Maximum Rock 'N' Roll Radio

Maximum Rock 'N' Roll, whether you consider it a 'zine, fanzine or a magazine is a cultural tour-de-force of punk rock. What many readers do not know is that the publication has strong roots in radio. (Maximum Rock 'N' Roll shall heretofore be referred to as MRR for the sake of space.)  The infamous magazine MRR was founded in 1982, but the now obscure MRR radio program, began in 1977. It's host was Tim Yohannan, also known as Tim Yo. More here.  It's worth noting that Tim was kind of a dick. Even Wikipedia which is typically loath to use personal adjectives, describes him as "notoriously difficult" and "divisive" with the same understated subtext one might use to describe Ginger Baker. But colorful and abrasive personalities are not unusual in either publishing or in broadcasting.

Maximum Rock 'N' Roll aired on 94.1 KPFA,  on Sundays at Midnight, moving to Tuesdays 8:00 - 10:00 PM in June of 1979. In 1977 it was one of only a few punk rock radio radio programs in America, if not the world. The use of the word "punk" to describe the musical genre only began in the early 1970s. The earliest contextually musical use of the word I am aware of is from Lester Bangs. , In the December 1970 issue of Creem, Lester Bangs, ironically referred to Iggy Pop as "that Stooge punk". Writer Dave Marsh, also of Creem used it similarly in 1971. Alan Vega of the band Suicide, credits Bang's usage with inspiring his duo to bill its gigs as a "punk mass." From there it permeated pop culture. In this context it makes a lot of sense that early flyers refer to Urban Blues, Soul, Surf or Rockabilly as much as rocknroll. [SOURCE] The punk rock of the era is now often categorized as protopunk. The MRR website today describes the program:

“Maximum Rock & Roll” started in 1977 as a punk rock radio show—one of the first and best of all time. “Tim and the gang” played the latest punk and hardcore sounds from across the world, the U.S., and from their home in the bristling San Francisco Bay Area punk scene. “The gang” included personalities like Jeff Bale, Ruth Schwartz, and Jello Biafra. Punk antiheroes regularly visited as guest DJs, and the roster of touring bands interviewed on the show reads like the track list on a classic old comp. The show was notable for the immediacy of the music, a dedication to international coverage (rare at the time), and for explicitly interjecting progressive politics into the dialogue of punk. The show became hugely successful in the underground, and eventually was broadcast from stations across the U.S. and abroad."

There are surviving tapes from as early as 1980 posted online. But on one tape from a show aired in January 1987, Tim plays a segment from an MRR tape recorded in 1978. It's also worth noting that as part of fundraising drive, KPFA sponsored themed programming days. On March 7, 1981 the theme was "Punk Day" this was more or less MRR day.

1978 ad from Search & Destroy Magazine

But Tim Yo didn't host the Maximum Rock 'N' Roll radio show alone. There were three regular faces in on that show. Among them, Ruth Schwartz is notable for having her own radio program, she was a DJ at KALX then started hosting Harmful Emissions at 90.3 KUSF in 1980. In a 2012 interview, she describes meeting Tim.

"I had never met Tim Yohannan. I knew of him, but I don’t think I had met him until he walked into the KUSF studio one night to meet me. He walked in and said, “Do you want to be on our radio program?” ...That’s how I met him."

At the MRR radio program Ruth handled board ops and edited 1/4 tape with an Xacto knife for broadcast, duplication and distribution. Yes, Ruth is how MRR got distributed around the world. (She went on to found Mordam distribution.)  The original MRR program was cancelled in 1990 despite the fact that Ruth was manually syndicating to 20-30 stations. According to Alan O'Coconner, author of Punk Record Labels and the Struggle for Autonomy, (2008) Pacifica was trying to reach more upscale listener-supporters.

