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I write about radio history. History can be dry, academic even boring for some. But my background was in rock music and radio so sometimes a bit of blasphemy or profanity, creeps in; maybe even a little dash of slander. I've been writing this blog for almost 20 years and all that colorful language has passed with little notice.  But that changed recently. I received the below message.  Apparently of all the things I've ever written it's an LGBT radio programs which are the most objectionable.  Oy vey.

I'm mostly amused that it's KRAB causing trouble all these years later. I did reach out to Charles Reinsch, KRAB historian to let him know.  He was unshaken of course. History is immutable. What happened already happened. My 2019 post and it's subsequent censoring changes nothing. But I'm sure Lorenzo Milam would be proud.

I requested a review, but I'm not optimistic in the current environment. AI in all reality is heavy on the Artificial and pretty light on the Intelligence.

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Polari on BBC's Round the Horne

Round the Horne was a BBC Radio comedy program starring Kenneth Horne. The format was an old fashioned revue, mixing music and comedy. The BBC aired weekly episodes over 4 seasons from 1965 into 1968. Counting specials there were a total of 68 episodes. (Some sources list 71 inexplicably)  The series was created by Barry Took and Marty Feldman. The cast consisted of Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee with writer Feldman alternately writing and/or performing in some seasons. [You may recognize Marty as Igor) The show's announcer Douglas Smith also appeared in some skits. More here.

Music was provided by the singing group the Fraser Hayes Four, backed by the BBC Radio Orchestra, but was billed as Edwin Braden and the Hornblowers. In the final season the Max Harris Group managed those duties. Round the Horne hit the air at the BBC at a time when television had already become the dominant broadcasting media. Nonetheless it pulled in a very respectable audience of 15 million listeners. Even in a 2019 poll in radio times, Round the Horne was voted the BBC's best radio comedy series ever.  Despite that, the series is totally unknown in the U.S. More here.

SERIES	EPISODES	START	YEAR
Series 1	16	March 7	1965
Series 2	13	March 13	1966
Series3	20	February 12	1967
Series4	16	February 25	1968
Special	1*	July 22	1966
Christmas	2**
TOTAL	68

*The special episode is a re-recording of The Man with the Golden Thunderball, with a slightly modified script. 

**Christmas episodes were aired on Dec 25th 1966 and Dec. 24th of 1967.

It's worth pointing out that the cast wasn't a group of randomly selected auteurs.  Kenneth Horne had previously been the host of a Saturday evening comedy and music radio show Variety Playhouse starting in January of 1957. Beyond that notoriety, there was a lot of continuity in the writers pool. Horne's next project Beyond our Ken, began with a pilot co-written with Variety Playhouse writers Eric Merriman and Barry Took. It's cast included Kenneth Williams, Ron Moody, Hugh Paddick and Betty Marsden. You might already recognize some names there. The music even included the Fraser Hayes Four. That was first broadcast in October of 1957. That troupe stayed together for 7 seasons even before starting Round the Horne.

SERIES	EPISODES	START	YEAR
Series 1	21	July 1	1958
Series 2	20	March 19	1959
Series 3	14	April 19	1960
Series 4	20	October 20	1960
Series 5	20	October 12	1961
Series 6	13	December 27	1962
Series 7	13	November 24	1963
Christmas	2**	1958 & 59
Pilot	1*	October 2	1957
TOTAL	124

 *The Pilot episode was recorded Oct. 1957

**Christmas episodes aired only with Series 1 & 2

But the writing for Round the Horne in the 1960s was different than Variety Playhouse  or Beyond our Ken. It's an over-used phrase, but it really pushed boundaries. The show endured regular scrutiny from BBC censors for its very naughty double entendres, but in 1965, having LGBT characters was genuinely risque. Homosexuality was not decriminalized in the UK until 1967. Gay and queer people obviously existed before then, but on the BBC, the closet door had to remain at least ostensibly shut. The series of skits with the characters Julian and Sandy, played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams, but written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman broke ground.

The characters Julian and Sandy were two cheerful but campy homosexual men. Their first appearance was in episode four of the first series, and they proved so popular that they appeared in every episode thereafter. The gag was that straight man (in both senses of the term) Kenneth Horne was oblivious to their increasingly gay innuendos. But interestingly he did sometimes pick up some of their Polari... More on Polari in a bit.

Their Julian & Sandy routine ultimately outlived Horne and his eponymous program. They published a book The Bona Book of Julian & Sandy: Leaves from their Round the Horne Journal, and an LP/Cassette released in 1976 The Bona Album of Julian and Sandy. The BBC repackaged that in multiple formats often with the title The Bona World of Julian and Sandy. In 1987 they revived the bit for an appearance on the Wogan program. Then in 2003 then Round the Horne... revisited aired on  BBC Four, the characters were revived by actors Nigel Harrison and Robin Sebastian. More here.

But a little more on Polari. It was quite literally a secret language (more property a creole) used by the gay community in the UK from at least 1890 into the 1970s. It was mostly a mixture of  Italian, Romani, and British slang. Julian & Sandy took that underground language of gay subculture, simplified it and exposed it to the mainstream. While they did provide relatively positive role models, and an archetype for innumerable other camp characters, they also inadvertently helped to kill off Polari through that very same exposure. (You can read more about the language in the book Fabulosa! The Story of Polari by Paul Baker.)  So how did all that "secret" Polari terminology make it into the scripts?  I don't think it was the writers. Some of the content was ad libbed, and both of the actors, Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams were gay. Sadly Williams killed himself in 1988 with an overdose of barbiturates. More here.

