PDX to SFO

It's about 650 miles from Portland to San Francisco, that's a full day at the wheel. The plan was to spend as much of the drive on the coast as possible so instead of heading down I-5 or Route 99 I drove north west up Route 26 to join 101 in Seaside, OR; lost some time but gained some road miles.

The coast of Oregon is mostly rural, small towns separated by miles of forest. KXJM is located in Banks, along route 26 but at 68k watts is just another Portland station. KMHD petered out and I started looking for local stations. The Classic rock station 102.3 KCRX in Seaside was the first and their license is held by "OMG FCC Licenses, LLC" which is the best LLC name I've seen since "The Dude Abides LLC."  In this area OMG also owns 1230 KKOR and 1370 KAST-AM in Astoria which is too far north to receive here. (They also own a cluster of station in Alaska.) OMG sadly only stands for Ohana Media Group and not the exclamation "oh my god." Ohana's website has been down for quite a while and is excluded from the wayback machine so they're running dark online.

KCRX is classic rock if you think The Offspring is classic rock. It's fine but it's not all about Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Further down the coast in Cannon beach there's a whole cluster of FMs to check out. The best option was 94.9 KBGE an actual AAA format station: Gorillaz, Florence and the Machine, Blur, Genesis, Live etc. Nothing unexpected but at least it's not new country. Down the road Manzanita has a local Classical stick, KQMI and then down around Bay City  we have another cluster of FMs now audible from Tillamook. Two are public radio: KTCB and KTMK. But down on the AM band I can now clearly get 1590 KTIL. My info said that it was classic rock but all I heard was country music... Slim pickins' out here. Bay City next door has an actual LPFM station 92.9 KAYN. [LINK] They had a bluegrass program and it's the best thing I've heard since KMHD faded out. 

Route 101 swings inland and I can briefly hear Portland stations again before heading back to the coast. In Newport is Lane Community College and their stations 89.7 KLCC and 90.5 KLCO. It does have some local programs, notably Eye 5, a Saturday roots music show but it's not Saturday today so I get an NPR zombie. Another hour south, in Lincoln City there's another classic rock station KCRF. But they're silent today. That went dark in the Pacific West foreclosure. [LINK] and [LINK].

Around Newport, more Eugene stations came in range. It didn't add any great options, further south Reedsport and then Coos Bay there's even more NPR zombies; KLFO, and KSBA, and yet more classical: KZBY, KWAX, and KWVZ and further south are KSOR, and KOOZ. AAA outlet KTEE was playing some Roasanne Cash. But in Florence 90.7 KXCR, a hyper-local unassuming 900 watt station. I stuck around and I heard a show about poetry, and listened to a talk show KXCR Conversations. These get posted online here so you can hear that very show. Also notable is KMHS, a high school station with not one or two but three sticks: 1430, 105.1 and 91.3. I just wish it wasn't wasted playing modern country music.

The drive was beautiful of course. I stopped at a joint named Mr. Ed's Espresso, Juice, and Underground Pub. The walls and ceiling are all hung with guitars of every make and model. The pizza is great it was one of the best stops on the whole drive. As I approached the California border I could hear 790 KRJY-AM, the Travelers Information station out of Eureka. This station is interesting because it's privately owned. They signed on in 1980 as KEKA. Prior to 2000 it was an Adult Standards format, and under Westwood One it was Spanish Oldies until 2016.

Station 910 KURY-AM should be playing Nostalgia but it too has drifted forward a couple decades more like it's FM counterpart on 95.3. The first California FM station I can hear for sure is 91.9 KHSR, an NPR zombie. I hear it best near the coastline. 1480 KEJB-AM out of Eureka is playing some actual oldies: Chiffons, Martha Reeves, Bobby Fuller the first one I've heard all week. I drove through Brookings, past several state-line themed cannabis shops and was in suddenly California.

I might have missed something but the giant redwood trees do seem to only start south of the border. I have since read that they do grow in Southwest Oregon but are smaller. The first LPFM I hit was 101.1 KFUG in Crescent City but they were playing modern country music as I passed through town but according to their website it's a crapshoot. It could have been Noiseparade or all Elvis. More here. I could hear 104.7 KHUM out of Humbolt by the time I got to Kalamath, more true AAA: Dan Auerbach, Beatles, Lana Del Rey and way too much J.J. Cale. 

Down the road I hit the Eureka-Arcata market which has a more robust radio dial. Station 95.1 KMDR playing is listed online as Rhythmic Oldies but is actually Soft AC. 94.1 KLGE a loungy jazz station... not quite Adult Standards though it sports some Mel Torme. A couple years ago they did a real deal radio play called "Hard Boiled Humboldt, A Half-Baked Detective Story". Yes you can download it and you should. [LINK] I expected it to come in but 105.1 KRFH, the one college station in town was not audible.

The area between Eureka and Ft. Brag is pretty rural but I noticed, starting in Eureka what KMUD has become. Firstly it is the station I remember. I tuned in and the first thing I heard was some talk about Shamans and then Native American music. They are now a real deal public radio network: 91.1 KMUD, 88.1 KMUE, and 90.3 KLAI. Don't ever change.

