Lost Audio

As the grand finale of all this lost audio being released for the past few months, here's the reunion show for "The Voice of Long Island," recorded on April 13, 1990. If you recall, during my midwest tour earlier that year, I invited my former cohost Mike Yuhas to come to the station to take part in the fundraiser. Well, that was what this special episode of the program was a part of, and it turned out to be historic in many ways.

In addition to re-airings of our "Tripod Family" serial and excerpts from past shows, we had various special guests passing through the studios. But a live "crisis" began to develop as a depressed watermelon threatened to jump out of our record library window if not enough pledges were received. It seemed like everyone in the station showed up for this, even a member of the campus police!

While this is in fact the grand finale of the lost audio releases, we're not quite done yet. Tune in tomorrow for a real surprise.

This is an episode of "On The Media" that I was a guest on at New York's WNYC, recorded on June 17, 2011. I explained what was behind Lulzsec and whether or not such hackers should be prosecuted. An interview with Bruce Schneier follows along with the rest of the episode.

If you ever wanted to see the difference between the type of radio I do and the commercial radio scene, look no further than this episode of "The Lazlow Show," recorded on December 11, 2005 over New York's WXRK (K-ROCK), shortly before one of their format changes. There's a lot here that probably wouldn't go over well today, but, again, that was typical of commercial radio. A lot of juvenile humor and stuff that could offend - that was what the people wanted. I didn't hear a lot of what went on before I came on the show while driving into the city in my Smart car with a shitty radio, but it wouldn't have dissuaded me from showing up. These were good guys who were a lot smarter than commercial radio made them sound; Lazlow alone had been invaluable in various hacker and radio causes. This was a challenge that involved being on completely alien turf and seeing a world I easily could have found myself a part of.

It would be a full 103 minutes before I showed up in the studio and once I did, we launched into various tales of hacking and battles with corporate America, along with explaining what 2600 meetings were all about and detailing my arrest during the Republican National Convention the previous year. All in all, it was great fun to see this other world of radio.

This is a brief but memorable interview with former Big Audio Dynamite member Don Letts on Lister Hewan-Lowe's "Saturday's a Party" reggae program on WUSB that I set up sometime in the spring of 1991. Don was about to release an album from his new group called Screaming Target. There's a little bit of chaos which Lister is somehow consistently able to make work. Don discusses why he had to leave B.A.D. and how the new band is working out so far and gets into a political philosophy back-and-forth with Lister, which is always entertaining. Don was most gracious as always, even when we played the wrong song. To this day, I still listen to that Screaming Target album.

This is an interview I did with Gil Gross on the CBS radio network sometime in 1996. We discuss issues of hacking, where responsibility for security really lies, how the Clinton administration is trying to demonize hackers while outlawing encryption, and why using the Internet for sensitive information isn't always a wise move. More of the show follows.

This is another in a series of interviews with WUSB people as part of the station's tenth anniversary, recorded in March of 1987. This unedited interview with WUSB's David Durst focuses on the "Business Digest" feature he used to do at the station and his current job as a commodities trader, while also sharing thoughts on Stony Brook. We reminisce about the time we saw The Clash in Asbury Park and did an interview with their manager Kosmo Vinyl (a recording of which people have been trying to track down for years).

This is a promotional recording that I got from the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation during my visit to Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island in April of 1987. The threat of mass media and also its promise to the native people of the north is outlined pretty well here.

Not only was this one of the best interviews I've ever been a part of, but it was also a super positive and uplifting experience. It was September 5, 1989 and I had just traveled overseas for the very first time in my life, spending six weeks going to England, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, West Germany, and even East Germany. On the last leg, where I had returned to England as the last stop before flying home, I thought I'd check in on Big Audio Dynamite and see what the band had been up to since the world hadn't heard much from them recently. As it turned out, they had just released a brand new record and I was lucky enough to be able to get an interview with them at their studio.

I've done lots of interviews, but talking to these guys was always just like having a really good conversation - particularly with Don Letts, who I know wanted to talk primarily about the music but somehow I kept steering the conversation back to world affairs or injustice or something else that he had a lot to say about. They were all highly intelligent and engaged in relevant things, which somehow made the music so much more interesting. And yet they also carried this endearing innocence in their observations and creative expression. They couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating which, combined with the release of what I still think was their best album ("Megatop Phoenix"), really helped make this a magical moment.

