Marathon Week One with Bethany. Pledge at 800-989-9368 or wfmu.org/pledge: Ken's show

Listener comments!

♥ 6:19am -Ken:

Happy Marathon everybody!

6:45am cory:

happy marathon to you!

♥ 6:47am -Ken:

Hi Cory!

6:49am cory:

hiya ken, other kens, and nonkens

7:00am f ☂f ☂ (:

I swear that ascii art looks like a giant dollar sign in the post preview.

Damn you auto-correct!!

Wait. I don't have an auto-correct feature.

7:00am cory:

looks good to me fofo

7:04am f ☂f ☂ (:

Thanks, cory. I guess it doesn't display correctly in smaller screens...

Anyway, happy marathon 2016, Ken and cory, and fellow people!

PLEEEEDGEEE!!

♥ 7:38am Ken From Hyde Park:

I tried and failed at posting ASCII art here, too. Even with non-proportional fonts, it doesn't come out. The software throws out extra spaces and things don't line up at all.

♥ 8:09am -Ken:

haha thanks all. f0f0 I am now going to remove the ASCII but it was a noble effort!

♥ 8:11am Snortley:

f ☂f ☂'s ASCII displayed OK if you zoomed out your browser.

♥ 8:44am Marcel M:

Morning Ken and marathoners.

♥ 9:00am Marcel M:

It begins!

9:01am Ike:

Pledge, you dirty hippies!

♥ 9:02am Ken From Hyde Park:

Wake up and pledge!

9:02am kevlicki:

Good morning ken and wfmu land

♥ 9:04am Marcel M:

Its a good song to get pumped up to.

♥ 9:06am Dave in Vermont:

Thanks for everything you do, Ken. WFMU is an important part of my life. I can't choose only 3 shows to credit my pledge to. When I grow up and get a real job I will increase my monthly amount. Have a great marathon.

♥ 9:10am MichelleinGreenBay:

Morning! It's been awhile since I could listen live - and I have to miss an hour from 9:30-10:30...but I can't miss Ken playing the French horn.

♥ 9:10am Listener 108581:

That damn monkey better evolve as we get closer to the goal..

♥ 9:12am Murakami Whywolf:

0.) Make ASCII art.
1.) Make an image of it to avoid all fontage and faceage issues*
2.) Put it up somewhere, give us the URI to it
3.) Those of us interested—I know _I_ am— can check it out and possibly recommend it
4.) If Ken should check it out in his copious free time and like it enough, he can use it.

*wasteful, but not that much, especially if you stick to highly-compressible 2-colour, greyscale not as good but still very good, GIF orJPG/JFIF or PNG, All-One, O.K.!

♥ 9:14am Murakami Whywolf:

Ken, when are Swag For Life® pledges' yearly totals added to the Marathon total?...at the start?

♥ 9:16am Marcel M:

@Ken: Did you ever find that man again and thank him? I wonder if he realizes because of him you are not the station dict.. er, manager!

9:17am Bethany Ryker:

Hi folks! So happy to be here! Send the hardest working man at WFMU some support - pledge to Ken's show! Pledge and tell us your FMU discovery story!

♥ 9:17am Murakami Whywolf:

(Pledged already.) Came for the "Hour of Slack" as listed in a SubGenius publication, couldn't pick-up the station well, but heard Bronwyn's "News of the Dead", lived far away and started listening as soon as it made the Web.

9:18am Emil:

First time I heard WFMU was a Thursday morning at around 5 am during the early 90's while going home from limelight still tripping face.

♥ 9:18am pygmylunch:

Ooo such shirt

♥ 9:18am Sem Chumbo:

Got here a few years back via www.aldaily.com... It had 'FMU under *Favourites*. Despite the misspelling, I checked in. Still doing so.

♥ 9:18am Dave in Vermont:

I miss Stochastic Hit Parade.Ice to hear your voice, Bethany.

♥ 9:19am Listener 108581:

Donate people?

♥ 9:19am ranjit:

I think my gateway to WFMU was when I read a review that Bethany had written in the Brooklyn Rail. Her bio mentioned WFMU or Stochastic Hit Parade or something, and I started listening and NEVER STOPPED

9:19am cory:

i started with The Cake and Polka Parade w. Fatty Jubbo

9:19am sphere:

when i was in college radio, WFMU was always the most interesting station in the College Music Journal (CMJ). We kinda worshiped them from afar, even though we could not hear them (in the pre-Net world). Only after FMU hit the Web could i hear the station, and i was not disappointed.