The dial got quiet until we hit Ft. Bragg and then Mendocino, home of 89.3 KAKX. The kids are surprisingly adept, nice mix of indie rock. Then the highway routed further inland. In Santa Rosa I can hear a repeater for KCSM on 90.7, and KWMR is keeping it weird. Kay Clements was still MD last time I came through, she's not listed on the staff website anymore but they just celebrated 25 years of broadcasting[LINK], congratulations! I also bumped into KRJF-LP which I've not heard before [LINK]. In the mid-afternoon I caught the New Music show, mostly a mix of AAA and indie rock, nice driving music. From there I could already hear San Francisco stations like KPFA, but I stuck with 93.7 KJZY, one of the few Nostalgia stations left, then all jazz 91.1 KCSM all the way into the city.

Filled with tacos from Tacos Oscar next door, I paid a visit to 1-2-3-4 Go Records on 40th Street in Oakland. Among other things I got a few stickers there, one for 92.7 FM KEXP.  The problem is that KEXP is on 90.3 in Seattle. Much like KYA Gold in Seattle... this station is 800 miles away from this sticker. The truth was a big surprise. In 2009 KEXP bought the station we now know as 92.7 KEXC. I'm not sure how I missed the news, but KEXP bought the old KJAZ stick from Flying Bear in 2022. There were other sights and other sounds, but you can't stay on the road forever.

The History of LGBT Radio (Part 6)

As it often is in any story, KPFA is central to this tale. The station appears twice in Zef's quoted list for the shows Fruit Punch and Radio Free Lesbian. But at KPFA the story goes back further.

It was only in 1964 that the FCC made a ruling upholding Pacifica's argument that the public was well-served by gay-themed content. Pacifica stated that "...so long as the program is handled in good taste, there is no reason why subjects like homosexuality should not be discussed on the air." Commissioner Robert E. Lee, the conservative dissenter wrote "...a microphone in a bordello, during slack hours, could give us similar information.  His name already told you everything you need to know about his background. The ruling came as a response to complaints to the FCC about Pacifica stations airing the following content:

1. A December 12, 1959, broadcast over KPFA, at 10 p.m., of certain poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (read by the poet himself); 
2. "The Zoo Story," a recording of the Edward Albee play broadcast over KPFK at 11 p.m., January 13, 1963; 
3. ''Live and Let Live," a WBAI program re-broadcast over KPFK at 10:15 p.m. on January 15, 1963, in which eight homosexuals discussed their attitudes and problems; 
4. A program broadcast over KPFA at 7:15 p.m. on January 28, 1963, in which the poem, "Ballad of the Despairing Husband," was read by the author Robert Creeley; and 
5. "The Kid." a program broadcast at 11 p.m. on January 8,1963, over KPFA, which consisted of readings by Edward Pomerantz from his unfinished novel of the same name.

You will notice that the first of those controversial programs was on KPFA. Not listed was an earlier more academic program. Purportedly, it was the earliest known radio recording to overtly discuss homosexuality. The program was titled "The Homosexual in Our Society" and aired November 24th, 1958. You can listen to it here [LINK]. It features three panelists: Hal Call, the editor of the Mattachine Society's newsletter, the Mattachine Review; Dr. Blanche Baker, a psychologist; and Lee Gailey, the mother of a gay man. It was led by Elsa Knight Thompson, then the Public Affairs Director of KPFA.  Two years earlier in 1956, KPFA aired Allen Ginsberg reading his iconic poem, Howl.

By 1973 there were multiple gay radio programs airing on KPFA. The November 1973 program guide lists gay-themed episodes of a Paul Lester lecture series, a re-occurring show Gay Profile, Fruit Punch, Aspects of Gay Life, and Lesbian Air. This folio came just 30 days after their strike in August. In 1973 and 1974 the programs Lesbian Air and Fruit punch alternated at 8:45 on Sunday evenings. By 1975 Fruit Punch moved to Wednesdays at 10:00 PM.

The gay mens' program Fruit Punch began in 1973 produced by Kevin Burke as a member of the Fruit Punch radio collective. It's membership varied but also included Dan Curzon, Mark Schwartz, Jon Sugar and David Lamble.  It's first host Kevin Burke left Fruit Punch, but kept producing radio programs for KPFA. In 1978 he produced a series called "Gayhem" and then programs with the People's Theatre. Lamble also produced and or hosted Just Before Dawn on KCHU, and both Traffic Jam, A Closer Look on KQED and KGO. More here. Fruit punch remained on air into the mid 1990s. Though it had a close call in 1986. In an article for the San Francisco Sentinel, John Wetzl wrote:

"Fruit Punch ran into problems when former collective member Will Shepardson hosted a show in which porn star Richard Lock used the term "ball-fucking" on air. At the time [Phillip] Maldari put the show on a six-month trial probation period with Lamble as its director."

The real end came in 1995. Over 60 individual programmers were fired by general manager Marci Lockwood under direction of Pat Scott. A new more mainstream format in an attempt to maximize prime-time listenership. But in a 2002 Community needs assessment study [SOURCE] there were still multiple requests for the return of the popular program. More here.

The Lesbian Air Collective started on KPFA in 1973 at more or less the same time as Fruit Punch. It was produced by Chana (Karen) Wilson who produced three lesbian radio shows on KPFA between 1973 and 1982. The other two were Radio Free Lesbian and A World Wind. Lesbian Express on Sundays' at 5:30 PM biweekly alternating with Fruit Punch. More here.  In 2012 Chana wrote the book Riding Fury Home, in it she explains the genesis of Radio Free Lesbian in 1974.