Kenneth Horne died in 1969 of a heart and the BBC decided that Round the Horne could not continue without him. A faith healer had convinced him to stop taking his blood thinners. He had already survived a similar to a brush with death in 1958. Horne had a stroke that left him partially paralyzed with a slight limp. His long recuperation from that stroke led to the BBC putting Beyond our Ken on hold. So in some ways Around the Horne was his swan song. He was 61. More here.

The History of LGBT Radio (Part 8)

from houstonlgbthistory.org

The first LGBT radio program in Houston was probably "Come Out Together Through the Hole in the Closet Door." It aired on alternate Sundays at 5:30 PM on 90.1 KPFT back in 1972.  The station only signed on March 1st, 1970, so the time window for an earlier program is narrow. The host was a woman named T. Sanders. He was succeeded by Chuck Berger who reworked the program into "Out of the Closet into the Streets." More here. He in turn passed the program to Linda Lovell. A November, 1972 folio describes the original program:

"A gay survival program. It is the intent of this program to convey through music, interviews and documentaries, the situations confronting homosexuals in society today and alternatives to those situations. Such subjects as prison reform, oppression and rehabilitation, job discrimination, role-playing and more will be explored. We hope to produce high quality programs which can be used on other spots within Pacifica. This program will air every other Sunday at this time."

In 1973 they debuted a 5:30 PM gay talk show "Lunch" hosted by Jim Strong. Jim was their Arts Director at the time.  Bur surprisingly in 1973 there was one other LGBT radio show in the Houston metropolitan area: Dave Lamble's Sunday morning talk show on 96.5 KAUM. In January of 1971, KXYZ dropped easy listening and flipped to progressive rock. They added local DJs (including Lamble) and changed calls to KAUM. But Lamble was also a DJ at KPFT. Back in 1972 he hosted Funk Magazine, spinning funk jazz and reading black literature. He was later News Director at KFWD in Ft. Worth. (There Dave Lamble at WRHU is unrelated) More here.

Then in 1975 they debuted a program that would last for decades.  Ray Hill was one of the founders of Wilde N' Stein back in July of 1975 and Hill at least became a Houston gay community icon. By 1975 the program  is listed as "Wilde N' Stein with Ray Hill and Friends." Their show aired Sunday nights at 10:00 PM to Midnight.  I'll quote that article regarding  the ground-breaking program:

"Wilde N' Stein with Ray Hill and Friends, on KPFT for nearly four years, is the longest-running gay program in the country. It is the only continuing gay program in Houston (Sundays, 10 p.m. - midnight).  Host Hill utilizes a magazine type format on the program. The show provides listeners with varied segments of interest such as the Gay World Report and music of artists like Holly Near and Meg Christian. Periodically Hill accepts calls on the air. "Sometimes we get real live honkies in the wild." he chuckled." Back in 1968 Hill met KPFT pioneers Larry Lee and Don Gardener who told him of plans for a new station for the community. "It sounded strange but wonderful"...

Hill spent some time in prison for burglary from October 1970 to March 1975. When released from prison for good behavior, the state of Texas gave him a $100 check and sent him on his way. Hill endorsed his to Pacifica radio. Both of Hill's parents were labor organizers, his father with the AFL–CIO and his mother with the Teamsters. So it comes as no surprise that Hill became a political activist for life. In 1980 Hill even became the manager of KPFT. This probably lead to KPFT's proliferation of gay radio programs.

In 1987 KPFT debuted another LGBT radio show, After Hours which debuted on September 6th. Initially airing at 2:00 AM, it had a relaxed variety-show format. Host Buddy Johnston was joined by co-host Jimmy Carper in 1989. Carper took over in 1992. The show blazed a trail making airtime for the trans community in the 1990s. Trans activists Sarah DePalma, Vanessa Edwards Foster, and Monica Roberts all co-hosted in that era. The show ran for 30 years and came to an end in 2017 on their anniversary. Carper died of HIV in 2014. Producer Chris Arasin took the helm for the last 3 years on air.  More here.

On the heels of Wilde N' Stein was the lesbian/feminist program Breakthrough. It was directly tied to the feminist newspaper of the same name. The show ran from from 1979 to 1992, starting with original hosts Nancy Fleming and Rita Saylors succeeded by Pokey Anderson and Cherry Wolf. Wolf quit the show in 1991. Pokey had previously been one of the publishers of the feminist magazine Mockingbird, and then the LGBT magazine Point Blank Times. One of the Wilde 'N Stein regular co-hosts was Mike Miesch who came on in 1980.

He continued on the program until his death from AIDS in 1987. Jack Valinski joined Wilde 'N Stein in 1982 and after the death of Miesch he hosted the program until 1992, adding co-host Bruce Reeves in 1991. Then KPFT fired Buddy Guy, the host of After Hours in December of 1991. Apparently Johnston had some kind of conflict with Ray Hill, and live aired a few rambling diatribes and a possibly slanderous statement about the owner of a gay bar. Bruce Reeves left Wilde 'N Stein to keep After Hours going without it's long-time host.