I apologize for the poor sound quality in some parts - fortunately not the majority. Some of this interview was used in a WBAI special program, aired on September 28, 1989 and available in our archives.

This is definitely one of the more interesting interviews I did during my trip to Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit) on Baffin Island in the Northwest Territories (now Nunavut) in April 1987. I spoke with Paulaoosia Kilabuk, a native hunter from the region, who explained how hunting was a part of his life and why money was needed for this tradition to continue. He really gave a different perspective to the controversy that was raging concerning the brutality of the harp seal hunt.

To close out all the Shoreham nuclear power plant coverage, this is the final edited (and super short) piece I produced for Pacifica on the demonstration and civil disobedience of June 5, 1983, which aired the following day. This was probably the first time I had ever had something broadcast over WBAI.

The "unprecedented access" to the Shoreham nuclear plant we alluded to didn't stop at a mere press conference. We managed to get a tour of the whole plant! I had actually gotten arrested in 1979 (four years ago to the day!) at a previous demonstration against this very plant and now here I was, on June 3, 1983, inside it being shown around with a bunch of other reporters. Isn't life strange?

There's so much to digest here and probably a whole lot of sound that others will understand far better than me. I learned that floors in the plant were measured in elevation levels rather than floor numbers and that the construction workers at the plant really liked to write graffiti on the walls. At one point, you'll hear me trying to social engineer the guide into explaining exactly how the emergency evacuation sirens were activated. You'll also hear the guide's theory on cigarettes and why fish like nuclear plants.

Here's a fun assignment I went on for "The Voice of Long Island" with friend of WUSB David Ruderman on January 7, 1982. There was a bit of a scandal in the Town of Islip in a community called West Sayville where a resident was having her garbage rejected for not following the rules. So we drove down there to see the garbage for ourselves - and we were able to make some corrections to the story that had run in Newsday. No Pulitzer, but it was still worth it. (An edited version of this piece appeared on the January 9, 1982 edition of "The Voice of Long Island," available in our archives.

The final episode of "Transmitter Test," the Tuesday evening show that aired from 6 to 7pm and never quite found its niche. The actual reason it was canceled was due to the fact that my other radio show ("Off The Hook") over on WBAI had been rescheduled for Tuesday nights, making it impossible to continue doing this one. (Ironically, this very slot would be inherited by "Off The Wall" in 2003.) This episode aired on September 26, 1995 and included former program director Christina, who had also been in attendance for the last episode of "Brain Damage" that aired earlier in the year. Everyone was fixated on the O.J. Simpson trial which was reaching its end. We talked about an upcoming WUSB garage sale, radioactive dishes, and what exactly a bulk eraser was. We got a call from WUSB's Scott Warmuth, who was at a commercial radio station and we questioned Michael (the current program director) on when certain shows were on. I rewound an entire edition of "Pacifica News" on the air and wondered if that might have been the only time such a thing had ever been done. We discussed some of the new shows on television and I put forth the argument that "Babylon 5" was the best program out there. We held out for one last call (and got one from WUSB's Steve Kreitzer) and said our final goodbyes.

On April 30, 1986 at 8:30pm, we aired a special on the crisis at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This was one of those moments when WUSB was at its finest, presenting late breaking news with our own unique perspective. We used a variety of news sources, including shortwave, to try and get the truth out. I did live interviews with Stony Brook professor Les Paldy and Nora Bredes of the Shoreham Opponents Coalition, who theorized as to what this sort of accident could mean for the world. We played some Radio Moscow material and noted how they didn't even mention the accident for the first 24 hours after it happened. We took listener phone calls, including one from Stony Brook professor Ted Goldfarb, and discussed what such an accident on Long Island might be like.

In the second part of my midwest tour in February 1990, I headed from Syracuse to Buffalo, where I visited with a couple of friends, including WUSB's Mary Anne Devine, who I convinced to come back to Long Island for the radio station's upcoming fundraiser. Afterwards, I crossed over into Canada (recording the entire border crossing which took all of a few seconds). In a radio first, after getting gas, I recorded an entire car wash. I was on my way to Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, the latter being currently embroiled in a language controversy. Some local radio discussing this is included.