"...our Lesbian Air group was in crisis, split over ideology: the lesbian versus the socialists. I straddled both camps. In daily life, I was a separatist, having friendships exclusively with other lesbians. By inhabiting feminist, often women-only spaces—book stores, music festivals, and lesbian bars—we developed a feeling of kinship... But as an ideology separatism seemed to me to be a dead end: Since men wouldn't disappear from the earth, if they were hopeless to change, we were doomed."

One camp became Radio Free Lesbian, the other became Lesbian Express. Lesbian Air confusingly remained the name of the collective. Lesbian Express landed at 5:00 PM on Sundays, Radio Free Lesbian at 5:00 on Saturdays. From 1980 to 1983 Wilson hosted A World Wind, with co-host Maxine Dashu. They interviewed poets, musicians, writers and activists.

 Chana eventually left radio to be a psychotherapist full time. In her book Riding Fury Home She describes the decline of the divided collective vividly. Lesbian Express and Radio Free Lesbian ended by 1979.

"One by one over the next year, all my sister programmers dropped out, either too busy, losing interest or embittered by our squabbling... I was the sole survivor of both radio programs. My love of radio and my stubbornness kept me hosting the show for a community I now felt torn up by. It felt altogether too much like family. But I still believed in the power of women sharing stories, and in that basic tenet of feminism: The personal is political..."

Radio Free Alcatraz

Radio Free Alcatraz is one of my favorite things that happened in all of radio history So lets start at the beginning. Almost everyone is at least passingly familiar with the iconic Alcatraz prison.  The actual Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island. The 22 acre island is 1.25 miles off shore from San Francisco. Spanish naval officer Juan Manuel de Ayala charted the island in 1775 by as one of the three islands he identified as "La Isla de los Alcatraces." The name was an error. Alcatrace is Spanish for Gannets, a North Atlantic bird. Ayala had more likely seen Pelicans. More here.

You might be wondering about it's Native American history. Well, there doesn't seem to be much. The island was mostly bare rock, possibly with coastal grass and scrub. In 2001 The Alcatraz Island Historic Preservation and Safety Construction Program wrote "There is no record or remaining evidence  of prehistoric usage of Alcatraz Island by Indian Tribes." Lets discuss. It's possible that Native Americans determined that the bald rock in the bay wasn't very useful. The first Indians to "live" on the island would have been the 19 members of the Hopi tribe imprisoned there for seven months in 1895 for refusing to allow their children to be taken to government-run boarding schools.

Things got way more interesting in 1964 when five Sioux Indians: Richard McKenzie, Allen Cottier, Martin Martinez, Garfield Spotted Elk, and Walter Means landed on Alcatraz in March 1964 and tried to seize it. They invoked the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie as a legal precedent establishing their right to reclaim surplus federal land and filed a claim. This may have technically been Native Peoples first to attempt to settle on the island. Regardless of the legal merits of the claim Federal Marshals kicked them out.  Five years later they returned in much greater numbers. More here.

In 1969 a fire destroyed San Francisco’s American Indian Center. After the fire, Native American activists proposed re-establishing one on the now vacant Alcatraz. Their proposal was denied.
In multiple phases in November of 1969 Native American activists "colonized" the island anyway. The primary landing was on November 20th with 89 men, women and children. On Thanksgiving, 1969, an estimated 400 Native Americans gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving. The occupation would last another 18 months.

Prominent members of the movement included: Richard Oakes, Katherine (Jody) Beaulieu, Adam Fortunate Eagle, chairman of the BANAC (Bay Area Council of American Indian Affairs), Verna Clinton Tullie, Dean Chavers, Stella Leach, LaDonna Harris, Jerry Hatch, Allen Miller, Ron Lickers, Mickey Gemmill, and Gerald Sam, Carol Miller, Daniel Bomberry, Larry Benegas, Elaine Dempsey (Wintun), Ross Barden, Grace Thorpe, and both LaNada Boyer Means and Leman Brightman of UNA (United Native Americans). LaNada, was actually the first Native American student at U.C. Berkeley.

On December 22, 1969, KPFA began its first live broadcast from Alcatraz, hosted by spokesperson John Trudell, a Santee Sioux from Omaha, NB. Trudell had studied radio and broadcasting at San Bernardino Valley College and was a natural for the role. He interviewed residents of the island and visitors.  Al Silbowitz, then manager of KPFA got a grant and with Trudell installed some borrowed and donated radio equipment, on the main cell block building on Alcatraz.  Their programs aired on the Pacifica Network which consisted, at the time, of KPFA in Berkeley; KPFK, Los Angeles; and WBAI, New York. The program was somewhat irregular in schedule but was 15 - 30 minutes long.

The vision for Alcatraz was an egalitarian society. But due to the press attention some people naturally rose to prominence such as Richard Oakes and John Trudell. Oakes left the island with his family in January 1970 after his step daughter fell from a stairwell and died. His departure created a leadership vacuum. Vagrants and hippies began to settle on the island. Eventually non-Indians were prohibited from staying overnight. The native population at this time was about 50 people, 40 of whom were women.

Each episode of Radio Free Alcatraz began with a recording of Buffy Sainte-Marie singing "Now that the Buffalo's Gone." Buffy Sainte-Marie visited the island in person in May of 1970. But by June of 1970 the program was being recorded in the Pacifica Studios. The final program aired in September of that year.  More here.

