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

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.

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.

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.

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.