It's probably worth noting at this point that Texas is one of four states (including Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma) in which gay sex is still illegal in 2020.  The statute, Chapter 21, Sec. 21.06 of the Texas Penal Code was adopted in it's present form in 1973. The state revised its criminal code to end its ban on heterosexual anal and oral intercourse, specifically retained it's ban on homosexual anal and oral intercourse. In 1974 amendments to Section 21.06 included the removal of the criminal penalties for bestiality, making sex with animals now legal in Texas, but gay sex still illegal. I think that tells us volumes about the Texas legislature.

So when GM Barry Forbes abruptly reformatted KPFT in November 1992 and cancelled both Wilde 'N Stein, and Breakthrough, that regardless of his intentions, you can imagine how it might be perceived.  After Hours wasn't cancelled but cut from 3 hours to 2. But those changes led to public protests. Pokey Anderson called it "a giant step backward" and resigned in protest.Ratings and listener donations dropped by over 30%. [SOURCE] The chaos is credited with bringing Barry Forbes career at KPFT to an abrupt end in 1994.

The protests and petition drives in 1992 also worked their magic and in March of 1993 Jack Valinski returned with a show under the name Lesbian & Gay Voices, which he re-named Queer Voices in January of 2002. It was co-hosted with Deborah Bell (also of Wilde & Stein) until she left in 1995.

The show is still heard today KPFT, still hosted by Valinski on Mondays, 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM, coming up soon on their 30th year. More here.

The History of LGBT Radio (Part 9)

Washington D.C. was home to 99.5 WGAY from 1960 to 1999. It was not an LGBT station but what a lost opportunity. The earliest LGBT radio program in Washington D.C. was probably Friends. There seem to have been several incarnations of a gay-friendly piano bar of the same name; it may have been connected. But it was not alone, though it's difficult to determine which collective came first. It appears that Friends brought Sophie's Parlor to it's first radio home 90.1 WGTB. Sophie's Parlor was a coffee house located at the Women's Center at 1736 R Street NW. It hosted many lesbian performers in the early 1970s.

Friends was run by the Stonewall Nation Media Collective. According to the David Aiken papers, (a member of Stonewall nation) [LINK] the group broadcast the Friends radio show on WGTB and 89.3 WPFW radio for nine years. So if that began in 1973 that would put the end of the program in 1982. This is corroborated by an obituary of Bruce Pennington, a host of Friends from 1973 to 1982. [LINK] According to the Rainbow History Project [LINK] "Sophies moved to radio on WGBT when Friends was on the air and moved with Friends to WPFW when the archdiocese closed down the radio station. [You can read about Jen Waits visit to the modern webcasting WGTB here]

Looking at issues of the Gay Blade from August, 1973 and May, 1974: the shows Friends, Sophie's Parlor, and Radio Free Women are all mentioned. the sceduel clearly indicates all three programs existing concurrently in early 1973. But in reviewing 1972 issues, there are only be references to the physical venue, Sophie's Parlor. But in the December 1972 issue there is also a short article about WGBT. The timing and tone intimates that this may be describing the first LGBT programming on the station, on a 30 minute program called Interface. It reads:

"The broadcasting station of Georgetown University has begun a series of four programs dealing with various aspects of gay life.  The first on gay activism featured Gay Activist Alliance president Bill Bricker, Mattachine Society president Franklin Kameny, the Rev. Paul Breton of Metropolitan Community Church, and ACLU lawyer Glen Graves, who frequently works on gay rights cases. A second program, on gays and employment, had as speakers activists Rachel Parker and Chuck Hall,  embattled gay teacher Joe Acanfora, and Nancy Tucker, editor of the Gay Blade. Interface host Bob Roehr, says a special series for gays may begin after the first of the year."

Sophie's Parlor was run by Sophie's Parlor Media Collective. The group also operated Radio Free Women at radio station WGTB. The show was on Tuesday nights 6:30 - 9:00. The station was founded as an AM station in 1946 and reborn as an FM station on 90.1 in 1960. The University went to war against the liberal-minded student-run station in the 1970s finally selling it to the University of the District of Columbia in 1979 for one dollar. In 1997 UDC sold it to CSPAN for 25 million. But that's another story.

Anyway, back to Radio Free Women (RFW). That group was founded in 1972. They trained other women the engineering skills needed to work in radio, and in the process built a collective. It's membership was fluid like most collectives. But it included Moira Rankin who continued on with Sophie's Parlor at WPFW, even producing a retrospective on radical feminism [LINK] with Deborah George for Pacifica in 1980. The collective also included Lynn Chadwick, who later became Pacifica's executive director in the 1990s.  

Sophie's Parlor collective moved to WPFW in 1977. So whether you start counting in 1972 or 1977, it remains the oldest continuously running women’s radio collective in the United States. It remains on air to this day. Radio Free Women also spawned the Feminist Radio Network but different sources but that in 1974 or 1976. Radio Free Women were booted off WGTB because of an episode about contraception. The Jesuit Institution didn't care for that. They moved to WPFW wherre it seems to have merges with Sophie's Parlor.