In May 1970 the federal government began to transfer Alcatraz to the Department of the Interior and the National Park System. That's when the government shut off the electricity and telephone service. The same week the government removed their water barge. This left the occupiers with a small generator for power, butane stoves cooking and a severe water short age. When the barge was removed, different sources cited that they had either 70,000 or as little as 4,000 gallons of water. Then on the night of June 1st, 1971, provocateurs set a fire which destroyed several buildings. On June 11, 1971, Federal marshals invaded the island to remove the remaining residents. At the time, the residential population was just six men, five women and four children. More here.

The results were good and bad. In the years that followed, members of AIM (the American Indian Movement) organized occupations and protests at Plymouth Rock, Mount Rushmore, Wounded Knee, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and dozens of other sites across the country. Richard Nixon ended the Federal policies of termination and assimilation and implemented the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. But Richard Oakes was murdered by a white supremacist in 1972 and John Trudell's family were killed in a suspicious fire in 1979.

Today the Pacifica Radio Archive houses many recordings of Radio Free Alcatraz on 1/4” reel tape. Not all of these tapes are digitized yet. If you want to donate go here.

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.

Grateful Dead DJs on KPFA

KPFA is a set of call letters that come up often on this blog. Even for a radio station that's been around for 65 years they have truly been notable. It's really gone from extraordinary to downright peculiar how many "firsts" the station has had— both large and small. For example, I realized recently that 94.1 KPFA-FM was the first and only radio station in America to host not one but two members of the Grateful Dead as disc jockeys. they performed as a band on many others, and were hosted by many more at concerts but here and only here were they DJs.  I'll be the first to admit I don't care for the band, but I do hear they were great DJs.

Bass guitarist Phil Lesh was volunteering at KPFA as a recording engineer for the program "Midnight Special" a live folk-music program in the early 1960s. It ran on Saturdays at 11:00 PM. It was in that role that he eventually met bluegrass musician Jerry Garcia.Lesh had already performed on the station in the late 50s with the San Mateo College Jazz Band. Phil came back to KPFA in the late 1980s with Rex Radio. The monthly program spun avant-garde jazz and other obscurities. The Grateful Dead's Rex Foundation gave grant money to those very same avant-garde jazz creating a feedback loop of fairly excruciating but technically proficient jazz. It was co-hosted by Gary Lambert and aired on the second Monday of each month at 10:00 PM. it continued to air until at least 1994.

Tom Constanten, a much later member of the Dead was also on KPFA. He played keyboard during what Dead Heads call the the band's "Pigpen" era. Lesh and Constanten actually met at University of California, Berkeley in 1961. But Constanten did not join the band until 1968. Another Jazz head, it's no surprise they became friends. Tom Constanten later hosted the syndicated Grateful Dead Hour with and David Gans. The program is carried on almost 100 radio stations including... KPFA.

In 1995 Gans was offered a second hour in 1995, he agreed on the condition that he be allowed to play bands other than the Grateful Dead. That program, Dead To The World, remains on air today Wednesdays at 8:00 PST.  Phil lesh is still alive and active as well. More recently in 2006 Phil has DJ'd a program on the jambase channel on Sirius Satellite Radio.

John Leonard's Nightsounds

Many radio shows lay claim to be the first free-form radio program. By my measure, the first, truly free-form show was "Nightsounds" on KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California.  It's host was John Leonard. His official title at Pacifica was Drama and Literature Director. He gave 15 minute book reviews on air and gave cultural commentary and organized readings to be recorded and aired. It was 10 years after Henry Jacobs had aired his tape loop experiments. (Audio here) 

While at KPFA his Nightsounds program was syndicated on WBAI via tapes sent by fourth-class mail. At WBAI these were aired by a then very young Bob Fass who later hosted Radio Unnamable.The program ran at 11:30 PM. It's hard to say when it started. The WFMU bio says he started just after KPFA signed on in 1949, but Lenard would have been 10 years old then. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Checklist puts his run at 1963-1964, which is later than some first-hand accounts. It is more likely that he started around 1961, while he was a student, and stayed on through 1964 before leaving to teach English in Massachusetts.

The reason I credit Leonard rather than Jacobs as the father of Free-Form FM is a bit petty. Jacobs cast himself as more of a composer. Leonard was still a DJ. Sure he cut between songs and sampled, but he played songs, recognizable songs. At his worst it was still just audio collage and those works were recorded in advance. Jacobs programs were more eccentric and original but they also were frequently just live un-listenable layers of analog noise. Free-form FM later became genuinely popular. It was not popular because they played records backwards, or over-top one another while reel-to-reel decks cranked out bird calls. Free-form FM played deep cuts, whole albums, new artists, and full length versions of popular radio edits and engaged in zany audio effects and audio collage. If there is a root to that tree it's Leonard, more than Jacobs.

Leonard went on to become the New York Times Book Review 's most distinguished editor.  He had previously worked for the National Review after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the New York Times in 1967, first becoming an editor in 1969. He hosted WGBH's First Edition, and reviewed books, TV and movies on CBS Sunday Morning for 16 years. He also taught creative writing at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. His contributions are many and manifest. He died in 2008 after election day.

Hollywood Walk of Fame: S - Z

At long last this research project has come to an end. I have asked the question repeatedly why these people are famous within radio and the answer appears to be that some of them were not. Though the walk even includes some misspelled names, cartoon characters and animals, there are no erroneous inclusions. There is always a reason, it's just not always apparent, though it is sometimes a parent. No doubt these oddities will spawn many future posts.(and corrections)

Julia Sanderson - Julia Sanderson and her husband Frank Crumit were a comedy and singing duo in 1928 on CBS as the "Singing Sweethearts" even though they were already divorced. In 1930 they started co-hosting a quiz show called "The Battle of the Sexes", which ran 13 years.

