I went to visit Faramarz Khodayari at KUSF radio station during his weekly radio program, Havaye Tazeh Sunday afternoon. Gracious and kind, he met me at University of San Francisco’s cafeteria where he treated me to a dry double cappuccino. This summer, every time I showed up to an Iranian solidarity gathering in our area, I ran into Faramarz [see photo essay]. I was surprised to see his persistence and dedication to making it to every event, as Faramarz doesn’t live in the immediate vicinity of San Francisco. He lives in Guerneville in California’s Sonoma County, a beautiful tourist town where he runs a bed and breakfast and an art gallery. We walked over to the austere radio station. Faramarz was assisted by Dr. Malcolm Cecil in place of his lovely wife Farinaz who usually helps the program. This was only my second time in a radio station, so I got busy looking around while he set up for the hour-long program.
Faramarz ran a radio program in our area for 18 years up until four years ago when he gave it up for some other Iranian culture-related activities. Apparently he couldn’t stay away from doing good for Iranian culture causes, because he came back to KUSF last January to resume his weekly program. I think people who do this kind of work get addicted to it and will never be able to give it up! Faramarz was all ready for his work. He had already recorded some of his program and a telephone interview with Saeed Shafa who is responsible for the San Francisco Iranian Film Festival, an important event taking place in San Francisco this coming weekend. He had carefully selected his music and he got busy relaying the instructions to Malcolm.
Just as he was reading the news, the first segment of his weekly program, we heard someone knocking hard on the door to the studio. I ran out to help stop the raucous which was threatening the live radio broadcast, and I found it was Jahanshah! He was Khodayari’s next guest, there to talk about the upcoming Iranian.com music festival.
Jahanshah and Faramarz have known each other for a number of years. It was fun watching two old friends see each other and greet each other in a warm and friendly banter, typical of old friendships which endure absences and distances, slipping right into the familiarity and continuity reserved for weathered friendships.
Faramarz had come prepared with music from Lily Afshar and Fared Shafinury which he played for his audience. He and Jahanshah talked comfortably and it was a good chance for me to take some good “bi-hava” photographs of them!
Afterwards we went back to the cafeteria and chatted some more. Faramarz talked about his experiences interviewing ordinary Iranians and Iranian celebrities and shared reminiscences of his long and eventful time on the air. Faramarz is a special man with the rare quality of a few who can make you laugh and think at the same time, something which I am sure his listeners find most appealing about him.
Faramarz talked with passion and responsibility about what is happening in Iran and what we could do to help as caring and responsible citizens of Iranian community in diaspora. He talked about what he sees as his role and how that vision drives him to spend his own money to bring news, information, and thought to the Iranian community in our area.
It was getting late and the earlier drizzle had picked up to a fast rainfall. As I stepped away into the rainy San Francisco Sunday evening, I looked back at Faramarz getting into his car. Was it my imagination or did he look taller to me than he had just a couple of hours ago? [see photo essay]
You can listen to Sunday’s program here. You can contact Faramarz Khodayari here: persianradiosf@yahoo.com.
