KPFT
& Pacifica
Added March 21, 2008
Pacifica goes
back on the air
KPFT,
January 21, 1971, Return to air, part 1
KPFT,
January 21, 1971, Return to air, part 2
The above items record KPFT's return to the
air after the second of two bombings. I just received the
material from a source who asked to remain anonymous.
The Pacifica items listed below were
recorded by me. Unfortunately, I didn't record the precise
date for any of my KPFT material.
I have deliberately held my Pacifica material
back for last. To have put it up first would have given Houston
Radio History political connotations which I wanted to avoid.
By now, people familiar with this site know that listing items
does not mean an endorsement of their political content.
Often I have to explain this material by stating
what it is not. It is not a DJ warehouse. It is not a place
to display glamorous head shot photos of DJ's from 40 years
ago. (After all, the main advantage of radio is that you don't
have to look at the DJ.)
This page is not a salute to Big Time Drive
Time DJ's. It is not a salute to top 40 formats. It is
not a salute to the right of a single corporation to own 21
stations in a single market.
These things will be covered from time to
time, but I will never be accused of being overly worshipful.
Likewise, this page is not is a salute to
the Old New Left. Anyone who looks carefully at this
web site knows that I am not the type to yell, "POWER
TO THE POLITICALLY CORRECT PEOPLE!" in a crowded theater.
I present this material as part of history.
As for the merit of the politics, that is for the listener
to decide.
The KPFT web site
KPFT, Houston,
September, 1970
I kept this recording mainly for the Jean
Shepherd material at the beginning. This was the first
time I had heard him since KTRH had briefly carried his show
five years earlier. This is the same Jean Shepherd who wrote
for Playboy, and he is mentioned prominently in Marshall
McLuhan's groundbreaking book Understanding Media (1964).
Old New Left Veterans will gravitate
more toward the material about draft resisters in Sweden.
This was recorded sometime just before the
second bombing of the KPFT transmitter.
My kingdom
for a car!
Studs Terkel
interviews Phil Ochs
KPFT,
Houston, May, 1971, Studs Terkel
How I love the highway
Picks me up and takes me where ever I please
I race through the trees bring space to her knees
I am master of all that's flying past me.
Look how far we've come, look how far
A car, a car, my kingdom for a car
Take me to tomorrow
Let me go on racing with the wind in my hair
There's smoke in the air but I do not care
If you want me, you will have to pass me
Look how far we've come, look how far.
A car, a car, my kingdom for a car
Come to me baby,
We will leave this town, it was not made for a man
We'll find a new land, but the traffic is jammed
Phil Ochs, "My Kingdom for a Car," 1970
In this broadcast, Studs
Terkel interviews Phil
Ochs. Ochs (pronounced "oaks") was a popular
folk singer whose songs often expounded opinions well to the
left.
A while back, a friend reminded me of the
first time I heard Ochs. We were visiting the KFMK studio
atop the Medical Towers Building. This was in its earliest
days as an album rock station.
The DJ was playing the Phil Ochs song, "Outside
of a Small Circle of Friends." He suddenly turned up
the monitor when it got to the part about "smoking marijuana
is more fun than drinking beer." I was amazed that something
like that was in a song going out over the air.
Of course, the song is not a promotion of
drugs. It is a criticism of the apathy that drugs tend to
induce. The lyrics are tame compared to what goes into some
songs nowadays.
The song was from Pleasures
of the Harbor, one of Ochs least political
albums. The year was 1967, and art rock was all the rage.
It seemed that every well known musician had to have an equivalent
to Sergeant Pepper, and "Pleasures" was Ochs'
response.
I continued to follow Ochs development up
to the time of this Terkel broadcast. His most recent album
was his Greatest
Hits, a record with no actual hits.
The cover shows Ochs dressed to mimic Elvis
Presley on stage. The music draws its style from country and
early rock and roll. There is more emphasis on nostalgia than
on "progressive" politics.
Many of Ochs' New
Left comrades were less than than thrilled with his apparent
homage to middle America. Ochs explains his rationale in this
broadcast.