Vin Scully - starting out at WFUV as a student DJ, he graduated and got a job filling in at WTOP. He did well enough there to get a better job doing college football coverage on the CBS Radio Network. He currently does Play-by-play for the Los Angeles Dodgers on KLAC.

Ryan Seacrest - An internship at WSTR turned into an overnight shift which inexplicably parlayed into a Hollywood career hosting vapid reality TV programs. In 2004 he took over American Top 40 from a retiring Casey Casem, and later that year starting doing "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" mornings on KIIS.

Dinah Shore - By all reports her radio debut was actually on the Grand Ole Opry on WSM-AM with a Vanderbilt singing troupe. She left for New York and began singing on WNEW. There she sang with Frank Sinatra and for Xavier Cugat which began her recording career.

Ginny Simms - She was in the Kay Kyser band circa the Kollege of Musical Knowledge. The Ginny Simms show ran from 1941 to 1942 on CBS went thru a couple changes becoming the Purple Heart Show, and Talent Theater around 1945. She sang on many other programs including The Pause That Refreshes, The Bob Burns show, and others.

Penny Singleton - He fame originate in one character, Blondie of the comic strip of the same name. She played opposite Arthur Lake (as Dagwood) starting in 1939 on their radio show until it ended in 1950. In 1967 she famously led the Rockettes in a strike against Radio City Music Hall.

Red Skelton - His first appearance on the Rudy Valee show was in 1937. the appearance went so well that in 1938 1938, Skelton replaced Red Foley as the host of "Avalon Time" on NBC. He started doing MGM films and did another radio show "The Raleigh Cigarettes Program" starting in 1941. It lasted until 1953. He moved on to a 3-year syndicate deal with Ziv radio. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1994

Smilin' Jack Smith - (Not to be confused with "Whispering" Jack Smith) He first appeared on KFRC with Anson Weeks and His Hotel Mark Hopkins Orchestra. More radio work followed and he guested on The Kate Smith Show, and The Prudential Hour. Jack got his own radio show in 1945 and it lasted until 1952. He moved into TV afterwards.

Kate Smith - See previous post here.

Phil Spitalny - See previous post here.

Hanley Stafford - His most popular role was as Lancelot Higgins on The Baby Snooks Show. He also played parts on several classic programs such as Popeye, Flash Gordon, Calling All Cars, Jungle Jim, and "The Shadow of Fu Manchu."
Jo Stafford

The Real Don Steele - As a Boss Jock he became nationally-known during his run on KHJ which lasted from 1965 to 1973. (He hosted a TV version from 1965 to 1975 on KHJ-TV.) He also spent time on KIQQ, KTNQ, KRLA, KODJ, KCBS-FM and KRTH.

Bill Stern - Known by me only for announcing the nation's "first" remote sports broadcast. He started out doing play-by-play in 1925 on WHAM-AM. Then was hired by NBC Blue in 1937 to host The Colgate Sports Newsreel as well as Friday night boxing on radio. It ran until 1956. He later did sports commentaries for Mutual. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

Cliffie Stone - See previous post here.

Ezra Stone - His biggest role was as Henry Aldrich in t"The Aldrich Family" which ran 1939-1953. The Aldrich family sketch started out in a stage show, then was reworked to a bit for both Rudy Vallée and Kate Smith's shows. NBC brought it in to develop into a 30 minute program. He went on to direct programs.

Gale Storm - She beat all the odds and won a 1939 "Gateway to Hollywood" radio contest and got a 2-year contract with CBS. She appeared on variety programs like The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, Lux Radio Theater, Family Theatre, My Little Margie and a number of feature films.

Igor Stravinsky - (There are multiple alternate spellings) I can fine no records of live radio broadcast US performances. His inclusion appears to be dubious.

Alec Templeton - He played with several orchestras and played on piano on The Rudy Vallée Show, The Chase and Sanborn Hour, Kraft Music Hall and The Magic Key of RCA. His own program, Alec Templeton Time ran from 1939 to 1941.

Jay Thomas - Best known for a reoccurring role on Mork & Mindy he started in radio as a high school football announcer. He went on to KPWR, WXLO, WKTU and many others. Billboard magazine like to refer to him as semi-legendary. He now hosts the Jay Thomas Show on XM/Sirius.

Lowell Thomas - In 1930 he became a news commentator with the CBS radio. He switched to NBC and in late 1930 he hosted the first-ever television-news broadcast. He came back to CBS in 1947. He retired in 1976. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.

Bill Thompson - Starting in 1934, he was a regular on Don McNeill's morning show "The Breakfast Club" He was also in the choir on "The Sinclair Weiner Minstrels" in 1937. He was also a regular in the cast of "Fibber McGee and Molly." In the 1950s he was in several episodes of CBS Radio Workshop. He went on to do voice over for Walt Disney cartoons.

Tommy & Betty Lou Riggs - In 1931 Riggs was running a poultry business and Tommy was a pianist-vocalist on WCAE-AM. Then they began doing the Tom and Betty bit together on WCAE's. Tommy voiced both himself and a 7-year old girl... which is creepy. the program moved to KDKA, then WTAM then WLW in 1937. They did a stretch on Rudy Vallée's Royal Gelatin Hour. they also did the Kate Smith Show and were a summer replacement for Burns and Allen in 1942. In 1950 Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou ran for one season on CBS.