♥ 9:20am MichelleinGreenBay:

I stumbled upon the Seven Second Delay podcast on iTunes. That drew me in to the rest of the station.

♥ 9:21am Listener 108581:

My gateway was this show during the marathon. Read about the station somewhere. First thing I heard was Ken going off on his Network rant. YOU ARE MEDDLING...etc.

9:21am OTB:

Hey, Bethany said my name on the radio!

♥ 9:22am MD:

Give until you see the Flying Monkeys!!!

♥ 9:22am MichelleinGreenBay:

I think it was Andy losing the will to live... :-D

♥ 9:23am Webhamster Henry:

@Murakami - ASCII art? You said the magic bytes!

♥ 9:24am pygmylunch:

My weird Ukrainian friend whose uncle was in the same grade as us introduced me to WFMU in middle school

9:24am Listener Beverly:

Came for the Hour of Slack, stayed for Incorrect Music, Joe Frank, Alan Watts, then while spinning the dial found 7 Second Delay while Andy was berating Ken for giving the legal ID, then ended up here.

9:25am Bethany Ryker:

@OTB - if you pledge another tme, I'll say your name again ;)

♥ 9:28am Dave in Vermont:

I remember hearing FMU when I lived in NJ and I would be driving places and tune it in whenever I could. There were the Allan Watts tapes and that conspiracy theory guy. and was that health food guy on FMU? I feel like I listened to Seven Second Delay back then too-how long has that been happening? and who knows what all music, but there was definitely a memorable night coming home from NYC in the passenger seat when the windshield was melting.

9:28am f ☂f ☂ (:

Murakami et al:

This is how God wanted me to display my ASCII art posted before Ken deleted it (deservedly):

http://oi65.tinypic.com/2rh2xqg.jpg

WARNING: The above URL might also contain a photo of Olga Polutshnaya swimming in a pool.

9:28am Torbjørn:

My small 30k population town on the west coast of Norway was lucky enough to have some people who threw together a little festival. I'm not sure how booking worked, but somehow DJ Donna Summer was scheduled to play. He came on stage, didn't look very much like a performer to my untrained eye. He plugged in his laptop, said some funny stuff, and started blasting some very rough breakcore. He jumped around on stage, broke a lot of the stage decoration, bit his lip and spat blood over the laptop and my friend. The festival description of him mentioned WFMU, and I went straight home and started the stream. Haven't turned it off yet, hopefully never will.

9:29am Bethany Ryker:

@ranjit...and the SAGA began! WFMU 8-bit violin created with our very hands (and lasers). So glad you got pulled into the wavy current of fun that is FMU!

♥ 9:29am Listener 108581:

oh man, Olga!

♥ 9:29am MD:

harp on it Baby!!!

♥ 9:30am Ken From Hyde Park:

As a habitual channel-flipper, I came across WFMU by accident, probably not long after 90.1/WXHD turned on. I remember Diane Kamikaze's "Zorro" bed music.

♥ 9:30am Listener 108581:

The other night I stayed up WAY too late watching ever Olga video I could find. She is totally insane.

9:31am SeanG:

YAAH!

♥ 9:31am Webhamster Henry:

Is anyone covering Olga for the Hoof 'n' Mouth show?

♥ 9:32am ranjit:

Wavy currents forever!

♥ 9:32am MD:

They need to put more Gated Reverb on that harp!!!

♥ 9:33am MD:

Is a Klham bake on the way?!?!?!?!!!!

9:36am Mary Wing:

Donovan slowed down sounds like the guy from Tindersticks, heh. So maybe play a Tindersticks LP at 45 to see if he can sound like Donovan?

9:37am f ☂f ☂ (:

My gateway to WFMU was through Rhapsody Audiogalaxy.

I was so sick and tired of listening over and over again all my -back then- favourite songs ever (about 500 encapsulated in a single playlist) that I decided to venture into something different. So I went to the Radio section and from there, perhaps reading a WFMU's review of the station, I discover it!

Unfortunately I don't remember which show was playing then. But it wasn't Seven Second Delay. That's for sure!

What is sure is People Like Us' songs played in Ken's made me fan of this very show.

