Fresh Air

"From WHYY in Philadelphia, I'm Terry Gross, and this is Fresh Air. " A week from today, those one-dozen words, followed by the sprightly jazz colorations of Jaki Byard's solo piano, will - thanks to a system of fiber- optics, uplinks and downlinks - be heard across the United States. That's right. Diminutive, bespectacled Terry Gross, producer-host of Fresh Air on WHYY-FM (90.9) since it hit the airwaves in 1975, emanating from Blaupunkts on the Santa Monica Freeway, from farmhouses in North Dakota, from Harvard dorm rooms and Chicago suburbs, from Sun Belt retirement communities and Manhattan office towers, from Tampa to Tacoma, from Buffalo to Butte, from here to eternity.

Breaking out of their humdrum lives in the Camden County Jail for a few hours, a dozen inmates donned orange jumpsuits yesterday and set out to clean up the trash-strewn 200 block of Morse Street in Camden. The cleanup is part of a Sheriff's Department plan to ease prison overcrowding and reward well- behaved inmates with some time out on the town.

Curry Perry has had a near-death experience. He says it was a nightmare and is thankful it appears to be over. Perry, 55, was sentenced to die in 1990 for killing a man in 1987. But two years ago, he was removed from death row after his new lawyer, George H. Newman, persuaded the state Supreme Court to grant him a new trial. Last week, the district attorney's office agreed to drop a first-degree murder charge against Perry and to allow him to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Strange as it may sound, fresh air is fast becoming one of Philadelphia's most important exports. Actually, that's Fresh Air, as in the fascinating, literate weekday interview show with host Terry Gross of WHYY-FM (90.9). Fresh Air has been a popular fixture on Philadelphia public radio for almost 14 years now, airing from 4 to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and repeated from 7 to 8 p.m., except Fridays. But in the year and a half since Gross and Fresh Air went national over 150 stations, Fresh Air's weekly audience has almost tripled, from 364,000 weekly listeners to 941,000 - certainly an impressive gain given the show's modest promotions budget.

Throughout the season's first six weeks, Brent Celek reached over, slapped the snooze button on the sounding alarm and fell back to sleep. Once a cornerstone of the Eagles offense, Celek had appeared to fall out of favor and his production continued to sag. The tight end woke up Sunday night, erased those ringing doldrums and returned to form as a cog in the Eagles offense. In the 34-7 rout of the visiting Dallas Cowboys, Celek hauled in seven passes for 94 yards and set the tone for the rushing game with several key blocks.

Do not adjust your set, touch the treble or lower the bass. That skronking guitar, that squeal set against an intricate weaving of trad African rhythm and fragrant saxophone is jazz fusion guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly's design: to liberate the six-string from the gravity of genre. His ninth CD as a leader, Boom Bop (PAO), finds Bourelly and his bandmates, bassist Reggie Washington and Senegalese vocalist/percussionist Abdourahmane Diop - with the regal tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp and alto saxophonist Henry Threadgill - reaching the spectral high only dreamed of on his 1996 CD Rock the Cathartic Spirits (D.I.

After a four-week hiatus, Mississippi Public Broadcasting is putting WHYY's "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" back on the air - with an evening time slot and a warning to viewers that they may encounter "adult content. " It's a quick about-face from a July 7 decision to drop the show from all eight of Mississippi's public-radio stations. The "Fresh Air" broadcast that day included an interview with comedian Louis C.K., who made two sexual confessions: He always wears a T-shirt, out of consideration for the woman he's with, and stays on his back during sex scenes on his new FX TV show, to avoid upsetting images.

Since Terry Gross began doing radio interviews for Philadelphia's WHYY in 1975, she's talked with thousands of the world's most interesting people, from scientists to novelists to rock stars, building a national audience on more than 500 public-broadcast stations. Subtract eight - the stations affiliated with Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB). That state's public-radio network confirmed this week that it has dropped her show, "Fresh Air with Terry Gross. " A prepared statement issued by MPB's executive director, Judith Lewis, complained about "gratuitous discussions on issues of an explicit sexual nature.

ON THE BOARDWALK in Atlantic City, Teresa Virra of New York City takes some time to feed the pigeons and contemplate the year's end. Virra said she came to the Jersey Shore resort on the last day of 1991 to get "some fresh air. "

Germs may be causing the glut of sore throats and hoarse voices that are attacking both young and old. But germs aren't getting the blame. Air-conditioners, hastily stuck in windows when the first "hazy, hot and humid" forecast hit the airwaves, are the latest sore-throat scapegoat. Office buildings so cold you need a sweater to keep away the chill, grocery stores that feel like one massive freezer chest, icy air aimed at your face pouring from the car dashboard . . . do these artificial air currents really promote scratchy, swollen throats or croupy coughs?

