July 27, 2006
Solo

The ’50s continue with Alan Freed still in charge and presenting Rock & Roll live (some of the earliest rockers playing for live audiences in the ’50s), whites cover the black hits, the end of the Tupperware saga, Tom Corbit in space, the hydrogen bomb and celebrity civil defense, rock history documentaries collide, and a TV quiz show on radio.

3 Hours

July 20, 2006
Solo

Radio continues in the early ’50s, including the rise of Rock & Roll with Alan Freed at the microphone, at live shows, and in Hollywood. Tupperware is born, the Russians get the bomb, Doo-wop rules, as does advertising, and Receptacle Programming returns with a discussion with callers of KPFA’s new language dump button.

3 Hours

July 13, 2006
Solo

From the late ‘40s into the early ‘50s, we continue to cover developments of the time on the radio. Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose “flight” is covered live in 1947, the Beats emerge to become beatniks, dope enters mainstream radio fiction, Lenny Bruce ties for first place on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts in ’48, the term, “Rock & Roll” enters our musical language, and the Communist menace is accompanied by atomic civil defense.

3 Hours

July 6, 2006
Solo

Still in the time frame of Part 7 (Late ‘40s and early ‘50s) we focus in depth on the birth of both the atomic age and the modern UFO phenomenon as they both appeared on radio of the time. As post war atomic bomb testing on Bikini Island in the Pacific is covered by radio, Kenneth Arnold launches the term “flying saucer” after sighting a few while flying over Washington State. The Government establishes a series of UFO investigative groups culminating in Project Blue Book, as nation wide flying saucer sightings continue to show up in the country’s media, and both “factual” public affairs radio and science fiction shows, atomic angst in tow, immediately add “flying saucers” to their vocabularies. Lots of UFO actualities, features, and interviews from the time.

3 Hours