoped to pick up the sound of migrating shorebirds near Fern Ridge Lake. Instead, the water level had dropped, exposing fish and crayfish that attracted all kinds of birds - grebes, gulls, cormorants, blue herons and egrets. What he got on tape was "birds randomly talking to each other."

Stunning moments: Among his most memorable sights: watching 45 or 50 orcas chasing salmon on the west side of the San Juan Islands.

Classic northwest sound: "Everybody likes pacific chorus frogs," which begin chirping in the early spring, Cooney said.

Day job, too: Cooney also works for a wine distributor, selling wines and beer to area restaurants. His program is broadcast on Thursdays at 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on KLCC, 89.7 FM.

- Susan Palmer

If you know someone who would make a great subject for a Register-Guard Profile, send it to Jim Murez at jmurez@ guardnet.com or P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440.

CAPTION(S):

John Cooney explores areas such as the Willow Creek Preserve to capture and interpret sounds for KLCC's "Natural World."