This is a highly entertaining showdown that took place on a Bridgeport, Connecticut radio station. While doing an early episode of "Brain Damage" on WUSB, one of our listeners decided to start a fight between myself and another talk show host on a commercial station. I don't know how it all got started, but I do remember being challenged to insult the city of Bridgeport, something I was more than happy to do. The next thing I knew, I was facing off against WICC-AM talk show host Dave Feda trying to make things as bad as I possibly could. This was all broadcast on his show on September 21, 1988 and talked about on both stations for some time afterwards. He had a great sense of humor, not to mention a ton of loyal listeners who immediately hated my guts. This was probably the only time I'd ever done something like this, but it was great fun, and I learned that I had a real knack for turning audiences against me in short order.

Here are several miscellaneous WUSB items. First, a promo for my "News of the World" program from 1987 before it was assigned a timeslot. Then, the famous WUSB Sea Shanty ID, one of the first that was aired when the station went FM in 1977 (created by WUSB's Mike Girardo and the WUSB Chorus). Finally, a promo for a rebroadcast in 2006 of the radio play I wrote back in 1985 about a meltdown at a local nuclear power plant: "Shadow Over Long Island" (available in our archives).

On Saturday, April 9, 1983, I took a unique trip to a place called Fisher's Island. I was accompanied by WUSB chief engineer Frank Burgert along with friends of WUSB David Ruderman and Alan Belitsky. Fisher's Island is a very strange part of Long Island in that you can only get there by going to Connecticut first. While it was in Long Island's 516 area code, it had a Connecticut zip code and was actually much closer to that state. I had discovered it by accident once while exploring phone exchanges and finding one that sounded really far away even though it was in the same area code. We documented the entire trip, starting with our missing the Orient Point ferry that would have gotten us to the Fisher's Island ferry in time. Overcoming such hurdles made the trip more interesting. We eventually made it and began exploring this tiny, isolated island. We had seen newspaper articles about a new bowling alley that had just opened up, so that was our first destination upon arrival. We were fascinated by the fact that someone on the island was named William Faulkner and wondered if he could be the person right in front of us at the bowling alley. We later found out that it indeed was. (Much of this material aired on the last recorded regular episode of "The Voice of Long Island," available in our archives.)

When I decided to visit Baffin Island in April of 1987, Frank Pearce was the guy who helped me arrange the whole thing. He was the general manager of the Baffin Island Tourist Association and was also a big part of the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce. In this interview, he discusses why tourism is important to the area and gives a good explanation on how the 13 communities throughout the massive region are set up. It was really interesting to learn that the people in Yellowknife (the capital of the Northwest Territories) were considered "southerners" and basically out of touch with how things worked in the far north. We discussed the controversial seal hunt that was making headlines everywhere - and how people from outside this part of the world might not be getting the full story. Frank went out of his way to connect me with interesting people in Frobisher Bay (now called Iqaluit) and allowed me to see it for the unique place it was.

Another episode of "Transmitter Test," which aired on September 12, 1995. This week, I finally reveal the true purpose of the show and welcome Brother Nick back onto the program after his "suspension" for what happened the last time he was on. I then proceed to accidentally read an angry letter from station management and participate in other station gossip. We were still getting used to our expanded signal range from the new transmitter site.

This is part of an episode of "World of Radio" with Glenn Hauser, as aired on WPKN-FM in Februrary 1987. This particular episode was significant to me because it mentioned my "News of the World" series that had just started airing on WUSB. To be acknowledged on this program was a tremendous honor, as it was the gold standard of anything having to do with shortwave or ham radio at the time. (Some extra WPKN programming is included here.)

This is an interesting interview I did with Inuit Broadcasting Corporation representative Elisapi Davidee while I was visiting Baffin Island in April of 1987. We discuss what viewer reaction to this network has been like, where IBC reaches, its history, what sorts of public affairs issues are covered, viewer response, and its future.

