According to the Freeform Timeline, "April 24, 1958 - WFMU's first ever broadcast. Nothing is
known about it. For its first ten years, WFMU serves Upsala College
students, broadcasting lectures, Lutheran services, classical music,
jazz and international music." On November 4 of 1967, WFMU's first-ever freeform
show, Vin Scelsa's The Closet debuted in the midnight to 6am slot, and as seen earlier on this blog, by 1969, WFMU was getting more and more national media exposure for it's "far-out" free-form programming, and the station staff was getting more and more heat from the college administration for it, as well. On August 31st, 1969, the staff walked out in disgust and Upsala College shuttered WFMU for 10 months.
But what happened at the end of those 10 months? According to these undated clippings (93k Jpeg) (supposedly from The New York Times), a new station manager was brought aboard by Upsala to "teach students the proper guidelines for radio"...
Some day I'd like to see the unofficial guidelines for what makes great freeform radio. What are the (probably) unwritten "rules"?
Cheers,
Lipwak
Posted by: John L | November 23, 2005 at 12:29 PM