OnAir June 2024

ON AIR

WKCR 89.9 FM

June 2024 Vol. xxiii, No. 5

OnAir · June 2024

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WKCR 89.9 FM

Station Manager Ted Schmiedeler stationmanager@wkcr.org Program Director Georgia Dillane programming@wkcr.org Director of Operations Ben Erdmann operations@wkcr.org

Dear Listeners, It brings me great joy to write to you all again this month. First and foremost, I want to acknowledge and extend an apology for the fact that we were not able to put together a May issue. WKCR has been diligent with our commitment to publishing OnAir since its revival, and last month was an aberration from this norm. Expect consistent guides in the coming months!

The reason the Guide fell by the wayside was WKCR’s continuous coverage of Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which I am sure many of you are aware of WKCR’s coverage of. Drawing from our values and our history of protest coverage, dating back to 1968, WKCR chose to suspend our normal schedule (though still honoring some of the jazz greats whose birthdays fell during that time) in favor of continuous, holistic, unbiased coverage that

Student Life Director Teddy Wyche studentlife@wkcr.org

aimed to uplift student voices from across the spectrum on campus. You can

Publicity Director Tanvi Krishnamurthy publicity@wkcr.org

mainstream media: student voices. It was frustrating to watch mainstream

Business Manager Casey Lamb business@wkcr.org

reading statements issued by student groups, and providing our analysis as

Jazz Heads Satch Peterson & Rachel Smith jazz@wkcr.org New Music Head Vivien Sweet newmusic@wkcr.org Classical Head Anika Strite classical@wkcr.org American Head McKenna Roberts american@wkcr.org In All Languages Head Alma Avgar Shohamy ial@wkcr.org Latin Head Natalie Najar latin@wkcr.org News & Arts Head Ian Pumphrey news@wkcr.org Sports Head Nathan Kim sports@wkcr.org

2 OnAir · June 2024

check out the photo essay in this guide for some visuals of our coverage.

As “The Alternative,” we aimed to highlight a blind spot overlooked by outlets get basic facts about campus wrong and twist the words of fellow students to fit a narrative. We hoped that by airing interviews with students, students about irregularities of campus life, we could inform listeners about what was actually happening on the ground and leave judgment up to them.

Student voices being overlooked is an unfortunate theme seen at Columbia over the past several months. From the media to politicians to police to our administration, from a student perspective it seems that decisions were made with no student input, despite their profound impact on all of us. For many of us, it was difficult to see our peers and friends being harassed, yelled at, besmirched, slandered, and brutalized by a variety of forces, including our own University.

It is with this context, dear listeners, that I hope to move forward. Though coverage has had a profound impact on many of us, in one way or another, at its core WKCR remains unchanged. We will carry the lessons we learned from coverage, but “The Alternative” remains—and always will—a fitting nickname. Whether we are covering a future protest or bringing you some of our beloved, longstanding jazz birthday broadcasts, we will always do it in a way not found anywhere else on the air.

Peace and love, Ted Schmiedeler Station Manager

Cover photo of Hamilton Hall on 4/29 by Natalie Najar.

Mailing Address

CONTACT US

2920 Broadway General Inquiries: board@wkcr.org New York, NY 10027 Listener Line: 212-854-9920 USA ©Copyright 2024 WKCR FM NYC

This Month OnAir WKCR's Coverage of the Encampment, in Photos

. . . page 4

Weekly Schedule . . . page 20

Special Broadcasts & Themed Shows . . . page 22

Show Listings for WKCR Listeners Meet a Member: Maria Shaughnessy

. . . page 23 . . . page 26

Roerich, Beyond the Rite of Spring . . . page 29

Amiri Baraka & Radio Ecologies . . . page 30

Adrienne Lenker Album Review

. . . page 32

Around the Station . . . page 34

A Day at the ARSC Support WKCR

. . . page 36 . . . page 39 OnAir · June 2024

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FEATURE PIECE

Photo Essay: WKCR's Coverage of Columbia's Campus, 4/17-5/3

essay compiled by Alejandra Díaz-Pizarro with photographs by Natalie Najar, Leon Zhou, Sarah Barlyn, David Gonzalez, Sawyer Huckabee, Teddy Wyche, & Ted Schmiedeler

I

n the evening of Tuesday, April 16th, several WKCR members received a tip that the lawns outside of Butler Library were about to be occupied. In the following three weeks, the ensuing events would send Columbia's campus into turmoil, and see WKCR's regular programming temporarily suspended in favor of round-the-clock, student-centric coverage of the events on the ground. Much has been published in mainstream media about the encampment itself and the student outlets that covered it, but this month, we bring you an insider look at that coverage through our coverage team's eyes and camera lenses. This essay compiles photographs of the WKCR coverage team as well as images of the events taken by our staff photographers, which offer perspectives and angles you may not have seen printed anywhere else.

As I type these words on the evening of May 31st, thinking we were shifting back into a tentative normal, many of my colleagues featured in these photographs are back on the job as the third encampment springs up on the south lawns. If anything, this is proof that what is to come is uncertain—but, as I hope you can see from the images, what is certain is WKCR's commitment to doggedly bringing you what's really happening, one breaking news item at a time.

4 OnAir · June 2024

Above: Ted Schmiedeler, Macy Hanzlik-Barend, and Ian Pumphrey check the sound on the morning of Wednesday, April 17th. Behind them, the first Gaza Solidarity Encampment has begun to set up on the East Lawn in front of Butler Library, starting at 4am that morning.

Photo by Sawyer Huckabee. April 17th, 2024.

Above: Ted Schmiedeler, Macy Hanzlik-Barend, Ian Pumphrey, and Sawyer Huckabee (not pictured) set up equipment on a corner of the lawn, where they have been stationed as soon as they arrive on the scene, at around 2am. They bring blankets and snacks to combat the chilly weather and the long hours.

Photo by Ted Schmiedeler, April 17th, 2024.

Left: Macy Hanzlik-Barend reports from the field as the South Lawns begin filling up, following Columbia's ultimatum for students to clear out. The ultimatum follows two written warnings issued the day before, notifying protestors that their activities are in violation of university policy and compelling them to leave the encampment. The encampment does not comply. Around 1pm on Thursday, April 18th, police enter campus under a request by University President Minouche Shafik, who is following a university guideline whereby she has deemed the encampment to pose a "clear and present danger" to the normal operations of campus. 108 students will be arrested that day.

Photo by Maria Shaughnessy, April 18th, 2024.

Next page, top: After arresting students, NYPD stands on the cleared East Lawn encampment.

Photo by Maria Shaughnessy, April 18th, 2024.

OnAir · June 2024

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Above: Ted Schmiedeler (gray-brown backpack) and David Gonzalez (light gray backpack) report from a protest on 114th St. and Amsterdam. The protest is blocking the NYPD correctional buses (visible in the back), loaded with arrested students, from leaving the area. An NYPD Community Affairs Officer is also pictured, instructing a passersby on navigating the area.

Photo by Leon Zhou. April 18th, 2024.

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Above: Scholar and 2024 presidential candidate Cornel West addresses a group assembled on the West Lawn after the clearing of the East Lawn Encampment.

Photos by Natalie Najar, April 18th, 2024.

Left: A discarded sign on the street during an outside protest.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 19th, 2024.

Below: Sawyer Huckabee and Natalie Najar report from a protest outside of Columbia's gates on Friday, April 19th, the morning after the arrests. Natalie holds the camera; Sawyer stands behind.

Photo by David Gonzalez, April 19th, 2024.

OnAir · June 2024

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Above, left: Georgia Dillane, in the host chair, and Maria Shaughnessy behind her say hello to the camera.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 19th, 2024.

Above, right: Ted Schmiedeler, on a break from field reporting, peeks through the microphones in the studio.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 19th, 2024.

Below: Ted Schmiedeler reports from a protest on Amsterdam Ave. and 116th St. For the next few nights, protests assemble outside of Columbia, with different amounts of participants (and of police presence). Field teams walk laps around the still-locked campus to report.

Photo by David Gonzalez, April 19th, 2024.

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Left: (left to right) Ben Erdmann, Tanvi Krishnamurthy, Natalie Najar, and Ale Díaz-Pizarro sit in studio. This crowd is a common sight: at all times, the master control room has more than one person to fact-check, research, or triangulate without laying it all on the host—and, of course, field reporters and photographers come in to refuel or chat before going back on the job.

Photo by Sawyer Huckabee, April 19th, 2024.

Above, left: Ted Schmiedeler crouches on a ledge by Furnald Hall to capture audio from a protest on both sides of the closed gate at Broadway and 115th St. Photo by Natalie Najar, April 20th, 2024.