WHYY has awarded Terry Gross of Fresh Air with its 12th annual Lifelong Earning Award. At the May 2 gala at WHYY, NPR's Scott Simon will chat with Terry. Oz the Great and Powerful led weekend box office again, earning $42.2 mil, outdistancing Halle Berry's The Call, at $17.1 mils. Lil Wayne remains in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in L.A. after multiple seizures last week.     More tax liens for O.J. Simpson. State and local, his bill's now at $580,000.

IT WAS fascinating to listen to the passion of Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey last week. He wondered, after the Sandy Hook school shootings, why we, as a country, can't find the wisdom to craft a solution to what has become an epidemic. He was speaking as a father of young children. He could have been speaking for all of us. What was especially impressive about Kelsey is that in our politically correct environment, he had something to lose. Yet, he chose to speak from the heart, anyway.

They look like they could be brothers, a couple of 6-foot-4 towheads with high cheekbones and, on this afternoon, big country smiles. Hunter Pence and Jake Diekman went through a whirlwind of emotions on Tuesday afternoon. Pence drew boos for a costly error, his second defensive misadventure of this homestand, then cranked the game-winning home run in the 10th inning. The homer - which for added delight came at the expense of old pal Brett Myers - earned a victory for Diekman in the young lefthander's major-league debut.

Howard Stern is in such a good mood, he got all touchy-feely with Today host Matt Lauer Thursday on live TV, jumping into Matt's lap and gifting him with a big wet smooch. Stern, 58, later said he's dead serious about his new job as a judge on America's Got Talent, which returns Monday. Stern, who reportedly pockets $15 mil a year for the gig, joins Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel at the judge's table. "You know I love playing God," Stern told the crowd at a recent New York audition.

It's not just about the story, it's also about the way you tell it. The French playwright Edmond Rostand gave us the story of Cyrano de Bergerac 115 years ago, and he told it in French rhyme - this great tale of unrequited passion, beauty, and ugliness, and the virtues and dangers of being larger than life. The play itself, about a cocky, eloquent swordsman whose Renaissance-man flair competes with his ungainly nose, sprawls, beginning in a theater, eventually moving to a theater of war, and finishing in a convent 15 years later.

I have an opinion on gun laws. And I am, apparently, middle-aged. I vote, and I believe a dog can be friends with a duck. Rick Santorum is provocative, and I liked the movie The Help , though I avoided the book. Welcome to a week in the virtuosic world of Marty Moss-Coane, the juxtapositionally acrobatic host of Radio Times . And that's a week with a Monday rebroadcast, and Friday off. In truth, though Moss-Coane writes upward of 10 intros for her guests each week, she herself probably needs no introduction: The intelligent, even-handed occupier of Radio Times ' mid-morning slot on WHYY-FM (90.9)

For our first Christmas after retirement, we chose to do something different. As a pastor, my previous 39 Christmas Eves had been spent leading worship. As happy as that experience was, the thought of being free was also exciting. So on the morning of Dec. 24, my wife, Hope, and I left the quiet central Pennsylvania town of Gratz (population 662) and drove to New York City. At lunch before seeing War Horse at Lincoln Center, Hope whispered that Hoda Kotb was at the next table.

IN CASE you didn't do well in geography, Albuquerque, N.M., is a little more than 5,000 feet above sea level. How that might impact a football player during a game, Temple coach Steve Addazio has no clue. Addazio's Owls will play Wyoming there on Saturday in the New Mexico Bowl. "What's going to happen?" Addazio said yesterday. "I'm going to get off the plane and start gasping for air. I'm not sure. But I don't worry about it. I can't change it. "You buckle your chinstraps up, come off the ball and rock and roll . . . "They'll get to experience a whole different venue.

Q: My spouse has been entangled with a "just a friend" of the opposite sex for years without the knowledge of either of their partners. My spouse doesn't understand my zero tolerance for any interaction with this person when not in my presence. And they both insist her man can't be told about the relationship. Am I wrong? Wouldn't clean, fresh air be a lot better for all four of us? Steve: Her guy could get all Biz Markie and sing, "You, you got what I need, but you say he's just a friend . . . " Other than that, I can't think of any good that could come from telling her man. Mia: Don't believe this "just a friend" crap.

Throughout the season's first six weeks, Brent Celek reached over, slapped the snooze button on the sounding alarm and fell back to sleep. Once a cornerstone of the Eagles offense, Celek had appeared to fall out of favor and his production continued to sag. The tight end woke up Sunday night, erased those ringing doldrums and returned to form as a cog in the Eagles offense. In the 34-7 rout of the visiting Dallas Cowboys, Celek hauled in seven passes for 94 yards and set the tone for the rushing game with several key blocks.