Also on WPFW these days is Inside Out, sporting a bevy of hosts: Maria Leonard Olsen, Michael Sharp, Kathryn Boxill, Matt Thorn, Denisha Davenport, Samuel Parks, Jade Salazar, Bianca Humady Rey, and Mike Knaapen. The program airs every Tuesday from 2:00-3:00 pm. While not as long-running as Sophie's Parlor, they remain a cornerstone of the LGBT community. 

But I want to dig into one more recent but relevant LGBT program in the DC market. In the book Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life by Michael C. Keith is a single curious reference to an important, but very short-lived gay radio program:

In Washington D.C., WWRC-AM cancelled a short-lived program called “Ten Percent Radio” that same year. The three-hour show aired Sunday nights, beginning at 7 p.m., and included a mix of straight and gay-oriented businesses (Bloomquist, 1994).

The source for the first LBGT program on 980 WWRC-AM starts with a single article in Radio and Records, titled "Format Feverishly Springs Forward" by a R. Bloomquist. Much like the similarly named "One In Ten" on WFNX, I think the program name comes from the infamous Kinsey Report in which Alfred Kinsey's claims that 10% of males in the U.S. are gay. (Note that some articles incorrectly use the call sign WRC which had been on 980 from 1924 - 1983)

Ten Percent Radio debuted on Sunday June 13th at 7:00 PM. The program actually replaced "Tom George's Power SportsTalk," which had just left to begin syndicating nationally and was changing DC affiliates. The first print mention for Ten Percent Radio was in the Washington Post. Even the Post felt the need to mention that the show was being renewed on a week-to-week basis. The host Scott Peck was a fresh graduate of University of Maryland. He was witty and quotable. After the first show, he quipped that his father is "really pleased that I found work."

Fred Peck's father is Col. Fred Peck. Only a month before the show debut, the elder Peck surprised a packed Senate hearing room when he testified against lifting the ban on homosexuals in the military. His opinion wasn't surprising as he had been asked to testify for that very reason, the surprise was when he outed his son as gay during a congressional hearing. Over the next 30 days both Pecks became minor celebrities.  Even in that first month, different articles at the Post describe the program as 2 hours long, others as 3 hours. The father and son found ways to reconcile the issue even while congress ensconced the Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) policy into law. More here.

Scott says he and his father have agreed to disagree on the gays in the military issue -- son is pro, dad is con -- but he thinks the whole subject is overblown. "I have quite a few gay and lesbian friends in the military," he explains. "They have no plans to organize a gay and lesbian social in the officers club the next day" after the ban is lifted.

Scott would later write a book about his relationship with his father All American Boy: A Gay Son's Search for His Father. It was published in March of 1995. Most likely the show ran from June of 1993 through possibly August of that year, more-or-less following the rise and fall of the news cycle.

The History of LGBT Radio (Part 7)

As we explore early gay radio programs you have surely noticed the year 1973 repeating. It's important to note the relevance of that year. 1973 was the year that American Psychiatric Association reclassified  homosexuality in the DSM-III. Pursuant to that change, homosexuality was no longer clinically considered a mental disorder. (It wasn't removed entirely until 1987.) The World Health Organization (WHO) didn't catch up util 1990. For young people today, it's hard to even conceptualize what that era was like.

Most of the early LGBT radio programs pop up in population-dense, major metropolitan areas. But there are some exceptions. Inexplicably, western New York state was a hot spot for gay radio with at least 5 programs on three different stations airing concurrently in the early 1970s.

• GREEN THURSDAYS. Wednesday midnight. WCMF-FM, 96.5 Mhz. 
• LESBIAN NATION. Wednesday midnight. WCMF-FM, 96.5 Mhz. 
• GAY WAVES. Thursday 5:30 – 6 p.m. WRUR-FM, 88.5 Mhz. 
• SISTERS OF SAPPHO. Thursday, 9:30 – 10 p.m., WBFO-FM 88.7 Mhz. 
• STONEWALL NATION. Thursday, 9 – 9:30 p.m. WBFO-FM 88.7 Mhz.

The first of these programs was almost certainly Stonewall Nation on WBFO. The radio show Stonewall Nation was created and hosted by SUNY Buffalo students and covered topics “informative to anyone ‘happy, sad, gay, or interested.’” It aired through at least 1979. In 1974 it started at 9:30 and by the late 70s been pushed back to 10:30 PM, still on Wednesday nights.  It was run by a collective, and in the late era it was primarily produced by Heddie Swanson and Jim Neil. In 1978 they even interviewed poet Allen Ginsberg. A tape of that interview is possibly the only audio we have of the program.

The first reference I've found was from 1972. The September issue of The Empty Closet reads "WBFO Buffalo broadcasts a gay radio program "Stonewall Nation" Wednesdays at 8:45pm. WBFO is at 88.7 on the FM dial." The July issue also mentions it, but only as "A new weekly radio program  centering on gay news and events on Buffalo FM station WBFO 88.7 Wednesday nights." I believe this is the earliest print reference and the debut of the program.

