A few days ago I learned about a documentary about the “first all-woman radio station,” a commercial country station WHER which launched in Memphis in 1955. Of course it piqued my curiosity, not only because it sounds like an intriguing station, but also because I’m aware of college radio stations at all women’s colleges that […]
I’m a sucker for stories from FM radio’s freeform heyday, a time perhaps a little more hazy in memory because of its coincidence with 70s drug culture. Which goes to say that I enjoyed the Thanksgiving episode of WTF with Marc Maron featuring a breezy live interview with Los Angeles FM radio veterans Jim Ladd […]
For some reason I have come to experience the Bhagavad-Gita as a radio program. Why? Mainly because a man named Sanjaya narrates the legendary tale and philosophical exchange as it unfolds to a blind king. In case you haven’t read “The Gita” lately, a quick summary: Once upon a time two royal families dwelled in […]
When I journeyed to Minneapolis for the College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI) convention last month, I was able to visit three college radio stations and Carleton College station KRLX-FM was on the top of my list. I’d been aware of the long history of radio at Carleton for quite some time and was eager to see […]
I had a great time at the College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI) conference in Minneapolis last week and was glad to have had the opportunity to speak on two different panels about college radio history and culture. (more…)
On Friday, October 23, I had a wonderful experience visiting University of Minnesota’s college radio station, Radio K (aka KUOM), in Minneapolis. I was in town for the College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI) convention and made a point to trek to a few stations. Radio K made my list not only because it is a college […]
This should be interesting: performance artist Andrea Fraser will reenact the voices of four men speaking candidly about feminism on a 1972 KPFK-FM radio show. The event is called “Men on the Line: Men Committed to Feminism.” Fraser performs as all four participants based on excerpts of what they said during the Los Angeles based […]
Over the past few months the Radio Preservation Task Force (now with a brand new website) has worked to expand its list of affiliate archives. A number of big organizations have also become recently affiliated with the RPTF, including NPR, the Pacifica Radio Archives, the Prometheus Radio Project, and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and […]
Here is some backstory on how a community radio station will soon be broadcasting from a guitar store. In the beginning there was the Meteor Theater of Bentonville, Arkansas. One Mr. Harry Kelly, a lover of movies, built it for around $30,000. The Meteor, as it came to be called, opened in 1927, premiering Venus […]
A few months ago I wrote about an amazing collection of vintage college radio playlists that were recently sent to me. From the 1970s and 1980s, these playlists were mostly handwritten and typed affairs that were compiled by college radio station music directors. (more…)