In the five years after this interview, Ochs
went into a personal and artistic decline. Phil Ochs took his
own life in 1976.
Bonus
Material:
Phil
Ochs at the Club of Our Own, Houston
Until now, this recording had never been heard
by anyone but me. In February, 1971, Phil Ochs performed in
Houston. According to the announcement at the beginning, the
show was to benefit Space City News, then the local
alternative newspaper. Located in The Village off Kirby, the
nightclub was apparently converted from a theater. I made
this casual cassette recording by dangling a microphone over
the rail of the balcony.
My memory of the details may be faulty. Please
let me know if you are sure of the date or the location of
this event. I also need the name of the speaker who introduces
Ochs. I think he was with one of the FM stations.
One thing that made Ochs interesting was his
perverseness. He could say good things about political adversaries
such as Merle Haggard or John Wayne and turn around and criticize
his own proponents on the left.
Notice the provocative lyric changes in "Love
me, I'm a Liberal." He manages to take shots at dopers,
hippies, liberals, radicals, and other kindred spirits.
Like a lot of 60's icons, Ochs has gradually
been mainstreamed. He even has a page on the Country Music
Television site. He did do country music of a type, but I
don't think his songs were ever in heavy rotation on KIKK
radio in Pasadena, Texas.
At times, it seems as if the 60's radicals
have merged with corporate America. A while back, I was startled
to hear business guru Jeffrey J. Fox quote favorably from
the Ochs song, "The Flower Lady." Fox is the author
of numerous climb to the top books, including How To Become
the CEO.
I always found Ochs clever and insightful
and entertaining, but frequently not a reflection of my own
opinions not back in the day and definitely not now.
For example, I would not endorse the business
practices of "The Highwayman." The highwayman was
a man who robbed from the rich and gave to himself.
But seriously, folks,
"The Highwayman" is not a real Ochs lyric. It draws
its words from the famous poem by Alfred
Noyes. Another song in this performance is "The Bells,"
based on a poem by Edgar
Allan Poe. The rest of the performance appears to be original
Ochs material.
Note: Please don't start
writing to ask if I have original recordings of this or that
musician. This is the only one I kept, and I have no
desire to become a collector of other people's recordings
of musicians.
The
All Music Guide biography of Phil Ochs.
CONTEMPT!
KPFT,
Houston, May, 1971, Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel interviews Harry
Kalven, Jr, regarding his book Contempt.
The book focuses on the contempt citations in the Chicago
Seven Trials.
The defendants were accused creating a riot
during the 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago. If
you weren't around back then, bear in mind that one Hoffman
is the judge and another Hoffman is one of the defendants.
Studs
Terkel hosted one of the longest running talk programs
in history, and KPFT carried it daily during this period.
The theme music on Stud's
Place is "Bells" by The
Pentangle. You only hear it at the end of the two Terkel
shows because both recordings start after the program has
begun.
Almost incongruously, Terkel was followed
by a reading of The Lord of the Ring by J.
R. R. Tolkien.
KPFT,
Houston, 1980 or 1981, Ray Hill
Ray Hill hosts the "Manager's Report"
program. He manages to keep boring accounting data at a minimum
and Wagner at a maximum.
I have slightly edited the recording. You
hear some words bleeped where a caller gives out the purported
real name of a controversial guest.
Based on the mention of the Reagan election
victory, this material had to have been recorded in late 1980
or early 1981.
I was without a stereo tuner for a while,
so this was recorded off of the FM band of a short-wave receiver.
I found this item preserved in quarter track mono. It appears
to be the last aircheck I ever made.
Following Ray Hill, there is music, including
a some Reggae Against Racism and a rant against the British
National Front. I'm sure the DJ chose some of the music in
response to the guests on Ray Hill's show.
KAUM,
January 17, 1971, "They Bombed in Houston"
This is not a KPFT recording, but it is related
to the history of the station.
The above link is also listed among the KAUM
material. It is repeated here because the program deals heavily
with the two Pacifica bombings.
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