On April 26, 1984, The Clash came to Stony Brook (in their second incarnation) and, while we couldn't get an interview, a bunch of us at WUSB got them to record an ID for us. This is only a couple of minutes long, but it captures the thrill involved when people from a college radio station interact with superstars for a brief moment. It's pretty funny how Paul Simonon just couldn't get "Stony Brook" right and Joe Strummer had serious doubts that we were "the most dangerous station in the nation." They were both super nice to us and wound up putting on a great show.

This one is a bit weird. On the morning of April 28, 1987, I was in my hotel room in Frobisher Bay (now called Iqaluit) on Baffin Island when the phone rang. It was my Tuesday morning radio show back home on WUSB. Since I couldn't be there that week, guest host Chris Crowley called me and I did my best to describe where I had been for the past week. Thing is, this is not the recording as it went out over the air since that was never recorded. This was the recording I made on my end, so you only hear my responses to the questions being asked over the phone. And even that is incomplete because my tape recorder started malfunctioning a few minutes after I began. Definitely not the best radio moment, but a memory nonetheless.

One of my favorite series was the mysterious "Planet Three," a three-hour concoction of audio clips, music, and overall weirdness. I had inherited the Friday night/Saturday morning midnight to 3 am slot in the autumn of 1980 after another show that had occupied that slot ended. (It was called "The Better Than Dead Air Show" which was a fun program I was involved in with a couple of other people at WUSB. No recordings are known to exist.) Sadly, there are only two surviving excerpts from "Planet Three" and this is the first, broadcast on January 24, 1981, one week before the series finale. The trademark of this show was that I never spoke a word except for an ID that aired at the end and occasionally some backwards speech that revealed the name of the program.

This episode featured the sounds of Republicans as they were starting to take over the country, along with some memories from the 1960s. (One of the musical bits played here would eventually become the theme to another series called "Chatterbox," available in our archives.)

(There's even a bit where some prank calls (possibly live) were broadcast. Technically, they weren't calls since our local crossbar switch had a bug in it that occasionally allowed people to get connected together just by picking up the phone at the same time. You can hear the confusion as something like that was transpiring along with feedback that we were somehow causing.)

I did a series of interviews with WUSB people as part of the station's tenth anniversary. This unedited interview with WUSB's Steve Kreitzer was conducted while driving in a car on the way to New York City in March of 1987. We talk about Steve's first days at the station, including his first show in December 1980, as well as the ill-fated Bob Marley concert at Stony Brook. We also reminisced about broadcasting basketball games with WUSB's Ray Stallone and an on-air prank that involving charging elephants.

The second edition of "Transmitter Test" aired on August 29, 1995 and started to turn into an actual program. The show's intro incorporated voices from a number of WUSB personalities. We still were telling people not to listen for the entire hour, but we now at least were having conversations. This was the first show where I used the name Emmanuel on WUSB. This hour was spent talking with WUSB's Brother Nick "off-air" while the transmitter was being tested. Not being on the air allowed us to be more honest and I finally revealed the actual reason I stopped doing "Brain Damage."

This is a news feature on 1984's Alternative Presidential Convention that was produced in March 1988 by WUSB's Dave Goodman. (This was actually left for me as an answering machine message which is why it sounds like a phone call.)

This is the last excerpt of one of my Friday afternoon shows, broadcast on November 29, 1985. Apparently there had been a show the previous week, but no known recording of that exists. In this week's Stoneyhaven news, we hear about Thanksgiving and a story from years past. In the real world, there are updates on the aftermath of Hurricane Gloria and a bunch of local items, plus an attempt to find the Coca Cola bottling company in Osaka, Japan. (The end of the call is cut off, however.)

Now here's an incredible piece of history, most of which has never been aired. On May 1st, 1987, I was lucky enough to be able to see Big Audio Dynamite at Irving Plaza in New York City. It was the day after I returned from my trip to Baffin Island so the contrast couldn't have been more dramatic. I was able to get backstage and have a brief interview with Don Letts and Dan Donovan from the band before the show. I don't know what it was, but we just clicked and were able to have some really good conversations about music, the world, life, etc. Don was particularly interested in my hacker connection and I got a great thrill seeing Mick Jones looking over a copy of 2600. I would realize over the years and during other times we hung out that these guys were so much more than a band; they were truly interesting people who had a fascinating world view and were a joy to talk to.