The name is a reference to the Stonewall Riots also known as the Stonewall Uprising, which began on June 28, 1969. But it also originates in an early gay rights anthem by Madeline Davis. She taught at the University of Buffalo and participated in her first gay rights march in 1971 in Albany, NY. At that time she had already been a performing musician for 20 years, having sung in University and church Choruses, and performed as a folk singer in coffee houses in the 1950s. She wrote the song "Stonewall Nation" in her notebook on the return drive from the protest, and first recorded it in 1973. More here. Despite the fact that the song hadn't even been recorded yet, the radio program was named for the already notable local gay anthem.

Sisters of Sappho came slightly later. In a March, 1973 issue of the 5th Freedom it pops up following Stonewall Nation on WBFO at 11:00 PM. It's still listed in June of 1974. Host Marge Maloney later hosted Women Power on WBFO. But in 1975 the program ran into trouble. The format had always been varied including discussions, call-in segments, comedy, poetry, prose, music, and drama. On November 3rd of 1975 they featured a "porno spoof show, complete with "bleeps", romantic music and other satirical devices." Station Manager Marvin Granger was not amused and they received a polite but tersely worded letter, threatening to cancel the show. The ladies published it, along with a thoughtful rebuttal letter in an issue of The 5th Freedom... with Marvin's mailing address.  The show seems to have ended between then and January 1976. Still, that's some impressive chutzpah. More on 1970s  WBFO here.

Green Thursdays debuted shortly after. That program first broadcast on February 14th 1973. The name of the program came from a now obscure historical reference to color symbolism.  The show was hosted by Bruce Jewell, Geralyn.  The 1972 Broadcasting Yearbook lists the station as "Progressive Rock" still owned by Community Music Service Inc. who founded the station in 1960. Mr. A. George Malmgren was president, James Trayhern, GM; Richard Warner, coml mgr; Tom Teuber, prog dir; Jacob Z. Schanker, chief engr. I do wonder how they felt about these specialty programs. Teuber for his part was very political and wrote some left-leaning journalism. Jewell  said in an interview that WCMF management had merely hoped to create some controversy which might be good for ratings. Instead they made history. But even in a 2013 interview, Jewell said they had been very supportive. He did news segments, interviews, and played music.

Robert Crystal succeeded Bruce Jewell as producer of the program in 1974. It's unfortunate but most of these early programs are lost forever. WXXI producer Kevin Indovino [LINK] spoke highly of the program 40 years later in hopes some history might be found:

"...Back in the ‘70s WCMF hosted a radio show, Green Thursdays, which was produced by early activists like Patti Evans and Bob Crystal. All of those shows have been lost – probably were never even recorded. There’s a huge chunk of history that is gone. We have no idea what those shows might have contained."

That said we do have back issues of the Empty Closet. The University of Rochester's Gay Liberation Front (GLF) launched the Empty Closet in 1971, it embraced the program early and it's schedule is listed in many of the issues archived at their Department of Rare Books and Special Collections and digitized online here. In the February 1973 issue it merely lists "GAY RADIO SHOW WCMF-FM 96.5  MHz. MIDNITE." But in the January issue it listed a new program, "GLF ON THE AIR. Planning our weekly radio program. Music Lounge 7:30 PM."  This was the preamble to the radio program Gay Waves which debuted later on WRUR.

Each Thursday night from 5:30 to 6:00 PM the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) produced a half-hour program called Gay Waves.  The format included gay music, straight music, news, announcements, interviews and talk segments. By 1976 it moved to Monday nights. If you find the flyer (above) that Gay Waves is on 2SER an unrelated station in Australia.  Our WRUR Gay Waves staff included Jay Stratton and others.

Alternating with Green Thursdays was Lesbian Nation, a radio program hosted by Patty (Patti) Evans and Bruce Jewel on WCMF in the 1970’s. It aired Midnight to 1:00 AM. The programs plugged each other and shared production staff. In February 1975 the closeout of Green Thursday segued as follows:

" This has been Green Thursday for February 6, 1975. Any comments or questions about the preceding interviews, please direct them to Green Thursday, WCMF, 129 Leighton Avenue, Rochester, 14609. Views and opinions expressed on Green Thursday. Views and opinions expressed on Green Thursday don't necessarily represent those of WCMF, its staff or management. Green Thursday is an hour long program produced by WCMF and by men from Rochester's gay community and will be on the air again two weeks from tonight at 12 o'clock on Thursday morning, next Thursday morning Patty Evans will be in with Lesbian Nation, a program produced by CMF and women from Rochester's lesbian community."

In the June 1974 issue of the Empty Closet there is a good short article on Patti. A native of Brooklyn, Evans was 17 years old when the Stonewall riots began. She attended the candlelight protest on the 2nd day. She attended the university of Rocherster in 1969 and became friends with student activists Bob Osborn and Larry Fine who launched the Rochester Gay Liberation Front which she joined. A later transfer to the S.U.N.Y. at Brockport brought her in touch with the Gay Freedom League there. She returned to Rochester in 1973. It was then that she started up the radio program Lesbian Nation on WCMF. " She and Kathy Thurston worked on the program with Bruce Jewel. Thurston died in July of 1975.  The show continued into 1976. At it's peak the program ran from Midnight to 3:00 AM. 

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..."

