Peter Thompson in the Vancouver Co-op Radio tape library (c. 1977)
Peter Thompson, long time host of the Bluegrass Signal radio program on KALW in San Francisco, CA, has prepared a very special show to celebrate his 50 years as a bluegrass broadcaster. He tells us that it will run a bit later than his actual anniversary, which is today, and prepared this remembrance those early days, and an advance playlist from the April 29 program with all songs released in 1975.
Vancouver Co-op Radio began broadcasting on April 15, 1975, and I was on the air for the station that day.
I was the producer and host for numerous shows on Co-op Radio during the next 20 years. And I continue to present Bluegrass Signal on KALW, San Francisco (since 1995) and Bluegrass Country Radio (since 2004).
I decided to mark my 50th year of broadcasting with a program of releases and reissues from 1975, trying to give a sense of how a “new releases” program might have sounded when I began doing radio.
It turns out it was a very good year for our music. It’s when Rounder #0044 was issued, as well as Old & In the Way’s 1973 concert recordings. It’s also when we first heard the second Hazel & Alice LP on Rounder, along with other great new recordings from women who were about to forever change the music: Lynn Morris (with City Limits), Suzanne Thomas (with the Hotmud Family), Buffalo Gals (the first all-women band?), Judy Marshall, Katie Laur, Betty Fisher, and others.
1975 was also a time for influential reissues (County’s Old Time String Band Classics, with the first widespread release of an African-American stringband, the Booker Orchestra, as well as County’s collection of classic bluegrass, Springtime In the Mountains), live recordings (the Kentucky Colonels at their early ’60s peak and the Seldom Scene from earlier in 1975), and bootlegs (Bill Monroe & Doc Watson revisiting the Monroe Brothers songbook).
The reason for my slightly tardy anniversary celebration is that there was a fundraising show from KALW on the actual anniversary, and a preview of (and ticket giveaways for) the Berkeley Bluegrass Festival the following week. Both types of programs have been a constant for me during a life in public radio.
That life began when I built a wood shed with a chain saw.
Well, the actual beginning was listening, then going to concerts, then recording those concerts and swapping tapes, then making and passing on mixtapes … also known as radio show playlists.
In 1974, I was living in rural British Columbia and had the opportunity to join Co-op Radio — as a carpenter. That wood shed was most of my carpentry experience, but the station was desperate. An abandoned bank building was being converted into radio studios, and finesse was not a priority.
The driving force behind the station was a collective interest in providing alternative news and information, and, as I learned when I attended my first meeting, included no plans for broadcasting music. This seemed preposterous to me; remember that this is long before ‘talk radio,’ and my opinion might not seem so naive.
But, I was told, this was to be a community station, a way to give voice to the voiceless. Ah-ha, thinks I. Community music. I went out into Vancouver’s Gastown district and asked Ed the Fiddler, a regular street musician, if he wanted to be on the radio. Despite having zero experience, I wound up recording Ed and dozens of other area musicians during the year before Co-op Radio went on the air — 50 years ago this month — and that tape library was the basis for the music heard during our early months of broadcasting.
Soon, I was all-in on the community aspect of radio, and I still do a calendar and musical previews of upcoming musical performances in the area as part of Bluegrass Signal, as I still feel that part of radio’s mission is to connect the listener to the community, and providing information about where to hear or play music — and presenting releases from regional musicians — seems essential.
There was no bluegrass or old time music being made in Vancouver in 1975, so my playlist for a mythical program has no local content. The theme does, though!
Theme: Kathy Kallick Band – Just Lonesome Ol’ Me & the Radio/The Lonesome Chronicles (Live Oak/23)
- J.D. Crowe & The New South – The Old Home Place/J. D. Crowe & the New South aka #0044 (Rounder)
- Tony Rice – You Don’t Know My Mind/California Autumn (Rebel)
- Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard – True Life Blues/Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard (Rounder)
- Joe Val & The New England Bluegrass Boys – When the Golden Leaves Begin To Fall/Joe Val & the New England Bluegrass Boys (Rounder)
- The Hotmud Family – Teardrops Falling In the Snow/Buckeyes In the Briar Patch (Vetco)
- Norman Blake – Sweet Heaven aka Goin’ To the Races/Old And New (Flying Fish)
- Norman Blake, Tut Taylor, Sam Biush, Butch Robins, Vassar Clements, David Holland & Jethro Burns – Old Brown Case/The Hank Deane Sessions (HDS)
- City Limits Bluegrass Band (featuring Lynn Morris) – Cold Hard Rain/Hello City Limits (Biscuit City)
- The Booker Orchestra – Camp Nelson Blues/Old Time String Band Classics (County/27>75)
- Larry Richardson & Happy Smith – Let Me Fall/Springtime In the Mountains (County/53>75)
- Ted Lundy & The Southern Mountain Boys – I’ve Never Been So Lonesome/Springtime In the Mountains (County/72>75)
- Del McCoury & The Dixie Pals – Walkin’ the Dog/Del McCoury & the Dixie Pals (Revonah)
- Betty Fisher & The Dixie Bluegrass Boys – Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor/Leaving Town (Playhouse)
- Connie & Babe & The Backwoods Boys – Home Is Where the Heart Is/Backwoods Bluegrass (Rounder [#0043])
- Buffalo Gals – Foggy Mountain Locomotion/First Borne (Revonah)
- The New Lost City Ramblers – Dry & Dusty/On the Great Divide (Folkways)
- Doc Watson & Band – Homesick For Heaven/Bill & Doc Sing Country Songs (FBN [bootleg])
- The Marshall Family – Waiting For the Master To Come/Come Springtime (Rebel)
- Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys – Looking For the Stone/Let Me Rest On A Peaceful Mountain (Rebel)
- Old & In The Way – Pig In A Pen/Old & In the Way (Round/73>75)
- The Seldom Scene – The Fields Have Turned Brown/Live At the Cellar Door (Rebel)
- The Kentucky Colonels – Jordan/Livin’ In the Past (Sierra Briar/64>75)
- Boys From Indiana – Bluegrass Music Is Out Of Sight/Bluegrass Music Is Out Of Sight (King)
- The Katie Laur Band – Drivin’ Back To Tennessee/Good Time Girl (Vetco)
- Kenny Baker – Grassy Fiddle Blues/Grassy Fiddle Blues (County)
This 50th anniversary broadcast will be available on KALW on April 29, and available on demand for one week thereafter. The first hour will be aired on Bluegrass Country during the week of May 22-27, and on demand for two weeks thereafter.
You can read more about his career here.
Peter created these graphics of album covers from 1975, and this gallery of photos from his 50 years in radio.
Congratulations Peter Thompson!