Above, right: Sarah Barlyn sits in the host's chair.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 20th, 2024.

Left: Maria Shaughnessy anchors in studio. Behind her, Ale Díaz-Pizarro assembles a timeline of events, intended for future recap.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 20th, 2024.

Right: Ella Presiado and Rachel Smith report from the site on the morning of Monday, April 22nd.

The previous evening, the tents were pitched again, this time on the West Lawn. Following the arrests, Public Safety had told protesters on the West Lawn that they would not be disciplined as long as they did not set up camping equipment. The reappearance of the tents therefore marks an escalation by the encampment, after three nights of protesters sleeping with no cover in cold, wet weather. That morning, Columbia College passes its Divestment Referendum with over 76% of the vote, and Columbia makes all classes fully remote.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 22nd, 2024.

OnAir · June 2024

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Above, right: Protests inside and outside of campus gates meet at Broadway and 115th. During the weekend, this gate—closest to the West Lawn encampment— became the foremost site of protests.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 22nd, 2024.

Above, left: Ted Schmiedeler captures audio as Shai Davidai announces that his access to the Morningside campus has been revoked. Davidai, a vocal pro-Israel professor at the Business School, had announced his intent to march onto the encampment. Upon arrival at the gates at 117th and Broadway, he was unable to access campus. Columbia's Chief Operating Officer, Cas Holloway, cites Columbia's lockdown and the fact that Davidai works at the Business School campus, 10 blocks north, as reasons for barring access.

Photo by Leon Zhou, April 22nd, 2024.

Left: Field reporter Perry Wakatsuki, anchor Georgia Dillane, and studio reporter Casey Lamb in the studio as Maria Shaughnessy takes a turn hosting.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 22nd, 2024.

Right: Ted Schmiedeler reports from the street as police assemble outside of Columbia's gates the evening of Tuesday, April 23rd. The atmosphere is tense, and almost all reporters are on call: the deadline for negotiations is set for midnight, and it is widely expected that police will begin to make arrests then.

At 11:58pm, organizers announce that the deadline for negotiations has been extended—first until 8am, then for 48 hours. Campus breathes a sigh of relief.

Photo by Sarah Barlyn, April 23rd, 2024.

10 OnAir · June 2024

Above: Policemen assemble outside of Columbia's gates, along Broadway, the evening of Tuesday, April 23rd. Rumors of imminent arrest, driven by an increasingly-concentrating police presence around campus (dutifully reported by WKCR's field teams), had hiked up tensions on campus. Based on the zipties and the protective gear sported by policemen (including the light blue riot helmet seen near the back of the line), the rumors were not entirely unfounded; however, with the announcement of an extension to the midnight deadline for negotiations, police presence largely dissipated.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 23rd, 2024.

Right: A curious red-tailed hawk looks into Leon Zhou's camera, blocking the view as Leon attempts to take an aerial photograph of the encampment through a window. The hawk is one of a family that has nested in and around Columbia's campus since 2022. In a way— though not the one he may have originally intended— Leon's photograph ends up offering a birdseye view.

Photo by Leon Zhou, April 25th, 2024.

OnAir · June 2024 11

Left: Ted Schmiedeler and David Gonzalez interview Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). He was among the many politicians—including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DNY), Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), and former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani—who visited Columbia's campus and/or the encampment in the days after it sprung again.

Photo by Leon Zhou, April 26th, 2024.

Right: Columbia faculty, donning bright orange construction vests, stand outside the encampment on the morning of Monday, April 29th—the last day of classes for the Spring 2024 semester. After negotiations fail, Columbia issues more written warnings telling students they will be suspended and disciplined if they do not leave the encampment; in response, a massive turnout of students and faculty pours into the South Lawns to protect their peers in the encampment.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 29th, 2024.

Above: Natalie Najar reports from the sundial at the center of campus.

Photo by Sarah Barlyn, April 29th, 2024.

12 OnAir · June 2024

Above: Sarah Barlyn and Ian Pumphrey smile from the sundial, where they have perched to survey the encampment. It is the hottest day of the year yet, and also the most crowded protest.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 29th, 2024.

Above: David Gonzalez and Sarah Barlyn report from inside the West Lawn.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 29th, 2024.

Right: Ian Pumphrey reports from the median between the South Lawns. Behind him, the graduation pallets that were moved in immediately after the dismantlement of the East Lawn encampment, ostensibly for Commencement setup (and presumably to keep the encampent from spreading).

Photo by Leon Zhou, April 29th, 2024.

Left: Ben Erdmann and David Gonzalez watch from outside of Butler Library. It is the evening of April 29th, and all of WKCR's field teams have stationed themselves around on campus to monitor the protesters as they move from the West Lawn. There is a sense that an escalation is near, but it is unclear what it will be. In partners, field reporters watch for any sign or indication of what (and where) this could be.

Photo by Sarah Barlyn, April 29th, 2024.

OnAir · June 2024 13

Above: Members of the student press look on as a student attempts to block protesters from barricading the doors of Hamilton Hall from the outside with a metal table. At midnight, the escalatory action became clear: a small number of protesters moved into Hamilton Hall with the intent to occupy it.

Photo by Sarah Barlyn, April 30th, 2024.

Left: A view, through the barricade, of the protesters occupying Hamilton Hall.

Photo by Sarah Barlyn, April 30th, 2024.

Below: Protesters barricade the doors of Hamilton Hall.

Later, once the barricade has been erected, students occupying the building place newspaper spreads on the windows to block the view of inside from the ground floor.

Photos by Sarah Barlyn, April 30th, 2024.

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Above: Standing on its pedestal, David Gonzalez leans against the statue of Alexander Hamilton to report on the events unfolding outside of the nowoccupied Hamilton Hall. At the foot of the statue, Georgia Dillane reaches up.

Photo by Sarah Barlyn, April 30th, 2024.

Above: (left to right) David Gonzalez, Georgia Dillane, and Leon Zhou climb the statue of Hamilton to get a better view of the occupation. In front of them, a banner reading "Hind's Hall" has unfolded, as the protesters rename the occupied building. Ted Schmiedeler, wearing a backpack, looks on from the ground.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 30th, 2024.

Below: Sarah Barlyn and Sawyer Huckabee are right in the thick of the action as a confrontation takes place between protesters and two students who attempt to prevent the blockading of the Hamilton doors.

Photo by David Gonzalez, April 30th, 2024.

OnAir · June 2024 15

Left: Outside Lerner Hall, the main student center on campus, Sawyer Huckabee and Sarah Barlyn run to report as heavy police presence enters the locked-down campus on 114th St. on the night of April 30th, only 20 hours after the occupation of Hamilton Hall. The police in this photo wear riot gear, a common sight by then.

Photo by Leon Zhou, April 30th, 2024.

Above: NYPD assemble outside of the West Lawn, looking on as they clear the encampment for the second time.

Photo by Leon Zhou, April 30th, 2024.

Upper right: The silhouettes of protesters occupying Hamilton Hall. Just hours later, police would use a hydraulic device to enter from the street through the third-floor windows and raid Hamilton Hall.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 30th, 2024.

Right: (left to right) Ale Díaz-Pizarro, Natalie Najar, Georgia Dillane, and Sawyer Huckabee prepare to do the final signoff around 1am, after the police have raided Hamilton Hall and arrested students. In the host chair is Teddy Wyche; beside him is Macy Hanzlik-Barend, who anchored coverage during the raid.

Photo by Leon Zhou, May 1st, 2024.

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Left and below: After the police raid of Hamilton Hall is over, the coverage team convenes in the studio to wait for reporters who remain trapped on the lockeddown campus. When everyone has arrived, the team discusses the next steps for coverage. This room— which in calmer times houses live performances and a fund drive phonebank—has served as bedroom, mess hall, and meeting space since coverage started.

Photos by Natalie Najar, April 30th, 2024.

Below: Earlier in the week, (left to right) McKenna Roberts, Ian Pumphrey, Tanvi Krishnamurthy, Georgia Dillane, Sawyer Huckabee, and Ben Erdmann take a smoke break outside the station. The short breaks become a space for camaraderie and rest in between full days spent inside the windowless studio or staying on campus overnight. When it's all over, the sidewalk is littered with cigarette butts.

Photo by Natalie Najar, April 2024.

OnAir · June 2024 17

Top: Scenes from the cleanup of Hamilton Hall the day after the raid. The photographer, Teddy Wyche, was one of only two WKCR reporters able to access campus, as campus remained locked to all students who did not live in an on-campus residence hall. The lockdown would continue almost for the remainder of the year, affecting library and dining hall access during the study period for finals.