The History of LGBT Radio (Part 5)

Volume 4, number 34 of the Gay Community News listed five LGBT radio programs in it's calendar. This was more than I expected even in the relatively liberal North East.

SUN 7:30 pm — Come Out Tonight 94.3 WYBC New Haven, CT 

SUN 10:30 am — Closet Space 740 WCAS-AM Cambridge, MA

WED 10:15 pm — Gaybreak Radio 91.1 WMUA Amherst, MA 

TUE 8:00 pm — Gay Way Radio 90.9 WBUR Boston, MA

MON 8:00 pm — None of the Above 91.3 WWUH West Hartford, CT

Aside from John Zeh's reference in his quote in Lavender Culture the show also is referred to in a Yale AIDS memorial and a 1977 report to the Yale Corporation from the Yale Undergraduate Women's Caucus. [LINK]

"Yalesbians was established in September of 1975. Because the Gay Alliance at Yale was primarily male, we felt that a separate group would minister more directly to our position as women and gays. Though the two groups meet separately we have continued to work with the men's group. Aside from sharing an office with G.A.Y. a nightly telephone counseling and information service, produce a weekly hour-long radio show for WYBC and run a speakers bureau."  

The time line here is a bit muddled. We know that the Yalesbians were involved with Come Out Tonight, but that does not mean that they weren't producing another radio program which pre-dated it. The Encyclopedia of Lesbian Histories and Cultures by Bonnie Zimmerman specifically noted that WYBC aired a lesbian soap opera in 1970 called "The Liberation of Lydia." In that context it's important to note that Yale was an male-only institution until 1969. [SOURCE]  WYBC was one of the first student organizations to agreed to admitting women. The Connecticut Gay Task Force (CGTF) also was involved in the Come Out Tonight program. It's referenced in an article by Dai Thompson:

"...Other recent events include a panel on homosexuality... which was a part of a Yale course on Human Sexuality. This year’s panel was reported to have been a lot livelier than previous years. Quite a few of the 250 members of the audience seemed offended by the obvious closeness of the panel’s members, most of whom are members of the C.G.T.F. and regular contributors to WYBC’s “Come Out Tonight” program, Southern Connecticut’s only gay radio show..."

Just from these two references we can assume the program was on air in 1977. But this memorial page [LINK] for Jack Winkler puts the start of the program in 1976. It states that he helped produce “Come Out Tonight,” an hour-long gay radio show broadcast every Sun­day on WYBC. The show was the work of a dedicated group of about twenty people, both men from the Gay Alliance and women from Yales­bians. Perhaps most famous of that contingent now is Tara Ayres. She worked for 35 years in community radio first at WYBC, then at WORT in Madison as an anchor and producer for Her Turn, a feminist radio news collective and Queery, a program about LGBTQ

Over at WCAS-AM Loretta Lotman was one of the producers of Closet Space, at the same time she was Media Director at the National Gay Task Force. She later became a contributor for the Village Voice.  Unusually, the show aired from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM on Sunday mornings, literally airing between religious programs.The show included news, a calendar of events, skits, interviews. Also producing was Ellen Davis of the Gay Community News. More here.

The first reference I can find to Closet Space is in a 1974 issue of WIN (Workshop in Nonviolence Institute).  Contemporary references show this program was still on air in 1976 and 1977. It's even still listed in an October 1980 issue of The Heights [LINK] so it appears to have lasted until WCAS-AM signed off in May of 1981 following their bankruptcy filing.

Gaybreak Radio aired on 91.1 WMUA, bi-weekly, on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month at 10:15 PM Wednesday nights. I can tell from issues of the Massachusetts daily collegian that it aired from at least 1975 through 1977. It was developed and produced by Scott Bacherman and hosted by Demian and Brian Egan through at least early 1977. In a September 1975, host Demian posted an announcement in the Out Front newspaper soliciting lesbians to help produce programming for the show.

In a 1979 filing with the FCC for station WPOE, Poets seat broadcasting includes a bit of Bacherman's resume.  It describes the founding of the Gaybreak program in 1972 as a 30 minute show, then in 1974  through 1976 as an hour long show before he left the station. We have no reason to think that's inaccurate, even if it may omit the names of other people involved in the program.

The resume neglected to mention that he was also program manager of WMUA in 1974. Bacherman also developed a feminist program called "Woman's Show."  In 1975 he won a UPI Tom Phillips award for documentary excellence. By 1986 he was a VP at TM Communications.  There's a nice retro 80's video of Scott opening WPOE on Youtube here.

None of The Above aired from at least 1975 through 1977. Eric Gordon for his part describes his involvement as having co-produced the show with Michael Jospe, his partner at the time. It's time slot was Mondays at 8:00 PM on 91.3 WWUH in West Hartford, CT. Interestingly, he seems to have been taping the program and re-broadcasting it on 91.7 WHUS in Storrs, CT on Wednesdays from 8:30 to 9:30 at least in 1977. [SOURCE] WWUH has a history page [LINK] which has two entries relevant to the program beyond what you might derive from the anarchist advert above. I also found an unrelated resume of Jan Keywell, then of Manchester Community College, who appears to have been connected to the program. [LINK]

Eric Gordon first appears in the staff listing in 1975.  There are no other mentions of him until 1977 and it's not for a compliment. In the February 15th 1977 Executive Committee (ECOM) meeting minutes there is a mention of a problem with an anonymous male announcer refusing to sign the programs logs. Apparently the unnamed announcer disagreed with the content of a tape. The February 9th tape was a recording of the show None of the Above, and his objection was to the content of a program. PD Joe Rudich must have agreed with his reticence as he subsequently blocked the program from being aired. He also had not previewed the tape and was concerned about "language". In response the Committee decided to make it mandatory for the Program Director to audition all tapes before airplay.