I was there with someone else from WUSB (whose name I completely forget and I feel awful about that) and we were able to secure legal IDs, not only from members of B.A.D., but also from Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys who happened to be backstage as well. But the way he talked to my colleague was awful and disgusting, which made that probably one of the worst IDs ever recorded by anyone. So, in a very brief period of time, we went from intelligence to idiocy. And that was the music scene.

This was something I had wanted to do since I was a kid and heard those Dickie Goodman "break-in" singles on the radio, you know, where a "reporter" would ask a question and the answer would come in a line from a hit song of the time. I put this one together with the help of WUSB's Bill Senikowich and Barry Aaronson right after Ronald Reagan took office in January of 1981.

This was a produced piece that summed up the various recordings which came from the March 1987 Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) conference in New York City. It's not clear where (or even if) this piece aired, but it was the end result of all of the recordings of this event that I had made.

This was a fun little project we ran from the radio station for a little while: the WUSB weather hotline. We discovered that the new campus Rolm phone system allowed a virtually unlimited number of people to call in to a prerecorded announcement, which would repeat indefinitely. This allowed us to set up our own weather hotline where we could share all kinds of other info. This particular recording was made in June 1987, shortly before WUSB's tenth anniversary, and was clearly recorded right on the street.

Another episode of "News of the World," and the last WUSB version of that program that we could track down. In this edition, aired on Tuesday, June 2, 1987, we hear from Radio Moscow, Armed Forces Radio and Television Network, and a feature that was sent to us on tape from a South African program called "Africa South."

There's a little bit of room noise in the background. Also, the end of the previous show and the beginning of the next one are attached to this recording.

Now this was a bit of fun at WUSB that I really had very little to do with. Radio host Gary Pecorino and others put together a periodic experimental music presentation entitled "Radio Art Noise" that would go on for five hours with all kinds of weird sounds. This is a small portion of the second one that aired on Sunday, September 8, 1991 and you can hear my voice way in the background towards the beginning while other people are talking. This is the kind of thing that noncommercial radio is all about.

A Friday afternoon show with an update from Stoneyhaven, this one recorded on November 8, 1985. I gave an update on the election results, talked about the Stoneyhaven train station and its uniqueness, and reported on a conflict with the arthritis club. Haley's Comet was in town and I tried to find the Coca Cola bottling company in Bombay.

This is an aircheck from one of my first music shows that aired on Friday nights from 8 to 11pm. This one was broadcast on December 28, 1979. As it's an aircheck, it was recorded on a low quality tape machine that only turned on when the microphone was activated.

This was a bit of fun I had making a Laurie Anderson promo at WUSB with Mike Yuhas and Dave Goodman in June of 1982. That weird sound midway through, incidentally, is a bulk eraser, a scary device that could completely erase a tape with the push of a button.

Here is a small piece of a real bit of history. In 1984, I discovered that 209 people were running for president. I thought it would be fun to invite them all to the same place, that place being the Stony Brook campus where WUSB would broadcast whatever transpired. And so, on October 6, 1984, the Alternative Presidential Convention took place in the Stony Brook Union auditorium with more than two dozen candidates in attendance. We broadcast the whole thing for hours on that Saturday and held seminars with some of the candidates afterwards. The whole thing got a ton of media coverage from all around the world and what was particularly noteworthy was how civil everyone was, despite the huge differences between the platforms represented.

We managed to salvage excerpts totaling nearly 90 minutes from this event, which was moderated by Dave Goodman of WUSB. The candidates presented here include: William Allen Katz from San Antonio representing the Pan American Party; James Yager calling in from prison in Alabama; Bob Lamb from Carbon, Texas; former Hungarian diplomat Stephen Koczak; Grady O'Cummings from Brooklyn; Peter Swider from Michigan; Bobby Shofner from Las Vegas; Cyril E. Sagan of Pennsylvania; and Joseph W. Kelly from Texas.