Arturo Toscanini - He conducted Operas and led the NBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1963, NBC Radio broadcast a weekly series of programs entitled Toscanini: The Man Behind The Legend, commemorating Toscanini's career. Like Stravinski this is a dubious inclusion. The series was rebroadcast by PBS radio in the late 1970s.

Charlie Tuna - See previous post here.

Lurene Tuttle - Another claimant to the title of "The First Lady of Radio," she was reputed to be appearing in 15 programs a week at her peak. She did play virtually every female character "The Adventures of Sam Spade" in addition to appearing on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and the Great Gildersleeve. She was in a slew of soap operas, The Red Skelton Show, Hollywood Hotel, The Restless Gun, Dragnet, Lux Radio Theater, The Screen Guild Theater, Suspense... the list seems to go on forever.

Vera Vague - Barbara Jo Allen got her star in the name of a fictional spinster-type character she created and portrayed on radio and in film. After Vera was introduced in 1939 on "NBC Matinee," she became a regular on Bob Hope's show around 1941. In 1937, she had debuted in network radio as Beth Holly on NBC's "One Man's Family." She also did roles in "Death Valley Days," "I Love a Mystery" and others. In 1952, still in the role of Vera, she hosted her own television series "Follow the Leader" on CBS.

Rudy Vallée - See previous post here.

Harry von Zell - His first radio gig was as an announcer for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra program, then he relocated to New York There he got a job as a CBS staff announcer and announced for Fred Allen, Phil Baker, Eddie Cantor, Eddy Duchin, Ed Wynn and others. He later headlined his own show "The Smiths of Hollywood" which lasted 1946 - 1947.

Mark Wallengren & Kim Amidon - In 1986, Mark Wallengren and Kim Amidon debuted their new eponymous morning show on KOST. Following a 2007 purchase by Clear Channel Amidon left the show and was replaced. Amidon was last known to be doing fill-ins on KTWV.

Jimmy Wallington - He was the announcer for several popular NBC radio shows including Carnation Contented Hour, Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen, the Screen Directors Playhouse, Jimmy Durante, The Big Show, and many others. He also announced for Voice of America for years.

Fred Waring - See previous post here.

Willard Waterman - His biggest role was in replacing Harold Peary as the title character of The Great Gildersleeve from 1950 to 1957. At the same time he had a recurring role as Mr. Merriweather in "The Halls of Ivy." Prior to all that he was on soap operas and a variety show called Chicago Theater of the Air .

Jack Webb - See previous post here.

Orson Welles - See previous post here.

Paul Whiteman - He started on the Old Gold Hour in 1930 but Whiteman had several radio shows, including The Philco Hour, Kraft Music Hall, the Chesterfield hour and Paul Whiteman's Musical Varieties on WJZ. He semi-retired in the late 1940s but He continued to perform on air and was also the music director for the ABC Radio Network.

Dick Whittinghill - He spent 30 years as a DJ at KMPC-AM starting in 1950. He also later did a the afternoon drive slot at KPRZ. He had previously DJ'd at AFRN, KPFA in Helena, MT, KIEV and KGFJ.

Tex Williams - His last appearance on radio was by phone from his hospital bed on Bill Aken's radio program "The Country Call Line" two days before he died. He was a western swing musician who had appeared on WSM at the"Grand Ole Opry," "The National Barn Dance" and Gene Autry's Melody Ranch. Williams also hosted his own radio program, "Riverside Rancho" in 1949.

Meredith Willson - A conductor and songwriter who in 1929 became the concert director for radio station KFRC then became the musical director for the NBC radio. He also appeared on on Good News, Maxwell House Coffee Time, Burns and Allen, and The Big Show. He later hosted his own variety show, the Musical revue which ran 1935-1953.

Don Wilson - Probably best remembered as the fat guy who announced on The Jack Benny show. But his career went back further than Benny's. Don started out singing on KFEL-AM in Denver in 1923. He had also been a sportscaster doing the Olympics in 1932. He also announced for Alan Young, Bing Crosby, Ginny Simms, Music by Gershwin and Baby Snooks.

Marie Wilson - Starting on Broadway she gained national prominence playing the lead role of a dumb blonde in My Friend Irma on film, TV and radio. The TV show and the radio show ran concurrently. The radio series ran from 1947 to 1954.

Paul Winchell - A ventriloquist, singer and comedian, whose he had many guest appearances on various radio programs starting in 1936, on Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour. He had a season as WOR-AM in 1943, then again as 1948 Summer fill-in. He later did voice over on numerous cartoons and had a TV program where the ventriloquist thing makes more sense.

Walter Winchell - See previous post here.

Charles Winninger - A vaudeville actor who got typecast as a a riverboat captain and eventually ended up playing it on the NBC Maxwell House Show Boat program. He also made appearances on Lux Radio Theater.

Ed Wynn - He was the host of The Fire Chief on NBC from 1938 to 1949. In 1933 he founded his own radio network the Amalgamated Broadcasting System, which lasted only five weeks. He moved onto television. Also notable that He was once knocked unconscious by W.C. Fields with a pool stick.

Alan Young - His biggest roles were in television playing Wilbur Post in the television series Mister Ed, and as was the voice of Scrooge McDuck. He actually started out on the CBC in Canada, then in 1944 did a summer fill-in show, The Alan Young Show on NBC which was a hit. It ran for nine years 1944-1949 and then crossed over to television.