The program didn't last much longer than that. The program was terminated by the Committee on March 4th of 1977 and it sounds like it was dramatic. We can deduce that Eric Gordon was suspended for a month after the February 15th meeting. We also see that he was interviewed by or wrote an article for the Advocate which was critical of WWUH. I am pretty sure he foresaw how it was going to end and selected the nuclear option. I can't blame him.

"...because of language utilized in a recently aired radio play. According to station records, the show and producer had been suspended for a month previously due to the airing of "offensive" language, material that was most likely in violation of FCC rules. The termination came as a direct result of the producers negative comments about WWUH in the Advocate and after his refusal to abide by FCC and station policies as determined by the ECOM. "

But out of all of these shows, Gay Way Radio has the most uncertain history. From the 1977 calendar we know that Gay Way Radio was on WBUR at that time. Furthermore from the Gay Jubilee: A Guidebook to Gay Boston, 1980 edition we know it was still on air when that was compiled. Sadly the description is very terse "Weekly radio gay talk show. Accepts phone calls from listeners. Aired each Tuesday evening at 8:30 pm on FM 90.9 WBUR."  From that all I can can tell is that it was pushed back half an hour since 1977.  A 1975 issue of Ms. Magazine lists Ann McGuire as host as does Sexual Preference, Volume 84 but as "Co-Moderator" in 1977.

But the book For People, Not for Profit: A History of Fenway Health's First Forty Years by Thomas Martorelli specifically puts the start of the program a bit earlier:

"In 1971, WBUR-FM, Boston University's radio station, launched a new show, “The Gay Way,” hosted by Elaine Noble, who would become the first openly lesbian candidate elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1975."

The book Women's Yellow Pages published in 1973 corroborates Noble as host. But our 1977 calendar lists Joe Martin as the host. Perhaps there were rotating hosts, or co-hosts, or different hosts over time.  Ironically it's an article on wbur.org itself that further confuses the topic. They list San Francisco native John Ward as host in the mid 1970s.  He founded the group Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, GLAD. That article points the finger at Boston University president John Silber as the programs assassin.

"He also hosted a program called "Gay Way" on WBUR until the longtime president of Boston University, John Silber, decided to take it off the air. "I was just starting out. I had an office in Park Square, 300 bucks a month," Ward said. "And [Silber] was determined to suppress this radio program, which was very successful — and he did."

This would be a dramatic end to the program if we can cast the villain correctly. But the book Dinner with Mobutu by Jake Smith names Station Manager Jane Christo as the killer. Perhaps it's more complicated, Jane as the instrument of John Silber, or Maybe Silber's ire was a coincidence.

Jane [Christo] had only recently been appointed station manager, and she was working hard to change the format of the station from the traditional NPR format — classical music, late-night jazz,  and a little news and public affairs — to a heavier concentration on news and public affairs. She had already offended the homosexual community in Boston by cancelling the program "Gay Way" and she was the target of picketing by some members of the black community for cancelling another program "Say Brother." Neither issue seemed to bother her very much."

Jane is considered a success today by many. [LINK] To be fair, the listenership of WBUR did grow from 60,000 to 400,000 between 1979 and 1994. You can even credit her with bringing in Car Talk, one of the most successful NPR programs ever. But she was also known as a vindictive sociopath.  "She possessed a short temper and a vulgar mouth and was known for holding grudges, sometimes for years, waiting for the right moment to exact revenge."[SOURCE] But like most despots, what took her down wasn't the abandonment of a community... it was the nepotism.

The History of LGBT Radio (Part 4)

I've written a prior post about 107.7 KRAB here, and the story of the infamous Lorenzo W. Milam. Suffice it to say that Lorenzo had a vision but his legacy today is mixed. One of the stations he founded was KRAB, which lasted 21 years on a volunteerism, grants, donations and spare change found in the parking lot. It was one of the most eclectic radio stations that has ever been. Writing for History Link, John Caldbick once wrote of them:

"Throughout its 21-year history, KRAB aired a mix of programming that the word eclectic does not adequately encompass. Regular fare included esoteric music played on unfamiliar instruments; readings of poetry and literature, occasionally in Sanskrit and other tongues no longer widely spoken; free-wheeling panel discussions on practically any topic; often-brilliant commentaries on just about everything..."

It is no surprise then that one of the earliest weekly LGBT radio programs would find a home on KRAB. On a map of Gay and Lesbian geography of Seattle KRAB's former studios are the only radio station listed. The station was founded in 1962 and the first LGBT program aired no later than 1971 with a  show bearing the colorful name "Make No Mistake About It, It's a Faggot and a Dyke."  The hosts were Seattle LGBT radio pioneers Shan Ottey and Paul Barwick. There are some archived recordings at the University of Washington.