It may have been a coincidence, but when Tim died in 1998, at the urging of Tim Munson, MRR magazine themed the next issue (June issue 181) as their Pirate Radio issue. They did interviews and articles about pirate stations like 91.3 Radio Mutiny (WPPR), 90.9 Rebel Radio, 94.7 Radio Free Gainesville, 99.7 Black Liberation Radio, Radio Free Berkeley, Beat Radio, Radio Cairo, 104.7 WZVU, 88.9 KAW, Free Radio Memphis, 105.5 WDOA, Radio Free Alston, Micro Kind Radio, 107.9 KCMG, 97.7 WSKR, Lutz Community Radio, 88.7 Steal This Radio and many others.

MRR relaunched the program around 2002 in a podcast like format. It remains a fine purveyor of punk rock, but is no longer affiliated with KPFA.

Maximum Louie Louie

This was an event unparalleled in the history of college radio. There are radio stunts that garner a bit of attention for a radio station. This stunt is recorded in no fewer than half a dozen books and innumerable websites. This stunt eventually led to a recurring parade... this stunt outdid all other radio stunts and thus became a historical event unto itself. It was called Maximum Louie Louie.

The setting was an infamous college radio station, 89.7 KFJC in Los Altos, CA, on the campus of Foothills College. It's only a 110 watt station but it blankets downtown San Jose, CA which gives them a reach of about 1 million people. The station was founded in 1959, when Foothills was just a Junior college giving name to the JC following the KF. Originally a 10 watt station on 88.5, the station moved to 89.7 in 1961, before the station ever aired rock n' roll music. They went stereo in 1974 and then increased power to 110 watts in 1980. (Note: some sources put them at 250 watts.)  All this was prelude to the big event.

On August 19, 1983, at 6:00 PM , the station aired 823 different versions of the song Louie Louie consecutively. The event is referred to as Maximum Louie Louie. The idea originated with two student members of KFJC, Jeff "Stretch" Riedle and Phil Dirt aka Frank Luft with encouragement from SM Robert "Doc" Pelzel. How this event came to be, and all of it's unintended consequences are two different stories:

The idea originated with two student members of KFJC, Jeff "Stretch" Riedle and Phil Dirt aka Frank Luft. In an inspired moment back in 1981, Stretch tore through the KFJC library and found 33 versions of Louie Louie and aired them consecutively. It took about 90 minutes. Coincidentally KALX held a completed a listener survey and determined that their all time favorite rock song was Louie Louie. A DJ there, Mel Cheplowitz used the KFJC song list and added 17 more versions and aired a  50-song all Louie Louie power block in December of 1981. Riedle responded with an 88-version special in the Summer of 1982. Cheplowitz raised the stakes and broadcast a "Lou-A-Thon" in December of 1982 that included 100 different versions. (some sources say 200) Local press started to comment on this musical escalation. Cheplowitz said he was done, but Riedle told the San Francisco Examiner " We started this thing, and we intend to end it." It sounded almost like a threat. More here.

The station began soliciting versions of Louie Louie. They planned to broadcast live versions by local bands every two hours. Jack Ely, the original Kingmen's vocalist flew down from Oregon. The original songwriter Richard Berry took a train up from Los Angeles. Riedle would tilt this windmill and kick it's ass. Local press began to guess how many versions KFJC might pull together... 200?  400?. All told it was 63 consecutive hours of programming. Los Altos was never the same again.

So how many versions were really broadcast, and by which artists? Riedle taped the event. But 24 years later, despite the numerous aircheck sheets, some versions remain unidentified even today. [SOURCE] In honor of the event, Rhino Records released RNEP605, a "Best of Louie Louie" compilation. It's only 10 tracks, but that LP made it into the hands of a very special DJ in Philadelphia.

On the East coast, 2,900 miles away a WMMR DJ named John DeBella, regaled his listeners with the true tale of Maximum Louie Louie. Inspired, he decided that Philadelphia needed a Louie Louie Parade. Thousands of people came. On April 1st, 1985 it happened. They did it again in 1986, and 1987 until the City itself started to complain about the costs. But by then it had spread, Louie Louie parades had been held in multiple cities... as of 2017, Peoria, IL has been doing it annually for 30 straight years. So that parade has outlived the LouieFest, held yearly in Tacoma, WA from 2003 to 2012.

