Friday, April 22, 2011

Skip Pop Scratch again

I wrote about the radio program Skip Pop Scratch on 1190 KVCU-AM way back in 2005 just a few months after beginning this blog.That would normally have been the end of it, since the show is no more. But I just found two aircheck tapes for that program. I feel compelled to add a little something extra to the legacy of this unsung show. With thanks to the Wayback Machine at Archive.org I was able to revisit some random stops in the programs history. It's hard to peg a start date for the show. Their website was launched no later than 2002, but some references go back to 1999. Her own website (also defunct) described the program
"Skip Pop Scratch is three hours of blues, folk and country broadcast on Radio 1190, KVCU Boulder, Colorado from 10 - 1 pm mountain time. It can be heard on 1190 am along the front range in Colorado (roughly between Ft. Collins and Castle Rock.)"
Like many colorful radio programs on many small college radio stations in the country it has come to pass. KVCU-AM is still there, but the host of Skip Pop Scratch, Kathy E. Gatliffe has moved on. She is no longer at KVCU, and no hosts her masterful 3-hour program and longer DJs the monthly Denver Barn Dance at the Mercury Cafe. In September of 2003 she had a co-host "Danny" but he was gone from the website early the following year. The last time the website was updated was October 2006. I presume that was somewhere around the final airdate. In 2007 there's a note about switching servers and a link to some audiobook recordings she did for Librivox.org

KVCU-AM is a small station, they don't go dark at night, but they do power down to a mere 110 watts. Few people outside the Boulder community were able to hear her program. They don't know what they're missing. So, to that end I'm sharing a couple segments from my aircheck tape. I've edited out the music, I'm afraid copyright law won't permit more than that. Enjoy:
December 15th 2002 - Skip Pop Scratch

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:15 AM

    Kathy inherited the 1190 Skip Pop Scratch show from her sister. Danny would host or co-host a SPS show occasionally for about a two year period but eventually left to work for the ill-fated KCUV-AM "Americana" experiment in Denver. Not sure what happened to Kathy (she was in engineering grad school) but Danny moved to Phoenix 3 or 4 years ago and still maintains a streaming web site: http://radiovagabond.com/

    I've got years of SPS digital archives. Someday I should post them somewhere.

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  2. Wow! I can't believe you remembered the show for so long! I'm still in Boulder but I'm a jeweler now.

    And I created the show, but there was a period of time in the middle when I was unable to do it and my sister took over.

    Thanks so much!!!

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  3. It was truly one of the best undiscovered radio programs I've ever found.

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