Photo by Teddy Wyche, May 1st, 2024.

Bottom: Three NYPD officers stand on the quad outside Hamilton. In her letter to the NYPD requesting the removal of those occupying Hamilton Hall, President Minouche Shafik requested (and authorized) NYPD presence on campus through May 17th, two days after Commencement. Commencement was canceled and most students moved out before the final deadline of May 16th; however, the unprecedented police presence remained throughout the remainder of the semester.

Photo by Teddy Wyche, May 1st, 2024.

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Above: Two Polaroids of the coverage team, affixed to the billboard in the studio hallway, alongside the now-traditional Polaroids of current and recent board members.

Photo by Ale Díaz-Pizarro, May 7th, 2024.

The 2024 WKCR news coverage team consisted of (in alphabetical order by last name): Sarah Barlyn Natalie Najar Alejandra Díaz-Pizarro Ella Presiado Georgia Dillane Ian Pumphrey Ben Erdmann McKenna Roberts David Gonzalez Ted Schmiedeler Macy Hanzlik-Barend Maria Shaughnessy Sawyer Huckabee Rachel Smith Casey Lamb Perry Wakatsuki Tanvi Krishnamurthy Teddy Wyche and Leon Zhou.

These students volunteered their time 24/7 between April 17th-May 3rd, 2024 and sporadically in the weeks since then to bring the airwaves (and the online stream) the situation from the ground as students experienced it. We are all so thankful that you listened.

OnAir · June 2024 19

5:00 am 6:00 am 7:00 am

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNE

Jazz ‘til Dawn (cont’d)

Daybreak

Field Trip

8:00 am 9:00 am

Amazing Grace

Monday Morningside

Bird F

10:00 am 11:00 am

Cereal Music

The Moonshine Show

12:00 pm 1:00 pm The Tennessee Border Show

Out to Lunch

2:00 pm

Sin Fro

3:00 pm 4:00 pm 5:00 pm

Sunday Profiles

Afternoon New Music

6:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm 9:00 pm 10:00 pm 11:00 pm 12:00 am 1:00 am 2:00 am

Raag Aur Taal News + Arts Programming Live Constructions Back in the USSR The Celtic Show

Free Samples Caribe Latino Urbano Latinx

News + Arts P Honky Tonkin’

Nueva C

Tuesday’s Just as Bad

Som do

Night Train

Transfigur

Coordinated Universal Time

3:00 am 4:00 am

Jazz Alte

Phil Lives

20 OnAir · June 2024

Transfigured Night

ESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY Transfigured Night (cont’d)

k Express

Sounds of Asia

5:00 am 6:00 am 7:00 am 8:00 am

Flight

9:00 am

Now's The Time Eastern Standard Time Early Music

10:00 am 11:00 am 12:00 pm

Across 110th Street

Out to Lunch

onteras

2:00 pm

Something Inside of Me

Bach Hour

Programming

Canción

o Brasil

red Night

Hobo’s Lullaby

Middle Eastern Influences

Sonidos Colombianos

Saturday Night at the Opera 11:00 pm 12:00 am

The Mambo Machine

Transfigured Night

8:00 pm

10:00 pm

Notes From Underground Offbeat

7:00 pm

9:00 pm

Workaround The African Show

5:00 pm 6:00 pm

Traditions in Swing

ernatives

3:00 pm 4:00 pm

Afternoon Classical

Extended Technique

1:00 pm

El Sonido de la Calle

1:00 am 2:00 am 3:00 am 4:00 am

Jazz ‘til Dawn

OnAir · June 2024 21

Special Broadcasts SPECIAL BROADCASTS

Anthony Braxton Tuesday, June 4th, all day

This June we are celebrating the great composer and educator, Anthony Braxton! This broadcast will feature programming from Kurt Gottschalk, Paul Burkey, and Georgia Dillane featuring works inspired by jazz, classical, and new music, including works of influence to Braxton along with and those he influenced. Tune in!

Igor Stravinsky

Tuesday, June 18th, all day

While the great Russian composer was born on June 17th (June 5th on the Julian calendar), Stravinsky preferred to celebrate his birthday on June 18th.

WKCR will do the same! Tune in for 24 hours of celebratory programming.

THEMED SHOWS

SUNDAY PROFILES Sundays 2:00-7:00 PM

Under Construction (Missy Elliott) June 10th, 9:00-10:00 PM

Paul's Boutique (Beastie Boys) June 17th, 9:00-10:00 PM

It Was Written (Nas)

June 24th, 9:00-10:00 PM

EARLY MUSIC

Fridays 9:30 AM-12 PM Host: Maria Shaughnessy

The Valere Organ

June 7th, 9:30 AM-12 PM

Graphic Scores of the Medieval and Renaissance Eras June 14th, 9:30 AM-12 PM

Early Music Adapted June 21st, 9:30 AM-12 PM

Music of the Medici Family June 28th, 9:30 AM-12 PM

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE OPERA Saturdays 9:00 PM-12:30 AM Host: Ale Díaz-Pizarro (remote)

TBD

Host: Ben Erdmann

June 1st, 9:00 PM-12:30 AM Due to ongoing coverage of the third encampment on Columbia's campus, tonight's opera will most likely be a remote rerun.

TBD

Naxos A-Z of Opera

Ben Watt

June 2nd, 2:00 - 7:00 PM June 9th, 2:00 - 7:00 PM Host: Stephen Park

60 Years of Getz/Gilberto June 16th, 2:00 - 7:00 PM Host: Jassvan De Lima

TBD

June 23rd, 2:00 - 7:00 PM Host: Sid Gribetz

Jeff Parker

June 8th, 9:00 PM-12:30 AM Ale dives into the first opera CD she ever loved: a collection of the best or the most basic opera has to offer.

Listen for some of the greatest hits, and for a discussion of what makes certain opera pieces "canonical" or not.

The Rake's Progress (Stravinsky)

June 15th, 9:00 PM-12:30 AM Get an early taste of Stravinski's birthday celebration with one of the great composer's operas.

June 30th, 2:00 - 7:00 PM

L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti)

FREE SAMPLES

The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart)

Host: Tanvi Krishnamurthy

Mondays 9:00 PM-10:00 PM Host: Ted Schmiedeler

The Shining (J Dilla) June 3rd, 9:00-10:00 PM

22 OnAir · June 2024

June 22nd, 9:00 PM-12:30 AM June 29th, 9:00 PM-12:30 AM

Show Listings

JAZZ

Daybreak Express, weekdays 5-8:20am Out to Lunch, weekdays 12-3pm Jazz Alternatives, weekdays 6-9pm The core of our jazz offerings, these three programs span the entire range of recorded jazz: everything from New Orleans jazz, jazz age, swing era, bebop, hard-bop, modal, free, and avant-garde. Hosts rotate daily, offering an exciting variety of approaches, some of which include thematic presentation, artist interviews, or artist profiles.

Birdflight, Tues.-Thurs. 8:20-9:30am Archival programs from the late Phil Schaap, one of the world’s leading jazz historians, who hosted this daily forum for the music of Charlie Parker for about 40 years.

Now's The Time*, Fri. 8:20-9:30am The newest show from WKCR Jazz is dedicated to jazz as a living art form, providing a weekly space to listen to the young and current musicians pushing the genre forward.

Traditions in Swing, Sat. 6-9pm Archival programs from the late Phil Schaap, this awardwinning Saturday night staple presents focused thematic programs on jazz up until about World War II. Schaap presents the music, much of it incredibly rare, from the best sound source, which is often the original 78 issue.

Phil Lives*, Mon. 3-5am Archival broadcasts of longform programs from late NEA Jazz Master Phil Schaap.

CLASSICAL Cereal Music, Mon.-Thurs. 9:30am-12pm An entirely open-ended classical show to start your weekdays. Tune in to hear the most eclectic mix of classical music on the New York airwaves!

The Early Music Show, Fri. 9:30am-12pm Dedicated primarily to European medieval, Renaissance, and baroque music, all from before 1800 (±50 years).

Extended Technique*, Wed. & Thurs. 3-6pm WKCR’s first interdepartmental show (in the New Music and Classical departments) dedicated to contemporary classical music. You’ll hear everything from 12-tone and minimalist compositions to film and video game scores, and all things in between.

Afternoon Classical, Fri. 3-6pm.

Similar to Cereal Music, most of Afternoon Classical has no restrictions on what type of classical music to play.

The last hour of the show, however, is dedicated fully to the music of JS Bach.

Saturday Night at the Opera, Sat. 9pm-12:30am.

