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.