Carleton G. Young - He played many roles on may different soap operas such as "The Heinz Magazine of the air." He also played parts in some classic mystery and suspense programs. He played the character Phillip Galt on the suspense series "The Whisperer" in 1951, and "Jim Laughton" in Hollywood Mystery Time.

Robert Young - He always seemed to be playing doctors. He acted in "The Doctor Fights" in 1944, and played ones on TV as well. His biggest roles was as Jim Anderson, in "Father Knows Best" which ran on NBC radio1949 - 1953. Prior to that he acted on the CBS Studio One program, which ran 1947 - 1948 and "Passport for Adams which started back in 1944.

Henry Jacobs' Last Tape

For those of you that don't read Beckett, the title of today's post is probably lost on you. [more here] So let us proceed directly to the worldly and unworldly works of Mr. Henry Jacob. It's hard to explain to a contemporary radio listener how much different FM radio was just a few decades ago. Not only could DJs pick their own music (to a degree) but in some cases they took it to the utmost extreme and broadcast whole psychedelic audio experiments... making their own musical works in the process. 

According to the liner notes on Smithsonian Folkways LP [FS 03861] he got his start in radio on a Mexican border station in 1950, which turns out to be XEW-AM. But that's not the whole story. He attended the University of Chicago (the home of WHPK) and attended grad school at the University of Illinois (the home of WILL). His program began on WILL in 1952 but KPFA aired them as well. I suspect it's 580 WILL-AM, but 90.9 WILL-FM signed on as WUIC in 1941 so it's conceivable he was on the FM stick and accounts are just off on the call sign change. They became WILL-FM in 1954.

Henry Jacobs was a legitimate early experimenter in sound collage in the John Cage sense of the word. Which makes for a nice comparison as they both started tape experiences in about 1952. Both of their tape loop experiments precede the work of Pierre Schaeffer. But as early as he was, Jacob's didn't exactly invent tape manipulation. Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh was manipulating wire recorders in Cairo as early as 1944. You can hear it here) What makes Jacobs' unique across the spectrum was that he was a radio DJ. His weekly program was called "Music And Folklore". These included woks by all manner of ethnic artists and experimental musicians other than himself. His own experiments with tape loops were mostly broadcast on KPFA in 1953 and 1954. These led to the release of a few LPs on Smithsonian Folkways the last of which was the the Vortex LP released in 1957.

Modern electronic music is often the work of stoned college students dicking around with samples and beats in user-friendly software. Some of it's great, but most of it is decidedly low brow. Jacob's and these early experimenters were engineers, and artists as you had to build, and repair your own equipment. They were an  artsy-fartsy, intellectual bunch of geeks. Jacobs in particular spent parts of his KPFA program interviewing ethnomusicologists. Some of that work went into a LP on a Fantasy records LP [FSY 7001]  Interviews Of Our Times It was a collaboration with Lenny Bruce and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Anyway he out grew radio quickly and was producing programs for KQED-TV by the early 1970s. The record label Locust Music has been re-releasing some of his back catalog.  Jacob is still alive and resides in California.

The HUAC investigation of Radio

Everyone remembers the Hollywood 10. Over 300 media people were named in the anti-communist investigation. But it was only 7 men and women in radio that got the same thumbscrews.

(HUAC) the House Un-American Activities Committee began the investigation of 7 radio commentators on November 6, 1945. This list includes: Bertolt Brecht, Norman Cousins, Carey McWilliams, Dorothy Healey, and W. E. B. DuBois... most of them worked for Pacifica.

Starting in the year 1946, HUAC issued general reports on subversive activities, based on its research and hearings. Their first report contained a very partisan section on the radio broadcasts of “certain unnamed liberal commentators.” The committee found the radio commentators to be pro-communist based on their comments regarding the State Department, presidential appointees, foreign governments, and General Douglas MacArthur. [Yes, the far right has really been trying to convince America that liberals are communists for that long.]

Three ex-FBI agents in 1950 published a booklet titled Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television. This tome listed people, organizations and publications purported to have ties to communism. Among those people cited for their ties to communist organizations the following peopel in radio: Rod Holmgren, Lisa Sergio, William S. Gailmor, William Shirer, Johannes Steel, J. Raymond Walshand even Orson Welles!

By the time the book was published, all six commentators listed in its pages had been forced off the air. More here: http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/huac.htm

This crap went on for more than a decade with the FCC withholding the license renewals of KPFA, KPFB, and KPFK pending its investigation into "their communist affiliations." but after McCarthy Sputtered and crashed like the paranoiac alcoholic that he was, the whole movement loast steam. He had been reckless and like a gambler on a winning streak he had not planned for failure. He imploded and drank himself to death. The radio men he ran out of the buisness mostly met sad ends as well, but some found new work writing under psudonyms.

At the end HUAC offered lines of poetry by Sir Walter Scott in defense of their witch-hunt in their final report. I think they misread him myself. Poem Here: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/scott-quote.html

great documentary here: http://radfilms.com/huac.html

The Bombing of KPFT

KPFT was founded by journalist Larry Lee, who convinced Pacifica Radio to establish an independent radio station in Houston, TX. His dream became a reality in March of 1970. In that same year, KPFT became the first, second and only radio station in the United States to have its transmitter bombed by terrorists. More here. 