One of NYC’s longest running opera shows, Saturday Night at the Opera is a 3.5 hour show that allows operas to be played in their entirety, with room for commentary, descriptions, and some history.

NEW MUSIC Afternoon New Music, Mon. & Tues. 3-6pm Our daytime new music program features a wide variety of music that challenges boundaries and subverts categorizations. Shows include everything from seminal new music compositions to the most challenging of obscure deep cuts and new releases.

Transfigured Night, Tues./Thurs./Sat. 1-5am Our overnight explorations into the world of new music, Transfigured Night rewards our late night listeners with a wide range of sounds and experimental music.

Workaround*, Fri. 9-10pm WKCR presents live DJ sets from Columbia students and local artists.

Live Constructions, Sun. 10-11pm This weekly program features a live in-studio performance or a performance pre-recorded specially for the show.

AMERICAN Honky Tonkin’, Tues. 10-11pm One of WKCR’s longest-running American music programs, Honky Tonkin’ lands in the harder side of Country music. Emphasizing the greatest voices in the genre, Honky Tonkin’ is a country music dance party every Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s Just as Bad, Tues. 11pm - Wed. 1am Tuesday’s Just as bad explores the world of blues prior to World War II. Shows weave their way through the first decades of recorded music history and turn to the postwar years in the final half hour. * Indicates show was created after January 2022

OnAir · June 2024 23

LISTINGS FOR LISTENERS Night Train, Wed. 1-5am All aboard! One of our two overnight programs in the American department, Night Train rolls through the postwar R&B and soul tradition, from the genre’s emergence in the 1940’s and 50’s through the funk revolution in the 1970’s. Shows often feature extended live recordings and concerts.

Offbeat, Fri. 1-5am Offbeat is committed to broadcasting undiscovered new hip hop music. Shows typically focus on exposing underplayed or up-and-coming new artists, including experimental instrumental artists not typically played on mainstream hip hop radio.

Across 110th Street, Sat. 12-2pm Kicking off our Saturday afternoon American music run, Across 110th Street airs soul, funk, and dance music from the 1960’s through the 1980’s and 90’s.

Something Inside of Me, Sat. 2-4pm Something Inside of Me is WKCR’s Saturday afternoon blues show, focusing mostly on the electric and post-war styles.

Hobo’s Lullaby, Sat. 4-6pm Rooted in the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, Hobo’s Lullaby airs American folk and traditional music styles from the early 20th century through the present day.

From old staples like Leadbelly, Elizabeth Cotton, and Woody Guthrie to contemporary stalwarts like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and lesser known artists, domestic traditions are alive and well on Hobo’s Lullaby.

Notes from the Underground, Sun. 12:30-2am Notes from the Underground showcases contemporary hip hop and rap music with an emphasis on emerging and experimental artists. The program also hosts local and visiting artists for interviews, freestyles, and guestcuration.

Amazing Grace, Sun. 8-10am Greeting listeners on Sunday morning, Amazing Grace shares with listeners the world of the African-American gospel tradition.

The Moonshine Show, Sun. 10am-12pm On the air for nearly 60 years, The Moonshine Show showcases the American Bluegrass tradition, from the earliest roots in vernacular string-band music, through * indicates show was created after January 2022

24 OnAir · June 2024

the genre’s pioneers in the 1940s and 50s and advancements in the 60s and 70s, through the leading innovators and stars of today.

The Tennessee Border Show, Sun. 12-2pm One third of WKCR’s country music programming, along with Honky Tonkin’ and the Bluegrass Moonshine Show, Tennessee Border highlights the singer-songwriter tradition, from Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt to Lucinda Williams.

LATIN Caribe Latino, Mon. 10pm-12am Caribe Latino is a music program that features the diverse, upbeat music from numerous Latin communities in the Caribbean. Popular Latin rhythms such as Salsa, Merengue, Bachata and Latin Jazz take center stage throughout the program.

Urbano Latinx, Tues. 12-1am A weekly Latin show airing contemporary sounds from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the diaspora, Urbano Latinx features mixes of salsa, merengue, Latin punk rock, and more.

Sin Fronteras*, Wed. 12-3pm Falling in the space of Out to Lunch on Wednesday afternoons, Sin Fronteras explores the tremendous Latin Jazz tradition.

Nueva Canción, Wed. 10-11pm Nueva Canción is an exploration of protest music created throughout Latin America during the 60s and 70s and its numerous other manifestations throughout other countries and time periods.

Som do Brasil, Wed. 11pm - Thurs. 1am From samba and bossa nova to MPB, hear the numerous and enchanting sounds and rhythms of Brazil.

Sonidos Colombianos, Fri. 10-11pm Sonidos Colombianos presents music from one of the most culturally diverse countries of Latin America: Colombia! Our bilingual musical tour is guaranteed to include not only cumbia, but also the guitar-based bambuco from the Andean region, the harp llanero music from the Eastern Plains, the marimba-infused currulao from the Pacific Region, and the accordiondriven vallenato of the North Atlantic Coast.

LISTINGS FOR LISTENERS The Mambo Machine, Fri. 11pm - Sat. 2am The Mambo Machine is the longest running salsa show in New York City. The program presently plays a wide spectrum of Afro-Latin rhythms, combining new and old into an exciting, danceable mix.

El Sonido de la Calle*, Sun. 2-4am A companion show to Saturday night’s American Notes from Underground, El Sonido de la Calle highlights the diverse world of contemporary Spanish-language hiphop and dance music.

IN ALL LANGUAGES The Celtic Show, Mon. 12-1am Music from across the island of Ireland throughout the era of recorded music, particularly focusing on traditional folk and vernacular music forms.

Coordinated Universal Time, Mon. 1-3am Coordinated Universal Time brings our listeners the latest cut of music from anywhere in the world, especially highlighting music that does not get attention in America.

Our programming tries to bring the hottest and the most recent tunes to WKCR’s airwaves.

The African Show, Thurs. 10pm-12am The longest running African music radio show in the United States, the African Show brings you a variety of music from the entire continent of Africa.

Middle Eastern Influences, Fri. 12-1am During the hour-long show, Middle Eastern Influences features a wide range of beautiful tracks from regions of the Middle East, North Africa, and even, at times, South Asia.

Sounds of Asia, Sat. 6-8am Rechristened from Sounds of China, Sounds of Asia explores the recorded musical traditions and innovations of Asia and the Pacific islands.

Eastern Standard Time, Sat. 8am-12pm One of New York’s most popular Reggae programs, Eastern Standard Time takes listeners through Saturday morning from 8 am to noon with the hypnotic sounds of Reggae and Jamaican dance music.

Field Trip, Sun. 6-8am Field Trip focuses on the music and practice of field recordings: music recorded outside of a studio. Tune in and you may catch field recordings that were recorded fifty years ago, others that were experimented with by your favorite Afternoon New Music artist, or even those documented in New York City by WKCR itself.

Raag Aur Taal, Sun. 7-9pm Raag Aur Taal explores the sounds and rich cultural heritage of South Asia. The term “Raag Aur Taal” roughly translates to “melody and rhythm,” indicating the classical nature of this program.

Back in the USSR, Sun. 11pm-12am Back in the USSR features music from across the former Soviet Union and soviet states across Eastern Europe and East and Central Asia, from the mid-20th century through the present.

NEWS & ARTS Monday Morningside*, Mon. 8:30-9:30am Monday Morningside is WKCR’s morning news broadcast to kick off the week, featuring news segments on events around Morningside Heights and upper Manhattan.

If you’re not an early bird, all episodes are available as podcasts on Spotify!

Free Samples*, Mon. 9-10pm Explores landmark hip hop albums and their place in history and music at large by playing a selection of songs and breaking them down into the samples that make them up—meaning this show often crosses over with other genres, such as jazz, soul, and funk.

SUNDAY PROFILES Sunday Profile, Sun. 2-7pm* A WKCR staple, programmers use five hours to showcase longform profiles of pioneering artists. While the primary focus remains on jazz music, we also feature other styles and traditions from across WKCR’s different programming departments.

* indicates show was created after January 2022

OnAir · June 2024 25

MEET A MEMBER

Interview with Maria Shaughnessy

by Georgia Dillane

I

sat down with Maria Shaughnessy on April 10th, in anticipation of our May edition of the On-Air Guide. At that time, neither of us could have anticipated what the next few weeks of our lives would look like. In this interview, Maria spends some time reflecting on the end of her undergraduate career, thinking about the future, writing her thesis, all things that may have taken on new forms due to the protests on Columbia’s campus, and Maria’s steadfast dedication to WKCR’s coverage. Though things may have looked different, Maria’s love for the station, I think, remains true.