On July 19, 1985, I appeared on the WEEI Evening Review with Rod Fritz to participate in a feature on hackers. WEEI was at 590AM in Boston. This broadcast took place right after the seizure of our computer bulletin board in New Jersey that summer and this show gave me the opportunity to try and get the word out about that. It didn't do much good, as on this very program an opinion piece by John Rodman repeated the very myths I was trying to dispel, namely that our BBS was somehow moving satellites in the sky. Also appearing on the show were computer security expert Jay BloomBecker and Dave Hackel from Arthur Andersen.

Here's the only surviving portion of one of my WUSB Tuesday morning shows, this episode from September 16, 1986. I really don't know how I was able to pull off this shift, as I'm most definitely not a morning person. I tried to get into the spirit though, with a whole Tuesday vibe added in. And, at least in this particular edition, I had a lot of fun trying to track down the KGB.

Here are some more highlights from the March 1987 Intercollegiate Broadcasting System conference in New York City. Included here:

Interviews with a CBS Records college radio promoter, an IRS Records college radio promoter, a member of the band Street Angel, and an excerpt from the onsite "radio station" WIBS.

An interview with composer Frank De Vol.

An interview with an unknown promoter.

An interview with an unknown FCC guy.

Fun times.

In this Friday afternoon slot, aired on October 11, 1985, the news from Stoneyhaven focuses on one resident's ill-fated drive that resulted in his car breaking down on the approach to the Verrazzano Bridge. (This is based on a true story that had recently happened to me while I was attempting to visit my former "Voice of Long Island" co-host Mike Yuhas in Philadelphia.)

Only around a half hour of this week's show was recorded. Also, at the beginning you'll hear a promo for the radio play "Shadow Over Long Island" (available in our archives).

In 1988, on a Wednesday morning at midnight, WUSB broadcast something known as the Negativland Teletour. I had absolutely nothing to do with this other than enthusiastically supporting its broadcast. The band would put together a unique program for each noncommercial station that called them. You'll hear a sound check with WUSB's Chris Crowley before material from luminaries like The Weatherman (along with a legal ID) and Crosley Bendix, including a negative review of the radio dial in northern California, "Nesbitt's Lime Soda," and "The Playboy Channel." Some WUSB programming follows, including a "Brain Damage" promo!

This was a terrific WUSB custom in our early days. Various staffers would put together clips from songs and other releases, both old and new, and challenge listeners to name as many as they could. This would be timed to coincide with our anniversary on June 27th. This was one of the classics, released in 1981. See how many clips you can name!

We're back in the soon-to-be-renamed Frobisher Bay in what was then the Northwest Territories. When I visited that remarkable place, I was determined to capture as much as possible. So I recorded their local radio station (CFFB), part of the CBC Eastern Arctic service. What I stumbled upon late in the afternoon of April 24, 1987 is a perfect example of the value of local radio as a host named Curt Petrovich encouraged listeners to call in and do raven calls live on the air. The response was incredible as people - not only in this small city but in tiny communities all over northern Canada - seemed eager to show off their wildlife imitation skills. I only wish I had been able to record more of it. Also included are news and sports updates, as well as a local blizzard warning.

OK, prepare for some fun. These are my actual first times on the air as a staffperson, using the absurdly pretentious name of E.G. Corley. These newscasts all aired in December of 1977. They're either evening (5:42pm) or late night (11pm) casts. The evening ones tended to be taken more seriously. Late at night there was less supervision. On the 12/9 broadcast, you could tell I was trying not to laugh. The 12/15 news report gives the wrong date at the beginning, which was super confusing for us trying to get it right in the present. But the biggest catastrophe came on the last newscast of the year, when a story about the late Guy Lombardo proved to be too much. After that disaster, it didn't seem like there was much of a future in radio for me.

Other newscasters featured here are Howard Altman, Keith Namm, and Bob Benuhan.

