In
many ways, KRRC’s survival against all odds is exactly because of
that opportunity for free expression. Throughout its history, through the
strands of FCC red tape and technical talk of watts and ergs, runs a reverberation
of the voices of the Reed community. Listen:
October 1958: prime-time KRRC offers poetry
readings, followed by a baroque concert and then folk music. You might
also catch a BBC news broadcast.
Saturday, November 7, 1960: after
a reading of Kipling’s Just So Stories, tune in to
Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” followed by an evening
of folk blues with Barret Hansen ’61 (a.k.a. Dr. Demento).
Later in the week you might not want to miss The Film as Art:
Reviews of Current Cinema by Jon Appleton ’61.
March 1968, the first year of the
now-legendary nude pinup program guides. Featured is a series of
seven tapes about the Chicago Conspiracy trials, something called
Cap’n Billy’s Whizbang, and the Kinks live
on the Reed campus (this is actually true, because I was there).
The Epistemology of Rock, with professor Marvin Levich, was
another highlight.
1980: The Panics,
a punk rock band from Indiana, beat out Billy Idol in a KRRC top
five listing.
In 1994, when KRRC
was on the air almost 24 hours a day during the school year with
the slogan “subversive, hallucinatory radio,” one could
tune in to Hormel Monkey Torture Kit, with Sarah Bowes
’94 and Tricia Kenealy ’95, or listen to KRRC’s
top 20 featuring Northwest bands like Built to Spill and Shoeface.
Spring 2000: Music
for your Identity Crisis features “an esoteric blend
of sounds from Motown to low-down hiphop.” Other offerings
include funk, electronic, music from Africa, Brazilian jazz, and
classical.