Hi, Maria.

Hi, Georgia.

Thank you so much for sitting down with me.

We are nearing one month from graduation.

How are you feeling about that?

I actually feel very good about it. I think there was like a period at the beginning of the semester where it was really nerve-racking to think about college ending and uncertainty and everything like that and then now I'm at a point where I just want to get things over with, because I have so many assignments and I just want to get those done. I feel happy and fulfilled and ready and I look forward to a wonderful next couple of months.

It's difficult to ask what you've done at the station because you've done so much over the years here, but can you give a brief overview of your involvement?

I started WKCR as a remote programmer in my freshman year. I had a really good family friend, Sam Fleming, who was the American

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Department Head before the pandemic […]

He told me about it and I decided to join. I was a remote programmer for about a year and I programmed for the Early Music show because it was just what was assigned to me. When I got to campus, I got trained and licensed as an in-person programmer, and really soon after that—by October of 2021—I became the Classical Department Head. There were so few people at the station then. I think in total at the beginning of that semester there were probably like 12 [students] who were programming actively, other than alumni. [But] I was doing a lot more than just Classical Head because KCR was so important to me. Then, summer of 2022 Ale and I decided to restart the OnAir guide together. After that, I became the Program Director, and now I am just a programmer again.

Did you foresee the level of involvement you ended up having?

I think I felt that right off the bat. There were some things you kind of just know, and I was like, "This is a space that I want to be in, yeah."

So, yes, I did.

You've overseen some very significant programming changes and special things during your time here, including the creation of Extended Technique. Can you speak about how that started?

Yeah, I would say Extended Technique is still one of my proudest accomplishments at the station—there's a couple of them. Extended Technique is a show that I created with Benji [Shapere, former New Music Head]. I really thought (and Benji too, and the rest of the

Art by Tanvi Krishnamurthy.

programming team) that there was kind of a lack of space for this kind of music. And [the show] would benefit both the Classical department and the New Music department.

It became the first cross-departmental show.

I'm proud that even as a young programmer and as a young Classical Department Head, I was able to think about this change in terms of the station itself and what benefits us most.

I'm really glad that that also allowed the new music department to take flight in a different direction, which has been, I think, something that was wanted by a lot of programmers, but everyone was a little confused about how to go about doing it.

You program Early Music. This is something that you did since the very beginning. What do you love about that show and why should

other people care about that show?

This is my passion, my little side passion. So, as I said, the Early Music show was randomly assigned to me. [When I started programming,] I emailed them and said, "Hey, I would love to do a classical show." And they were like, "Well, early music is open." I started programming it and kind of got a little bit more into early music, just by seeing the repertoire. And then coming to college, I started taking some more music history classes, which usually start with medieval music, so I was learning more about it, and I realized I had a huge passion for medieval studies and medieval history. All of those things came together, and the Early Music show was consistently this platform that I had to put all of my academic knowledge to use in some way. This is what I love about KCR in general, but specifically with the Early Music show, it was somewhere where, every week, I could talk about the new things that I learned and connect them to the thing that I love most, which is music.

I am really really obsessed with ambiguity in music and specifically ambiguity in performance practice, and so the way that early music is this kind of little world of weirdness and no one actually knows what it’s like—you can listen to a hundred thousand recordings of early music and none of it’s “authentic,” and you can look at some of the manuscripts, and it's just—the amount of creativity and improvisation that goes into these performances of early music is like you are creating a world that doesn't exist and that never existed in the music that you're playing, and yet it's still so amazing and beautiful and we get to sort of use that as a soundtrack to history.

That segues well into the next topic. Would you like to briefly describe your thesis work?

Yeah, as I said, I'm really interested in improvisation. Actually, the first class that got me interested in this was "Ear Training 4" with Peter Susser. (Which, if anyone cares, is the best class I've ever taken at Columbia.) That is the one class I would recommend taking.

OnAir · June 2024 27

Then, I took 20th century music with George Lewis, who is now my thesis advisor, and paired those two classes together (one had practice and one was theory) to really fundamentally change my understanding of music and what improvisation was and is. Ever since then, I've been interested in improvisation both in my studies and in my performance.

So, essentially, I'm looking at solo improvisation, which within the world of critical improvisation studies has not necessarily been written about very much, especially in a social context. Improvisation is very often considered a social practice because oftentimes when you're improvising, you're doing it with other people, so you're in conversation with each other as you're playing.

For me—being a classically trained harpist who is very insecure about improvising—the majority of my improvisational history is alone in a practice room or actually performing, but alone because the harp is not involved in very many improvisational ensemble traditions.

And so I was like, okay, well, what is the social element of solo improvisation? If improvisation is inherently social, what about when you're doing it alone? And so my thesis explores that question. Essentially, part of it is very theoryheavy—on the theory of improvisation, but also social theory. Then, we have a section that's an auto-ethnography about my own practice, and then I've been interviewing musicians who improvise about these questions. I will tell you what my conclusions are when I finish it. So hopefully that happens soon.

What do you hope that the future looks like for you after KCR? I hope that I continue doing exactly what I've spent the majority of my conscious life doing, which is just really entrenching myself in things that I'm very passionate about and things that make me very happy—really continuing to do what I think I've been doing and what my parents want me to do, which is just to prioritize my own passions and be happy. I think that KCR has provided me with an amazing benchmark to be like, you know,

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how is this something I actually love? Because KCR is something that—there is no question— there's not a single bone in my body that doesn't love KCR, and no part of me doubts that this is something that I could do for the rest of my life if that opportunity presented itself (and there was a salary included with it).

What do you think you’ll miss most about WKCR? This is such an obvious answer, but it is obviously the people. And not even just the friendships that I've made at KCR. [They are] some of the most amazing and lasting friendships that I've had, and there's something so special about about being able to have a working relationship and a very close friend relationship that is so unique.

It's hard to find, even in post-grad situations where you're actually in the workforce, because those things are so separate. But it's also really hard to find in college, because there's very few places where the work that you're doing feels as consequential. So there's this really crazy bond that happens with people.

You know, I said earlier that I want to see myself end up in a place that I can feel just as passionate about as KCR, but I don't think that the social element of it—those friendships and those relationships—as much as I would love for them to kind of continue, I don't think that's something you can find anywhere else. So that's what I think I'm gonna miss most, because I don't know that I'll ever have that again.

Thank you very much, Maria. Is there anything else you want to add? You're full of multiplicities.

I just—I love KCR. I want a shirt. Can we do, can we do merch shirts? "I heart WKCR?" Yeah.

Catch Maria's final (for now) Early Music shows this summer, every Friday from 9:30AM-12PM.

CLASSICAL

S

Nicolas Roerich, Beyond the Rite of Spring

by Ale Díaz-Pizarro

o much has been written about Stravinsky's Rite of Spring that to say anything about it here feels like rehashing: the shock of the ballet audience, the ensuing riot, whether or not the controversy was planned by the impresario Diaghilev... But it is often easy to forget what a shock the Rite must have been not only auditorily, with its abrupt, monotone chords, but visually: beyond Nijinsky's unorthodox choreography, the stage presented none of the slender ballerinas and vivid colors that ballet audiences had come to expect.

Instead, the dancers were clad in heavy furs, with an almost psychedelical background of a tree and rolling hills behind them.

Behind the scenery and costumes was Russian painter Nicolas Roerich, who had previously also provided the scenery for several operas. However, his work on the Russian pagan-themed Rite would kindle his interest in the world depicted in it, leading him on a worldwide quest for art and unity that would end at the Himalayas, his most beloved landscape to paint, rendered repeatedly in impossible colors (and which H.P. Lovecraft, in "The Mountains of Madness," described as "strange and disturbing").

A room at the Roerich Museum. Photo by the author.

Aside from his art, Roerich was also wellknown for his activism, focused on artistic and archaeological preservation during wartime.

Roerich spearheaded the Pact that bears his name, which pioneered the legal recognition that the preservation of cultural objects should take precedent over military action that may destroy them, and for which Roerich was longlisted for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The bulk of Roerich's activism was carried out while he was based out of his New York home, located almost on the corner of 107th Street and Riverside. Today, the building houses the Roerich Museum, which holds a vast collection of his artifacts, photographs, and paintings (along with the famous Rite sketches and other études of opera scenery). If you're in the neighborhood, it is worth visiting—you might leave with a new favorite artist or (who knows?) maybe a print or two.

Listen to the Rite of Spring and other Stravinsky works all day on Tuesday, June 18th, the composer's birthday.