They were fired in 1973... but first some background. Shan Ottey was born in Philadelphia in 1946. Her family were proud union members and she and her brother Bob were pirate radio enthusiasts. Shan for her part actually participated in the Stonewall riots in 1969 and moved to Seattle in 1970. Shan held hands on technical training seminars at KBCS  and KRAB instructing women on audio engineering. Later she worked as an engineer at the University of Washington. She started at KRAB with a late night jazz show. Paul Barwick was a Washington native and Vietnam vet. In 1971, he had already made history by filing a lawsuit against King County after he and John Singer (later Faygele BenMiriam) were denied a marriage license. Historical note: They didn't actually want to get married, they were activists making a point. Nonetheless, it was one of the first such lawsuits in the US.

Lavender Country was an American country music band formed in 1972.  They released a self-titled album in 1973 produced in part by John Singer. Reputedly the first known gay-themed album in country music history, it also gets a historical footnote for the FCC obscenity fine. Shan Ottey played the band’s song “Cryin' These Cocksucking Tears” on the air. Unfortunately KRAB already had a history with the FCC. Commissioner Nicholas Johnson visited the station in October of 1967 and was interviewed by Lorenzo, they didn't see eye to eye on some topics. They were investigated in 1967 and 1969 for airing obscenity and profanity. This resulted in a punishment in January of 1970. Their license was renewed for only one year instead of the normal three year period. More here. So management had to react. The duo were fired... supposedly. Sources disagree. Ottey seems to have remained on board at last in a technical capacity. **update at bottom**

Ottey continued her work with KRAB for years. She went on to produce broadcasts for the Lesbian Feminist Radio Collective, which included the show WE: Women Everywhere. The show originates with a feminist bookstore named Woman to Woman which opened in 1974. It was owned by three young lesbian-feminists from Seattle, Janine Carpenter, Peg Rapp (AKA Peg Hickox), Vicki Piotter, and Kay Young.  Rapp and Piotter joined with Janine Carpenter to launch the program. Jan Denali joined later on.

In June of 1975 Peg and Vicki took Women Everywhere to 1390 KFML-AM in Denver, CO.  There the program aired at 4:00 PM on Sundays first as a 15 minute segment then 30 minutes. By July the Big Mama Rag newsletter noted that the show was being harassed by male staff. The program tape was often aired late. The board operator claimed he couldn’t find it, on another occasion it was not aired at all because it had “inadvertently” been used as a doorstop. The show was cut off early sometimes and tapes even erased. Despite addressing it with Station Manager Don Zucker the problem continued. The rift continued through at least September of 1976.

The show featured a women's music, news, and interviews. In 1975 Political disagreements and the volatile issue of lesbian separatism [LINK] divided the feminist collective into two groups. WE continued on and the new program Amazon Media produced the show "Women's Survival Kit" which offered a more political and lesbian-focused format including topics like animal rights and non-monogamy. More here, here and here. The Northwest Digital Archives [LINK] has some recordings of WE: Women Everywhere from as early as 1971 and as late as 1981. Topics include: Women in theater, matriarchies, ageism, socialism, Judaism, feminism, racism and live music performances. All of these programs ended abruptly when KRAB was closed in 1984.

It's fitting then that a woman did the final sign-off.  After station staff discussed some of the high points of the station's history, host Kathryn Taylor closed the broadcast at 1:33 AM on April 16th. She had hosted the show "Kathy's Music Box" which aired at 9:00 PM. She went on to do fill-in at KUOW into the mid-1980s. She had been with the station since 1979 and remained on the board into 1986 as they fruitlessly pursued a time-share agreement with KNHC.

*****Update*****

Chuck Reinsch, KRAB archivist extraordinaire responded to me and filled in some details. He should be considered the canonically correct source on these matters. I quote him verbatim below, I just added a little formatting, the underline is mine.

     I just saw your most recent post about KRAB, and wanted to add a couple of things. First, while in the course of the Nick Johnson interview he and Lorenzo seemed to disagree about some topics, this was mostly due to Lorenzo being adversarial and not wanting to appear too cozy.  Nicholas Johnson was incredibly supportive of KRAB and its encounter with the over zealous local FCC representatives.
     Second, when the local FCC office got all bent out of shape, FCC commissioners attempted to punish KRAB with a one year license renewal not because of obscenity or profanity, but instead because they believed KRAB staff did not follow a procedure that required review of programs' content before airing it.
In fact, in 22 years KRAB was never cited by the FCC for airing obscenity or profanity. And there was never an "FCC obscenity fine".
     About all that can be confirmed of the 1972 Shan Ottey and Lavender Country album incident is that Shan played the record (she admitted to it).  But there was never any official action by the FCC regarding that record or it being aired.  According to Shan someone purporting to be in an official capacity confiscated her Third Class Permit.  I was never able to find someone willing to take responsibility for that.  I believe Shan, but I think the "official" was an impostor.
     Thinking that Shan's collection of radical feminist recordings made and aired on KRAB exceeded my capacity to process, I encouraged archivists at the University of Washington to take them on.  They have now digitized the lot, and are now working to identify and describe the content.  Soon the programs will be online and publicly available for listening.