By Clea Simon, Globe Correspondent  |  May 13, 2004

If a radio show aims to offer more than mere entertainment, it needs to keep challenging its listeners. That's what Banning Eyre and Sean Barlow have realized about Barlow's creation, "Afropop Worldwide," which airs on more than 100 stations nationally, including WUMB-FM (91.9) Mondays at 11 p.m.

After 18 years on the air, the Public Radio International program has helped popularize the music of the African diaspora, playing releases from Cuba and other Caribbean nations alongside their contemporary African counterparts. The next step, say the two producers, was to put the music in context -- and that's the idea that led them to create the series-within-a-series called "Hip Deep."

"There's a need to add to what's been done before," Eyre says. "All the shows we've done . . . are pieces of a puzzle. There's a big picture, but the connections aren't obvious."

"Hip Deep," a series of hourlong specials that air in the "Afropop" slot every few weeks, seeks to make those connections. Using interviews with scholars alongside music tracks, these features (first broadcast in December) trace musical influences, uncovering bits of history that may not be well known to Western audiences.

Take, for example, the story of Al-Andalus, or Andalusia. Controlling much of what is now Spain and Portugal, this Muslim empire, which lasted from AD 711 to 1492, had a huge impact on the Christian European culture that followed. This was in part because its tolerant, largely Arabic court kept science and literature alive when the rest of Europe was in its so-called Dark Ages.

More to the point for "Hip Deep," Al-Andalus also developed courtly traditions in instrumental and vocal music that influenced the French troubadours and echo still in Spanish flamenco.

As told through tuneful excerpts, interviews with academics, and the deep, colloquial voice of regular "Afropop" host Georges Collinet, the history of this musical legacy makes a fascinating story, a glimpse into a past that's seldom taught.

The first part of the Al-Andalus story, which aired last month, will soon be accessible on www.afro

pop.org. Later this month, Barlow and Eyre will be heading to Fez, Morocco, for the 10th annual Fes Festival of World Sacred Music to research a second segment. Beyond the curiosity factor, the two producers say what's important is understanding how such forgotten stories fit into the world today. "It's the stories and personalities," Barlow says. "The whole process of . . . moving a culture from one place to another."

To bring these stories alive, Barlow and Eyre have recruited a wide range of academics. It's a field, they say, that has blossomed in the last decade.

In June, for example, one "Hip Deep" will focus on Cuba, using the research of contributor Ned Sublette, who, after 10 years of work, has just completed a history of Cuban music.

"We've gone to Africa and interviewed musicians and let them tell their story," says Barlow. "We've done that all along. Now we're actually putting [the academic sources] forward."

Says Eyre, "To some extent, the excitement and energy of those scholars gives these stories an added level of drama."