OnAir · June 2024 29

JAZZ

“The Screamers”: Baraka and Radio Ecologies

by Ben Erdmann

R

adio’s electromagnetic transmission is eternal: words, riffs, solos stretch out into space before becoming indistinguishable against the irradiated background. Perhaps this is why they escaped Sun Ra to Saturn. The good word had collided with its orbital rings, spilling a tune of rebellion. “The repeated rhythmic figure, a screamed riff, pushed in its insistence past music. It was hatred and frustration, secrecy and despair. It spurted out of the dipthong culture, and reinforced the black cults of emotion” (Baraka, "The Screamers" in Tales, p. 76).

American writer Amiri Baraka’s “The Screamers” tells a story of the jazz club. The narrator rejects popular music, opting instead for flight from the pop culture: “I disappeared into the slums, and fell in love with violence, and invented for myself a mysterious economy of need. Hence, I shambled anonymously through Lloyd’s, The Nitecap, The Hi-Spot, and Graham’s desiring everything I felt” (p. 74).

Baraka’s story is told in the grammar of jazz, new phrases sprouting from half-completed sentences; an improvisational rhythm draws the reader in as if they could hear the screams of the crowd, of the saxophone, of the police sirens that follow those club-goers who march definitively from the venue.

This march is, perhaps, the portion of “The Screamers” that’s most often discussed in contemporary theory about the Black Arts movement and the musical form of jazz. “Then Lynn got his riff, that rhythmic figure we knew he would repeat, the honked note that would be his personal evaluation of the world. And he screamed it so the veins in his face stood out like neon. ‘Uhh, yeh, Uhh, yeh, Uhh, yeh,’ we

30 OnAir · June 2024

all screamed to push him further” (p. 78). Lynn then descends into the crowd, marching to this world-creating rhythm; his accompaniment falls in step, followed by the crowd as they make their way onto the street. “We marched all the way to Spruce, weaving among the stalled cars, laughing at the dazed white men who sat behind the wheels” (p. 79).

As the music, the musicians, the witnesses to that rhythmic production spill out of the club, the narrator describes the crowd as “Ecstatic, completed, involved in a secret communal expression. It would be the form of the sweetest revolution, to hucklebuck into the fallen capital, and let the oppressors lindy hop out” (p. 79). And as so often met the secret communal expression of black culture, “The paddy wagons and cruisers pulled in from both sides, and sticks and billies started flying, heavy streams of water splattering the marchers up and down the street” (p. 79).

Baraka demonstrates clearly that this is not simply the repression of the marchers or a rejection of a black counterpublic; no, this is a condemnation of that very communion contained in the language of jazz. “And only the wild or the very poor thrived in Graham’s or could be roused by Lynn’s histories and rhythms. America had choked the rest, who could sit still for hours under popular songs, or be readied for citizenship by slightly bohemian social workers” (pp. 73-74). To condemn that communion is to condemn those wild and very poor dancers, musicians, and witnesses.

As such, “The Screamers” argues that black musical traditions contain more than what becomes legible as a sonic rhythm. “All the saxophonists of that world were honkers,

Illinois, Gator, Big Jay, Jug, the great sounds of our day. Ethnic historians, actors, priests of the unconscious. That stance spread like fire thru the cabarets and joints of the black cities, so that the sound itself became a basis for thought, and the innovators searched for uglier modes” (p. 76). Here, the form that “The Screamers” takes on may echo jazz, borrowing its improvisational, riffing techniques, but that echo first bounces off of an entire ecology of black cultural traditions that respond to American anti-blackness, produce modes of relation illegible to whiteness, and reject the ‘popular music’—which is to say popular culture, popular consciousness—of the time.

Despite the violence that meets the marchers following Lynn’s honking saxophone, “Lynn and his musicians, a few other fools and I, still marched, screaming thru the maddened crowd” (p. 80). This music produces revolutionary sentiment, the ability to imagine otherwise in response to the violence contained in the status quo.

WKCR is indisputably indebted to these black musical traditions. After the 1968 protests on Columbia University’s campus, the reshuffling of WKCR’s programming schedule saw a growing emphasis on the alternative music of the time—protest music, music for rebellion; jazz, of course, was on the front lines of this newly alternative schedule. It’s easy to perceive this reshuffling as a relative domestication of the revolutionary grammar espoused by the music that spilled onto the streets of Harlem, of Newark. After all, radio enables the listener to ‘sit still for hours,’ indulging in a sonic decadence without any material stake in the music’s production or meaning.

But this is itself a domestication of the radio ecology. This view affords an inordinate amount of power to the DJ, to the airwaves, as if they held a monopoly on meaning that could overcome the music; radio need not require a parasitic relationship to black cultural traditions. Instead, radio should be understood as an ecological endeavour. Every moment that those electromagnetic waves extend themselves through space is a moment in

which that space is reshaped, reterritorialized, molded into new forms by the sonic power of the music carried through the atmosphere.

For how could a radio station domesticate revolution? Baraka states in the documentary Sing! Fight! Sing! Fight! From LeRoi to Amiri: “So we drove up into the middle of it, you know, Belmont and Springfield Ave, and we were circling, really looking, you know, checking it out up close. What is a rebellion up close? I mean, most people never seen what that looks like.” Perhaps this is the value of an ecology of radiowaves: the creation of a compulsion to see up close, an encouragement to participate in the rebellious sonic grammar of jazz rather than simply consume it.

Maybe that’s what the Saturnian extraterrestrials sought. Perhaps they wanted to see up close, to commune as the witnesses of the jazz club could. Electromagnetic waves carry no revolution in their movement, but the improvisational grammar that graces their transmission does. “A-boomp bahba bahba, A-boomp bahba bahba, A-boomp bahba bahba, the turbans sway behind him. And he grins before he lifts the horn” (p. 72). Radio produces a necessary communion spanning cities, nations, planets, galaxies—a communion only enabled by the information it transmits. And it is in this communion that the radio ecology might be found. A web animated by those who produce music, those who witness it, those who are compelled to action in the street by it. Its nodes can be found in traffic, in the car radio, sure, but these are but moments of sonic experience connected by the communal transmission that moves through the streets.

The narrator of “The Screamers” states of his travels through jazz clubs: “You see, I left America on the first fast boat” (p. 74). Perhaps this boat floats on electromagnetic waves, partially animated by the choppy waters of black culture cum radio transmission. Radio is not, cannot be a domestication of these rebellious techniques. To bear witness to its communal ecology is to be compelled to action, to marching, to screaming.

OnAir · June 2024 31

ALBUM REVIEW

Bright Future: Future: Desire and Dystopia in Adrianne Lenker’s Folk Masterpiece

by Ben Rothman

“T

his whole world is dying / Don’t it one verse to the 1998 disaster film Deep Impact: seem like a good time for swimming “I saw the first film that made me scared / And / Before all the water disappears?” I thought of this whole world ending / I thought Even as I type those lyrics out, I feel chills. In of dying unprepared.” Expertly, Lenker makes this chorus of “Donut Seam,” Adrianne Lenker her fear about the world deeply personal. might have perfectly described what it’s like to This opener is a meditation on the passage live (and love) in the midst of climate change of time, and that thread carries into “Sadness and with the threat of As a Gift”—the album’s an uncertain future. second track— which Bright Future, released on sees the singer relate the March 22nd, is Lenker’s processing of heartbreak sixth studio album as a to the changing of the solo artist. She has seen seasons (“Snow fallin’ the most recognition as / I try to keep from the frontwoman of Big callin’). Mesmerizingly Thief, a beloved indie composed, this song folk band known to dip introduces us more into rock and country. In holistically to the comparison to Big Thief’s collaborative team of eclectic sound, Lenker’s Bright Future: Lenker’s solo work is stark and wavering voice is intimate (this latest underlined by that of neoalbum was recorded soul singer Nick Hakim, directly to an 8-track The cover of Adrianne Lenker's Bright Future (2024). who also plays piano on tape) and is an outlet for the album. Frequent Big more free-flowing and Thief collaborator Mat honest songwriting. Adrianne Lenker’s Bright Davidson contributes swaths of electric guitar, Future is a beautiful and frighteningly relatable while violin from Swedish composer Josefin album from one of the brightest modern-age Runsteen gives the mix a wistful perfection. folk songwriters.

