I woke up Saturday morning to bits of news about the devastating fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland late Friday night. Friends posted messages on social media, expressing concern for loved ones who were at the music event and who hadn’t been heard from. I clicked on the party invitation for the show […]
I was sad to hear that radio DJ/Negativland member Don Joyce passed away yesterday. As a fan of freeform radio, sound collage, and experimental sounds, I’m awed by the longevity of Joyce’s KPFA radio show “Over the Edge,” which has been on the air since 1981. Thanks to Joyce’s friend and Negativland co-conspirator Peter Conheim […]
Broadcasting legend Casey Kasem passed away Sunday at the age of 82. For those who grew up in the 70s and 80s Kasem is an icon of classic pop radio. His passing is sad, but causes me to reflect on how a single weekly broadcast so neatly encapsulated American music culture for a time, and […]
I was saddened to hear the news that Family Radio founder Harold Camping died on Sunday in his home in Alameda, California after complications from a fall that he suffered on November 30. The Christian radio mogul and long-time talk show host achieved worldwide attention in 2011 when he embarked on a massive media blitz […]
I was saddened to hear the news that celebrity psychic Sylvia Browne died yesterday in a San Jose hospital at the age of 77. A mainstay of numerous television shows and the host of her own Internet radio show, Browne was a master of broadcast media. I remember seeing her regularly on the San Francisco-based […]
I was stunned when I heard the news that three program hosts at New York’s Pacifica station WBAI-FM were found dead this week. On June 3, Ibrahim Gonzalez died in his sleep. The long-time WBAI staple (he’d been at the station for 23 years) and host of In The Moment and Radio Libre is being […]
I’m very sad to report that Mike Schweizer, an important figure in San Francisco Bay Area broadcasting, died on Tuesday, June 14 at the age of 58. Schweizer was the assistant chief engineer for University of San Francisco’s college radio station KUSF and had been with the station for more than 33 years. We met […]
Non-commercial radio DJs and staff members rarely get the public recognition that they should. When it comes time to nominate people for Radio Halls of Fame, their names don’t always come up and when they die they don’t necessarily make it on the evening news. But, often these committed radio fans have put in more […]
Last Friday, May 28th, long-time college radio DJ David Standifer, aka “Dave the Metal Guy,” died at the age of 38 of an apparent brain aneurysm. Up until December, 2009 he’d been the host of University of Alabama college radio station WVUA‘s long-running metal show “The Metal Zone.” The program, which began in 1982, had […]
