Are There Cucumbers After Salad?

 

 

I found this 1978 WDCB schedule online on an eBay. It's gone now. I failed to follow through. But my screen cap grabbed some information about a classic Chicago jazz station from almost 50 years ago. I posted it in Google Drive rather than pound the uneven grid into HTML. [LINK]

What the schedule doesn't say is that 90.9 WDCB was founded as a 5,000-watt station in July 1977. It was barely a year old when this schedule was printed.  I quickly figured out that (R) meant rebroadcast. I initially assumed that the green spaces were some kind of jazz automation. But their official history states that their jazz programming was introduced in the early 1980s. That's two years later. [SOURCE] A college of Dupage description of the station's programming implies that the green spaces are classical. 

"The radio station was founded as a 5,000-watt station in late 1977, and its original format was a mix of classical, educational, and news programming. Jazz programming was introduced in the early 1980s and became the primary format by the end of the decade. Since then, WDCB's format has expanded to include roots rock, bluegrass, Celtic, folk, blues, new-age, acid jazz, Afro-Cuban jazz, big band, world music and old-time radio shows, though straight-ahead jazz makes up about 75% of its music programming. The educational programming was dropped in 2001, and classical music continued to be heard on the station on weekends until late 2005. In recent years, some of the more eclectic and niche programming has been phased out for a stronger emphasis on jazz and blues."

But neither of those theories panned out. As it turns out WDCB had a time share agreement with 90.9 WEPS. WEPS started out on 88.1 in Elgin, IL and moved to 90.9 in 1960 increasing power from 10 to 360 watts. WEPS moved to 88.9 MHz frequency in 1987, after reaching an agreement with WDCB, where the college paid 40k to enable WEPS to move and both stations to begin full-time operations. WEPS became a Wisconsin public radio affiliate in 2024 and post-Covid only recently began having students back in the studio. [SOURCE]

The 1978 schedule is full of gems. The Captain Horatio Hornblower program was a BBC production which only aired in the US on CBS, ABC, and Mutual. The Lives of Harry Lime similarly only broadcast it's full series in the US. The Black Museum and Secrets of Scotland Yard were also 1950s BBC radio dramas. I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again was a BBC radio comedy sketch program. It wrapped in 1973 so this was a rebroadcast like the rest of their BBC programming. 

Another oddball in the schedule was "Communicom News". A 1978 issue of The Courier [SOURCE] identifies the program as "...compiled in the WDCB-FM newsroom with the assistance of United Press International."  "Kerkrade '74 World Music" turns out to be an ongoing music festival held at Kerkrade in the Netherlands. They had LPs, and perhaps a transcription series. The show "Keyboard Immortals" is a program that started on KFAC in Los Angeles in 1968. It was created by audio geek Joseph Tushinsky from his huge archive of Welte piano rolls. It was hosted by piano impresario Felix de Cola, who actually has a great radio voice. 

There is very little online about Doc's Jazz City. I wish I knew more.  That Courier issue only mentions that it still exists in August 1978. Another issue of The Courier from February 1978 describes the program as "new." [SOURCE] It still appears in this 1983 schedule with the host finally named as Doc Snyder; who I believe to be Robert Doc Snyder a professor at Wisconsin State University-Oshkosh. His obituary states that "n 1966, Snyder created WRST (Wisconsin Radio Station of the Titans) out of a former lumber company office near the Fox River."  He died in 2008. [SOURCE] [SOURCE]

 

But the most mysterious program on the schedule is "Are There Cucumbers After Salad?" That program is also mentioned in The Courier in 1978. It describes it merely as "a series presenting experimental music and hosted by Thaxter Douglas, a community resident." Thax was only 20 years old at the time but Thaxter Elliott Douglas III is alive today and still making art. He's a performance artist and published poet stalking Chicago indie venues to this very day. There is literally a documentary about this guy. More here, here and here.