Adrianne Lenker identifies as queer, and her Lenker invites us into the world of Bright Future lyrics often deal with questions of masculinity with “Real House,” one of the most minimal and femininity. On the plucky, guitar-driven songs on the record but one that expertly sets “Fool” she sings “We could be friends / You up its themes. The six-minute piano ballad is a could love me through and through / If I survey of childhood memories, from playtime were him / Would you be my family too?” On fantasies (“I wanted so much for magic to be “Vampire Empire,” perhaps the album’s most real”) to the death of her dog (“And the whole insistent track lyrically, Lenker exclaims “I family came back together”). She dedicates wanted to be your woman and I wanted to be

32 OnAir · June 2024

a listener can easily feel something from the soothing country-folk arrangements. Meanwhile, some songs are so easy to understand that they might be just as offputting: On “Evol” Lenker dives into the world of palindromes, singing lyrics like “Love spells evil,” “Part, trap” and “Kiss, sick.” Perhaps the track sounds silly, but it can be seen as another comment on life’s volatility, in relationships and in the threat of change. “Donut Seam” is— as mentioned at the beginning of this review—the album’s thematic Adrianne Lenker, 2018. Photo by Martin Schumann centerpiece and finest moment, with Lenker describing a budding your man!” This song is a cover of a Big Thief relationship in a dying world. Despite the fear fan-favorite, and Lenker and her team add a of extinction, the singer clarifies “I loved you, country twang to its desperate lyrics. Despite and I don’t regret / The way we’d pass the time.” the tension of some tracks, Lenker certainly Finally, closing track “Ruined” is a slow piano takes time on Bright Future to write poignant ballad brimming with devastating emotion and hopeful love songs. There’s the stunning (“Can’t get enough of you / You come around, “No Machine,” lyrically reminiscent of the I’m ruined.”) that rounds out the tracklist with Matrix films, where Lenker urges her lover a sort of simple dichotomy. to “let no machine eat away our dream” and Adrianne Lenker desires to be human in strives to escape soul-sucking artificiality. She an increasingly harsh world. Bright Future is writes on “Free Treasure” about the beauty of instrumentally beautiful yet so often lyrically nature and how real love is free and patient bleak, and it is hard to say whether the album’s (“Rocks to climb between / Water like a title is ironic or hopeful. Can it be both? washing machine”). Both of these songs feature sparkling acoustic guitar and some of the most soothing vocals on the record.

Lenker’s meditations on sexuality and heartbreak ultimately offer love as the answer, and a lyrical juxtaposition with nature and machinery emphasizes the importance of striving for it in complicated times.

On Bright Future, depending on the song, Adrianne Lenker’s writing switches between the veiled and the direct. “Candleflame,” “Already Lost,” and “Cell Phone Says” are deep cuts on the album that are densely, even frustratingly, poetic (“The center is a hole in the sphere”?). They obviously mean something to Lenker, though, and

Adrianne Lenker, 2018. Photo by Rebecca Sowell.

OnAir · June 2024 33

Sam Seliger, former Program Director and Librarian & Archivist: Beach House (Baltimore, MD).

It's like Mazzy Star never left.

Lily Gasterland-Gustaffson: The Replacements (Minnesota, MN).

David Gonzalez, host of Urbano Latinx: Aventura (The Bronx, NY).

They were able to blend the music of their parents (Bachata) with the influence of other genres they heard growing up in the Bronx (funk, hip hop, jazz, etc.) and spoke about their experiences as second gen immigrants growing up in the Bronx to revitalize the genre and make music for an entire generation of new second-gen immigrants, myself included.

even as the city has changed so much since they started in the 90s at Maxwell’s.

Melisa Nehrozoglu, programmer: Funkadelic/ Lauryn Hill (NJ).

I feel like the state is truly underestimated at times for the talent and versatility of the artists that grew up/lived there. Both artists represent exactly the genres and styles I gravitate towards, which always involves rock/funk/soul.

Stella Fusaro, programmer: Alicia Keys (New York, NY).

AROUND TH

McKenna Roberts, American Head, OnAir Managing Editor: The Microphones/Mount Eerie (WA).

I’m very emotionally attached to Phil Elverum and his music from both projects. There’s a lot of depth and heart and creativity in his work, and I think he really captures that Pacific Northwest-specific melancholy in a lot of his music. Last summer I was in Anacortes (there’s an actual Mt. Erie!) to catch a ferry and was strictly listening to The Glow, Pt. 2.

Who is favorite ar your hom

Casey Lamb, Business Manager, host of Wednesday Cereal Music: LCD Soundsystem/ Television (NY).

As a New Yorker spoiled for choice, I'd have to say one of these two.

Muna Ali, programmer: Bow Wow (Columbus, OH).

Fun fact: he grew up in the same apartment complex my grandma used to live in.

Ella Presiado, co-host of Offbeat: No Doubt (Orange County, CA).

Don’t get me started about ska/music heavily influenced by ska...

Georgia Dillane, Program Director: Yo La Tengo (Hoboken, NJ).

Because they still make music in and about Hoboken. So many Hoboken-born, and NJ-born, artists move to New York and then call themselves an NYC based band, but YLT stays true to Hoboken

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Kyle Murray, host of Eastern Bloc Party: Caroline Polachek (CT).

If the Nutmeg state is worth saving, it’s for whatever ways it might’ve inspired Pang and Desire, I Want to Turn Into You. Otherwise, it's slim pickings, besides like... MGMT? Ted Schmiedeler, Station Manager, host of Free Samples: Ike Reilly (Chicago, IL).

I'm gonna go with him, from Libertyville, just outside Chicago.

Charlie Smith, former IAL Head and host of Guitar Music: Roxanne Shante (New York, NY).

I'm from Manhattan but how's about someone from Queens. Roxanne Shante, whose "Roxanne's Revenge" started the "Roxanne Wars" and goes down as perhaps the first hip-hop diss track.

Inspiration for many early Queensbridge rappers, and her record The B**** Is Back is a classic statement with an iconic cover image.

HE STATION

Courtney Eileen Fulcher, former IAL Head: The Stooges (Ann Arbor, MI).

s your rtist from metown?

Ben Erdmann, Director of Operations & Engineering, alternating host of Workaround: Khruangbin (Houston, TX).

Tanvi Krishnamurthy, Publicity Director: Elizabeth Cotten (Carborro, NC).

I drive by the street she was raised on all the time.

Brendan Sarpong, intern: Whitney Houston/SZA (NJ).

All repping North NJ!

Lauryn

Hill/

Alejandra Díaz-Pizarro, Librarian & Archivist, OnAir Editor-in-Chief, host of Saturday Night at the Opera: Zoé (Mexico).

I can remember exactly where I was when I heard one of their songs for the first time, and it changed my life. This was the first band I listened to "for myself," and which I think marked the moment when I started to steer my own music taste. Their sound is so deliciously eclectic without being too out there, and though their more recent stuff has disappointed me somewhat, they're a homegrown band everyone should check out to sample a taste of the Mexico City rock scene—even if they formed in a nearby state. Their MTV Unplugged is also one of the best ever—it's so awesome when a band does an Unplugged with truly, radically different takes on their songs rather than just slightly-altered covers.

Ian Pumphrey, News & Arts Head, host of Playlist Profiles: Butthole Surfers (San Antonio, TX).

John Howley, host of the Celtic Show: Clannad (Ireland).

They popularized Irish-language music through a dynamic blend of sean-nós tradition and modern ethereal instrumentation.

Vivien Sweet, New Music Head: Simon and Garfunkel (Forest Hills, NY).

Leon Zhou, programmer: Billy Joel/Nas (New York, NY).

Natalie Najar, Latin Head: Tyler the Creator (Hawthorne, CA).

He’s put my hometown on the map, as well as other members of Odd Future. His album Call Me If You Get Lost features a license with the location of my hometown—Hawthorne, CA. It’s honestly so cool to see someone who was also raised by a single mother (twins!) make it to where he throws his own festivals and sells out concert venues.

Maria Shaughnessy, former Program Director and Classical Head, host of Early Music: Noname (Chicago, IL).

Stephen Dames, programmer: Steely Dan (NY).

I mean... it's just Steely Dan, sadly.

OnAir · June 2024 35

CONFERENCE REVIEW

T

One in an Archipelago: A Day at the ARSC

by Ale Díaz-Pizarro

hough Phil Schaap was world-renowned for physical sound formats. as a jazz educator, expert, and all-around I was able to attend the conference for one master ( just ask the NEA!), he could day—Friday, May 17th. The previous night, never add "Columbia professor" to that list I had attended one of the conference's open despite teaching there (and at several other events, where filmmaker and banjo player universities). University administrators, citing Craig Evans talked about his project, "Old-Time his lack of graduate doctoral credentials, drew Conversations," which collects the sounds and a firm line between the halls of academia and voices of Americans involved in traditional the looser bounds of academically-unaffiliated music-making, from banjo-making to footknowledge— no matter how tangible and stomping to fiddle-playing. As an occasional expansive the host of Hobo's latter might be.