In order, the newscasts presented here are:

December 2, 1977 (late night)

December 9, 1977 (late night)

December 14, 1977 (evening)

December 15, 1977 (evening)

December 16, 1977 (late night)

December 23, 1977 (late night)

December 28, 1977 (evening)

December 30, 1977 (late night)

This is an unedited report from November 5, 1985 on Election Day, as County Legislator Steve Englebright is reelected. Multiple takes as we tally the early returns in the race pitting Englebright against challenger Helen Lefkowitz, a race particularly marked by mudslinging. In an interview with Englebright, he gives his thoughts on the campaign, compares this night to the election returns of two years ago, and tells us what to look forward to in the next two years. He discusses the fight to keep the Shoreham nuclear plant from opening and the continuing challenge to protect the pine barrens and drinking water. We hear about what has been accomplished since 1983 and learn what the Ratepayers Against LILCO line is and what it stands for. This segment ends with a victory speech by Englebright.

Back in 1979, a year before he was tragically taken from us, John Lennon was the focus of a special program hosted by myself and Gary Pecorino. This is one of my earlier non-news on-air endeavors and it aired at midnight. Apart from playing and analyzing the music, we read some excerpts from Lennon's writings, played bits of the Beatles Christmas records, and showed how a witty conversation confused an ambassador. (There are a few audio issues.)

Oh yes, the Friday afternoon shows. I thought these had all been destroyed. This was the period in 1985 where I was into telling stories on the air about a fictitious town in the area and its assorted citizens. Nobody else was doing anything like that, right?

Stoneyhaven came about through the old Tripod Family serial that aired on the Voice of Long Island back in the 1980s. I expanded that world a bit and came up with a new story each week. On this first edition, aired on September 20, 1985, the subject matter included the start of school and the local newspaper. A good bit of the rest of the show is also included here.

The first of a bunch of features from Baffin Island, a place I decided to go in April of 1987 when I became curious about what happened if you just kept driving north. It turns out you'd never get to Baffin Island since it was so far north you could only get there by plane. What I found was an incredible community in a place called Frobisher Bay (in the process of being renamed to Iqaluit to reflect its Inuit culture). I arrived just in time for an annual festival called Toonik Tyme, a brief recording of which is contained here.

On Monday, June 27, 1977, WUSB officially went on the air at 90.1FM. (The station had existed as a carrier current outlet at 820AM for a number of years prior.) This is the first half hour of that momentous broadcast day. Station Manager Norm Prusslin introduces the station. Also appearing are Dr. John S. Toll, president of the State University of New York at Stony Brook; Ishai Bloch, president of the Student Polity Association at Stony Brook; and  Richard Koch, program manager of WUSB. Controversies come up almost immediately, as well as a preview of what to look forward to. After some closing words from Norm, the official sign-on takes place, followed by a WUSB news promo and the "WUSB 5:42 News" with Paul Harris, Frank Burgert, and Dave Fink. Some of the news stories of the day include a vote to strike against the Long Island Railroad Saturday, protests against Caroline Kennedy getting a job at the New York Daily News, the fight for decriminalization of marijuana, and the future of "Star Wars" on television. An anti nuclear power Friends of the Earth PSA was also part of this broadcast, along with a sports report, a Chuck Mangione legal ID, and the beginning of the "WUSB Concert Series."

While the practice newscast we posted two days ago was my first attempt to be a radio staffperson, it wasn't the first time I tried to be on the air. That distinction belongs to a beloved call-in show that aired in the early days of WUSB called "The Saturday Night Circus." It was alternately hosted by Ed Goldberg and Paul Harris. My friends and I would spend the night trying to get on the air and do something memorable or funny.

In the first excerpt (an Ed Goldberg episode dated October 15, 1977), my friend Al is doing a pretty good job talking about the recently argued Bakke case on affirmative action (the topic of the night), but, as was often the case, the call had ulterior motives and soon took a turn. Following that was my first-ever attempt, where I called myself "Star God" (seriously, WHAT was I thinking), went nowhere, but my second call was actually on topic. However, I was in the same house as my friend Al who had other plans and a phone extension. There are a bunch more calls included here.

The second excerpt is a Paul Harris episode dated October 22, 1977. His shows had a very different flavor and he tolerated less nonsense, as I was about to prove. My friend Al had an amazing conversation about Lenin, Stalin, Marx, and the Bolsheviks as parallels to The Beatles while I made a ridiculous argument about how driving faster was a great way to save gas (based on an actual argument a kid in one of my classes had made). I didn't make it very far.