Saturday, July 21, 2007

KCAC Farewell Broadcast

Listen to the KCAC Farewell Broadcast, from August 14, 1971:



To download, click here.
To open player in a new, tiny window, click here.

Here's a link to Tom Wright's original post on receiving the collection of tapes from Jeff and Jennifer Crawford featuring this broadcast, and here are some informal comments from Tom about the particular recording featured here:

"It runs about 26 minutes. The sound quality is not very good but it's amazing that this tape exists at all. It seems to run a bit slow but I'm not proficient enough yet on the gadgetry to fix it. When I tried to speed it up just the tiniest bit, it sounded like everybody was on helium, so I decided that a little slow is better than a lot fast.

It was really a trip to hear this tape 36 years after listening to the original broadcast. I remembered certain things precisely but had totally forgotten about others - like how Bill stops in the middle of his big, emotional farewell to plug a garage sale because he'd promised to do it earlier but had forgotten.

You'll hear a couple of glitches, or things that sound like glitches. The tape starts with Hank Cookenboo (at least I think it's Hank, maybe it's Marty slowed down by the tape) giving his own farewell speech, and at one point he just stops and there's dead air for 12 or 13 seconds - I think he got too choked up to go on. After some commercials, Compton comes on and starts to play a Moody Blues track, but the taper stopped part way through and then started again with Bill's farewell address. I don't know how much time elapsed while the tape recorder was turned off, but after that it runs uninterrupted though the end of the very last song. Everything that I remember from the original broadcast is on the tape, so I don't think the edit actually eliminated anything more than the Moody Blues song and whatever music came after it.

In the final fade, the last few seconds of KCAC's existence, you can hear someone yelling 'Tom! Tom!' That wasn't part of the broadcast - it was background noise picked up on the mic being used by the taper. The 'Tom' in question, according to Jeff Crawford, was the boyfriend of Lawrence Richardson's sister; she was the taper. Jeff and Lawrence were friends at the time. The sister's name seems to be lost to history (at least I don't recall Jeff ever mentioning it to me), as is her reason for recording so many hours of KCAC in the first place - but I'm sure glad that she did."

Comments? Please add below.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! The sound is OK for what is! Can't wait to hear more!

Marty said...

Tom,
As the Incredible String Band fades into the aether and Simon & Garfunkel pre-remind us with their Bookends of "what a time it was" I'm struck by how amazing it is that the voice calling "Tom, Tom" was maybe actually speaking to you over the years to thank you for your hard work & diligence in working on these tapes. What a treasure to hear these pieces of our history that you have dug up (almost literally in some cases)
Sure, we don't want to live in the past ... but it's nice to be able to visit! By the way, that was Hank at the beginning, and me doing the signoff. It's a measure of Bill's professionalism that he let someone else have the last word, although it's obvious that his were the words that counted.
Thanks, Marty

Tom Wright said...

Actually, Marty, as an archaeologist I DO live in the past. Or, as the other professional in-joke goes, "my life is in ruins." Thanks for the nice feedback!

Mariah Fleming said...

Marty,
Regarding your words: "It's a measure of Bill's professionalism that he let someone else have the last word, although it's obvious that his were the words that counted"...

What you said in your post to Tom embodies the whole spirit and attitude of KCAC. We are so lucky that you are here and that you share your thoughts about those days and enjoy all the memories as much as we do.

What you all gave to us in those days remains a wonderful, indelibly hopeful memory of a part of our lives. And though you seem to minimize your part in it all, to those of us who listened and shared the experience, you are a very big part of what made it all so wonderful and unforgetable.

These tapes bring a lump to my throat. I wonder as I listen what eloquent statements, woven in with that very personal tapestry of music, humor and consciousness, we'd hear from the station today if it were still around. No doubt the Valley would be different kind of place now had you all been able to continue leading us down that creative, empathetic and generous road.

BTW Kim Moody recently emailed me a date in October for our next KCAC LIVES REUNION. I'll find his email and copy it here so we can all gear up for it. Let's hope Ron will make it out here this time too. Tom, Sharon, Liz, Jeff, Jennifer, Jimmy and everybody start planning for it. It'll be nice weather and a perfect way to celebrate Bill.

Respect4u said...

Hi Mariah. I'll be there!!!! Let me know what I can do to help.

My laptop computer has a serious overheating problem right now. It's going for repair tomorrow. I can't wait for it to be fixed so I can listen to this Farewell Broadcast! Thanks Tom!!

"Whoosh"

Sharon Porter