Lullaby, I'm not But between one to shy away May 15th-18th at from traditional the DoubleTree music, and the Hilton Downtown fiddle tunes sent in St. Paul, me off to bed like Minnesota, that a promise of how line was nowhere exciting the next to be found—and day would be. neither was the The promise interest in even was realized as trying to trace it. early on as 9am The conference the next day— of the Association though the subject for Recorded matter was as far Sound Collections a cry as anything The conference space at the host hotel. Photo by the author. is an odd one: could be from last PhDs mingle with night's rollicking record-bin savants, with no distinction drawn foot-stomping. For an hour and a half, I between the knowledge or expertise of one was treated to the history of the Möllendorf group or another. Rather, the ARSC fosters a Collection, a box of wax cylinders that were space of shared passions, where people with a the first recordings ever made in China (ca. genuine love for all forms of recorded media 1890), which were held by a private collector come together to share their latest projects and until his death, and which are now housed at learn from fellow enthusiasts who, though they UC Santa Barbara's Early Recordings Initiative may be working in entirely different media and (a sponsor of the conference). Enthralled, time, they know for a fact share that same love I listened to Dr. Patrick Feaster, of Indiana

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University Bloomington, tell the story of the cylinders, which had been commissioned to German linguist and diplomat Paul Georg von Möllendorf while he was stationed in China. Tasked with capturing the different dialects of mainland China, von Möllendorf had native speakers of each dialect recite the same poem. More than a century later, the cylinders yielded a double legacy: an accidental repository of Chinese oral poetry traditions, and a testament to some dialects that have since then gone extinct. This posed a difficulty for David Giovannoni, the specialist in charge of audio preservation of the cylinders: some of these were scratched and damaged, and no speakers remained to make sense of what the audio should say. Giovannoni then described his innovative technique to reconstruct the sound, in a minutia of needle widths and audio mixing that I won't even try to recount here but which left me utterly fascinated. Closed by two representatives from the UCSB Early Recordings Initiative, the panel acquired the sense of a hero's journey: we had started with a dusty, mysterious treasure chest of a cylinder box, moved through its process of restoration, and ended with that collection finding a permanent home where they could continue to be studied. I left the panel giddy.

From the other side of the Pacific, my conference experience then turned hyperlocal, as I attended two talks about the Midwest music scene. I heard Bruce Adams of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's "There is a House in Urbana," which departed from the now-(in) famous house featured on an American Football album cover to take us on a tour of so-called Midwest emo and the record label that made it possible: Polyvinyl Records. If this talk seemed catered to someone my age, it provided no end of fun moments to watch conference attendees three times my age listen to what I can only assume was their first taste of bands like Cap'n Jazz, The Get Up Kids, and Rainer Maria—but best of all was the openness with which they did. The next talk seemed more catered to this demographic, as conference regular Mark Atnip profiled The Vintage Music Company,

the last all-78 rpm music store. Located in downtown Minneapolis, catty-corner across from the site of George Floyd's murder, the store's all-glass storefront was spared the looting and destruction that came with the ensuing BLM protests in 2020. Atnip's lithe and humorous talk—"some days, you might find some good records in the bins up front—except you won't, 'cause I bought them all—offered a loving profile of an eccentric little store and its even more eccentric owner, who will not sell a piece until he has dutifully catalogued it into his handwritten discographical record.

Incidentally, this session yielded perhaps one of the most interesting moments of the day: another conference regular, Dr. Mike Biel of Morehead, Kentucky, voiced his qualms with the VMC's peculiar store-running style. He recounted an experience of going to the store and selecting materials only to be told that they weren't for sale, which he found offensive, a sure sign that the storeowner thought that he was better at discography than everyone else.

Atnip and other audience members pushed back, defending the idiosyncracies that audio lovers must permit their fellows; as Dr. Biel and his daughter Leah retorted, the chatter in the conference room devolved into what sounded more like booing—even audio wonks have drama!

Pleasantly frazzled, I took a lunch break before two sessions grouped together under "Musical Microcosms"—which, as a KCR DJ, I felt were right in my ballpark. Though I came in late for a talk by Nate Gibson, the AudioVisual Preservation Archivist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he soon won me over with a survey of Cuca Records' catalogue, a small Wisconsin-based record label that is perhaps best known for its 1960 chart-topping recording of "Mule Skinner Blues" by the Fendermen. Looking over Cuca's rockabilly, polka (and polkabilly), blues, and country records, I couldn't help but smell a themed Hobo's Lullaby in the making. After Gibson, David Drazin took us through his collection of issues of Flexipop, a short-lived British pop magazine that came with a free flexi record per

OnAir · June 2024 37

WKCR's Samuel Seliger delivering his presentation, based on his undergraduate thesis. Photo by the author.

issue, allowing its subscribers to hear songs by prominent bands like Depeche Mode before they were commercially released. More of a tour than a talk, I had fun "flipping" through the magazines along with Drazin's slideshow, listening to samples from the records while glancing at childhood memories from artists like Siouxsie (of "and the Banshees" fame) and day-in-the-lifes of artists like Debbie Harry.

Ending early, the session made for a nice palate cleanser before what I was really there for.

In the afternoon, I filed early into a conference room to be front and center for a talk by fellow WKCRite Sam Seliger—whom you might recognize as the longtime host of Tuesday's Just as Bad, or as WKCR's former Program Director and Librarian & Archivist.

Though his work with WKCR's reel-to-reel tapes and heaps of CDs would put him right at home amid these audio preservationists, Sam was there to talk about something entirely different: the commercialization of country music identity starting in the 90s, with artists such as Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, and Alan Jackson leading the charge. I must confess that I can't resist a good Shania Twain song (and, to be fair, they were meticulously engineered

38 OnAir · June 2024

by her ex-husband and producer Mutt Lange for that very purpose), and to hear Sam trace the line from the pre-Nashville sound country music we both have delved into when we've hosted Honky Tonkin' all the way to the threshold of 9/11 and the reckoning it entailed for country music opened my eyes about the evolution of a genre that WKCR taught me to love. It didn't hurt, either, that Sam wore a cowboy hat—a form of meta-commentary on the commercialization of country image, sure, but also a delightfully unorthodox accessory to a suit. Sam was followed by the independent scholar Caroline Vézina, who delivered a talk about Creole Songs and the development of early jazz that I couldn't help but think would have felt right at home in Traditions in Swing.

My day concluded with a two-hour film screening of sorts, where the archivist Mark Cantor regaled us with a selection of "talkies" and video recordings of music performances, including vaudeville stilt performers, tap dancers, early televised jazz bands, and none other than Duke Ellington. Film is not a common medium for the preservation of audio, but to see the lively performances that accompanied many such recordings reminded me of the danceable nature of much of the American songbook, and restored the life that is sometimes hard to ascribe to a vinyl record.

Though I was able to attend only for one day, I was left with a taste for more. After all, everything about the ARSC conference felt like home to me: learning about media that the music market has now mostly deemed obsolete and refusing to give up on it, learning about hyperspecific musical spaces or communities with audio to match, and sharing a space with others who are just as excited to be there, who love teaching and learning as much as you like being there. Is that all not what WKCR is? And though I spent only a few hours enveloped in the spell, I left reassured: often, it can feel like WKCR—with our staunch emphasis on history, archiving, preservation, and devoted passion— is an island of its own. After a day at the ARSC conference, I now know that, if we are an island, we are one in a whole archipelago.

SUPPORT WKCR TOP 5 REASONS TO DONATE TO WKCR 1. You’d be helping a student-run, listener-funded, and volunteer-based radio station continue to bring you the absolute best in what radio has to offer. Music, arts, news, and sports— we’ve got the works!

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OnAir · June 2024 39

Sp e c i a l t ha n ks to Ben Erdmann, Ben Rothman, Brendan Sarpong, Casey Lamb, Charlie Smith, Cour tney Eileen Fulcher, David Gonzalez, Ella Presiado, Georgia Dillane, Ian Pumphrey, John Howley, Kyle Murray, Leon Zhou, Li ly GasterlandGustafsson, Maria Shaughnessy, Melisa Nehrozoglu, Muna Ali, Natalie Najar, Sam Seliger, Stella Fusaro, Stephen Dames, Tanvi Krishnamur thy, Ted Schmiedeler, & Vivien Sweet.

40 OnAir · June 2024

WKCR 89.9 FM

2920 Broadway New York, NY 10027

O n Ai r 's e d i to r i a l b oa rd i s Ale Díaz-Pizarro, Isabelle Fishbein, & McKenna Rober ts.