The first sound to emanate from 90.1 FM in Houston was the song Here Comes The Sun from the then-brand-new Beatles album, Abbey Road. About two months later on May 12 members of the KKK blew up the KPFT transmitter, and the station was off the air for weeks.

Several months after completing repairs and returning to the air, the transmitter was bombed a second time! The October 6th bombing caused much more extensive damage. The cost of the damage was estimated to be about $35,000 —that's $222,000 in today's money adjusted for inflation. KPFT was off the air for more than three months. They resumed broadcasting on Wednesday, January 20th, 1971. A guard of armed police surrounded the station. They interviewed the mayor and the chief of police who both sided with the KKK, questioning their right to broadcast, and accusing them of airing obscene records.  Arlo Guthrie performed live in studio opining his set with Alice's Restaurant. This was the song that they had been playing when the October bombers struck.  Guthrie stepped up to the mic and said:

"So I was sitting in West Palm Beach yesterday, —this is in Florida— and I said "Wow, I'm gonna go over to Houston. What am I going to do there?" I mean maybe somebody will bomb me.. I didn't have any songs about bombs, or nothing like that, so I had to write one. I'd like you to sing it with me..."

A decade later, the KKK's Grand Wizard claimed that his greatest act "was engineering the bombing of a left-wing radio station," hinting none-too-subtly at KPFT. In 1977 bomber Jimmy Dale Hutto was ratted out by FBI informant Russell Rector. Russ has been in the witness protection program since the bombing because the KKK was pretty upset about his informing. Ultimately a whole quartet were indicted: Louis R. Beam Jr., a 24 year old salesman; Peter Lout Jr., a 26 year-old construction worker; Jimmy Dale Hutto a 24 year old chemical worker, and Paul William Moratto a 24 year old electrician. Hutto for his part was arrested in February by the FBI as he was driving toward California with Moratto. His intention was to dynamite more Pacifica radio stations.

Despite the actions of these right-wing terrorists, The Pacifica Network grew to five stations: KPFA in Berkeley, KPFK in Los Angeles, WBAI in New York, WPFW in Washington, and KPFT in Houston. Until 1983 it also included KRAB in Seattle. More here.

River City Radio

I got into Sacramento late last night and scanned the band pretty quick. There was oddly a large number of religious talk programs. I cant account for it with the stations licensed to the area and can only assume it's from translators operating illegally over power. Despite this flood of RF there are some great stations in this city.

The Capital Public Radio Network is available in Sacramento on KXJS 88.7 and KXJZ 88.9 making for a nice strong clear City signal but is simulcast and translated all the way to Stockton and even Reno. They run a really tight play list in their traditional jazz blocks but their acid jazz program is perhaps the best in the nation. I have always been partial to the funk show Friday nights on WXPN but this show is wilder, funkier and cooler. With cuts from Garaj Majal, Charlie Hunter, and Tower of Power; this show is rock solid.

Up the dial is 89.5 KVMR. Alice MacAllister used to be MD here. Not sure if she still is. If there is a taste-maker for eclectic community stations, they are it. In fact the MD from KVMR and KWMR, Kay Clements used to do an Americana radio show together at KPFA. Regardless The mix here is unbeatable" a comedy music show, a Hawaiian show, Blues, jazz, Americana, folk, native American, they have everything.

KDVS is hard to get on the east side of the city but who hangs out in Citris Heights? In a reaction to the well-funded CPR network and the music-variety monolith of KVMR the U. of California, Davis branch radio station went the urban route. It's mostly Reggae, Rap, and R&B. It really fills in the dial with options. They also get bonus points for helping KDRT-LP get going in Davis. Note thsi is the same KDVS that put out that 34 track comp. "Cool as Folk." All live in studio recordings, all artwork made by the hands of actual 3rd graders. Here is a quote that explains everything you need to know about KDVS:

"...In the fall of 1986, the KDVS staff posed nude for the center photo of the program guide. The news hit the Associated Press wire and the station attracted national coverage. A stamp disclaiming that the opinions expressed in the guide were not necessarily those of the UC Regents was mandated by the administration before distribution."

This is my kind of city. The roads are laid out in a grid, letters one way, numbers the other. They've preserved a portion of the city, beside downtown as "Old Sacramento" and left it looking like a old west movie set. I spent much of the day around R-10 sitting in a $800 chair waiting. But the chair was comfortable and I didn't have to buy it no matter how long I sat.

I bought a book impulsively at a small bookstore called Beer's Books. They have a big Maine Coon cat wandering around the store greeting people and I like to see that in book stores.

Radio in River City began in 1921. KVQ-AM signed on at the odd frequency of 883AM. That same staiton is on air to this day. They've has a couple license modifications since then and are currently known as 1530 KFBK-AM. They had the radio dial all to themselves for 16 years. 1210 KROY-AM opened its doors an they were it's only competitor for another 8 years. In 1945 the dial began to populate and more resemble the varied beast it is today.It was only about thirty years after that Brooks Records and Antiques opened it's doors. I killed an hour today talking to Brooksie. He was so knowledgeable about music, about Sacramento, about restoring radios and turntables and actually happened to know the secret of life. If you're in town visit his store and ask him.

Sacramento has a long a rich history in both music and radio. Jazz organist Jimmy Smith, the rock band Cake, The Deftones, Machine Head, and dozens of others are Sacramento locals. More here. And a great essay here on some Sacramento radio history here.