But 30 years is a long time. Jack Ely died in 2015, and Richard Berry back in 1997. Stretch Riedle is still with us but has not been terribly healthy of late. But in 2011 the original conspirators gathered at KFJC for “Return of the Invasion of Maximum Louie Louie.” More here. It was significantly shorter, but aired some archival tapes no one had heard since the original broadcast.  In their collective honor, we all now celebrate International Louie Louie Day every year, on April 11th; aka Richard Berry's birthday. It's been held since at least 2003, but I'm pretty sure Stretch is behind that one too.

CSC KALX

I knew Hugh Foley from his tenure at 91.3 KRSC in Claremore, Oklahoma. On day while reading  through a CD insert I found his name. I decided to ask and sure enough, his radio resume was longer than I knew and dovetailed with my favorite band of all time. He had recorded the track "Corporate Protopop" for the Cop Shoot Cop LP "White Noise" back in 1991. Below I quote his email at length rather than mangle any of his details.




"...As a result of my work at WNYU, I met and worked with a lot of bands from that era (85 to 90). I remember Tod, Natz, Jim, and Phil very well from that time. From the very first single (which I think was spattered in pig's blood, and I also seem to think I have a copy of), we played their stuff at WNYU. As a result of that, they came up for interviews, and seems like we even booked them at the old Tramps (15th street?) on WNYU night when we had regular Thursday night gigs there. I'm pretty sure they also did a live show in our WNYU studio. Also, since they were East Village types of that time, we saw each other pretty regularly around that side of town. Also, I believe my friend Jim (Foetus) Thirlwell and Tod were friends so it seems we all saw each other a lot at shows, parties, and what not.

As for the guys in CSC, it seems like on at least one occasion I jammed with them (on voice) in their rehearsal space somewhere in the East Village. When I left NYC to try out the Bay Area, I got involved at KALX at UC-Berkeley where you did not have to be a student to work. On one of my trips back to NYC I ran into Tod, and gave him my number, both to stay in touch and also because he had something he wanted me to voice for the album, a sarcastic commercial about consumer culture. Not too long after that, he sent me the text for the fake spot, and I cut it in the KALX studios, then sent him the tape.

When they came out to the Bay Area I also played a few songs with them on trombone at one live show in Berkeley, as I recall. I still play horn, some guitar (who doesn't that's been around music for a long time?), write songs, and play in a country/folk/rock duo here in Stillwater, usually at the finer beer joints, coffee shops, and occasional festivals in the area."

SFO

I drove up I-880 to Oakland. I noticed that on 87.9 was an FM station and as I navigated the sloping curves of the interstate I realize that there wasn't one, but two. One had to be 97.9 KSFH, a high school station in Mountain View. KSFH was initially licensed on 90.5 but in 1982 moved to 88.1 FM. They moved to 87.9 MHz in 1999. There are only two FM station in America licensed for 87.9 (KSFH and K200AA)so the other must be a pirate. The bay is loaded with more pirate radio than any other part of the world. But Google let me to Pirate Cat Radio a recent winner of a $10,000 FCC fine. Pirate cat was running some wild Ethiopian Jazz, KSFH some trite Active Rock.

I continued north, and visited Berkley to hit Amoeba Music. The neighborhood being what it is, warranted stops at several bookstores, (where I got a copy of Screwjack) and also Rasputin Music. Some parking terrorist saw fit to give me a ticket even though I had minutes on the meter so I fled Berkley feeling unwelcome. I'll take my tourist dollars elsewhere if the commies don't want it.

Why hit only one Amoeba when there is one on each side of the bridge? I crossed the bay bridge and four dollars later I was in San Francisco. Once you pass Presidio and roll downhill, reception changes drastically.
With the heights between me and the bay, San Jose simply vanishes. The band is just KALX, KPOO, KUSF and KQED. I stopped at Ocean beach for a bit and found a sand dollar, then headed back down skyline drive onto Route 1 stopping only once for tacos. KCSM started coming in again before I got to Pacifica. I headed east on Route 92 heading back to 280, to San Jose airport and as I got into that valley KFJC came in again and the first song I heard was "Teenage Enema Nurse." I wasn't ever able to hear KLSI but that might be for the best.