♥ 9:38am pygmylunch:

I joined swag for life this month but Imma pledge again on payday $$$ WFMU 5ever

♥ 9:40am common:

ken!

♥ 9:41am Murakami Whywolf:

I'd suggest 'The Shirt of Detsiny [sic]' because a possible station slogan-of-the-moment is 'Our mistakes are better than their perfection.'.

♥ 9:42am pygmylunch:

His uncle was the same age as us, btw

♥ 9:42am Andrew Waterloo:

WFMU: For Weird Uncles.

9:42am tim - now from Atlanta:

I was introduced to WFMU by this hip, cool guy that lived in the apartment beneath me who worked there as the station manager. Been hooked since (1984-ish)

♥ 9:43am Murakami Whywolf:

Weird Family Members Unite!

♥ 9:44am pygmylunch:

I see what you did there Murakami

♥ 9:44am Listener Robert:

Waiting to see if some more Pinecone Research credits (AC Nielsen) come thru today to increase the amount I was going to pledge.

I probably heard some WFMU by chance in the early 1970s, but it didn't stick. Then in 1980 I asked a new friend about this "punk rock" he listened to and which Jesse Walker had mentioned in Reason magazine. He turned me on to the programs of Frank O'Toole & Pat Duncan. (I keep forgetting which one had Morbid as co-host?)

♥ 9:45am Murakami Whywolf:

Ahh, fine, dirt-aged porno....

♥ 9:45am Marcel M:

Similar experience! My friends and I had a porno buried in the woods! It was in this weird area where we made jumps for our mountain bikes. We'd jump the bikes and then check out the porn and then bury it again.. Man thats so weird to think about...

9:45am Polyus:

Here we go, nudie mag creation stories.

♥ 9:45am Marcel M:

Also pre-internet so it was something alright.

♥ 9:46am Listener 108581:

Man! MY friends and I had porno mags hidden in the woods too! We collected beer cans back then so our code for go checking out the mags was, "Let's go look for beer cans."

♥ 9:47am Dave in Vermont:

@Ken, my introduction to porn was a magazine I found construction site near my house in Hackettstown/Allamuchy.Probably 6th or 7th grade. Also kept it hidden outside in a utility box attached to the end of the row of condos I lived in. It's been a long hard road ever since

♥ 9:47am Murakami Whywolf:

I found Zap #4 on my elementary school's playground—the prosecuted one with Crumb's suburban incest extravaganza. Less unnerving than the ob-gyn textbook pages some joker placed in the bottom of a puddle just before it froze for the winter.

♥ 9:50am Marcel M:

@Dave: "Its been a hard road ever since." hahah

9:50am Polyus:

My friend's dad kept his stash in a basement closet that we would get into. There was also the vacant lot variety a couple of years later.

♥ 9:51am Murakami Whywolf:

Was it Chester Brown who did a graphic novel about a pornographic magazine in the woods?

('We call this mushroom "Porn of the Woods".')

♥ 9:51am Listener 108581:

dammit! This stupid song has me cracking up!

9:51am People Like Us:

music just doesn't get better than this

♥ 9:51am Webhamster Henry:

I had been listening to morsels of freeform on WBAI (Peter Bochan, Citizen Kafka), so when my co-worker The Grape turned me on to the Mother Lode of Free form, I was much more satisfied.

9:53am oddO:

my daughter loves this. dig bark is her favorite casio preset

♥ 9:53am Webhamster Henry:

And stories about porn burying are covered well in Chet Brown's THE PLAYBOY:
www.drawnandquarterly.com...

9:53am Mark S:

I discovered WFMU through the LCD program guide.

♥ 9:53am Marcel M:

Wait whats being given away right now?

♥ 9:53am Ike:

This is your fault, Ken! YOU started this.

♥ 9:54am Ken From Hyde Park:

I lost my calendar. Is today Trump-free or totally Trump? Dumb Drumpf!

9:54am a listener:

As a Brit my introduction to WFMU came from John Peel, who often mentioned it on air. Been listening online pretty much since you started streaming.
No stories about hiding porno.Sorry.

♥ 9:54am Marcel M:

My porno story is just so much better than, "I'm from NJ so I would try to find something interesting on the radio while driving around stoned and my dial often fell on 91.1. Now I'm obsessed"

♥ 9:55am Listener 108581:

FLIPPER!!!

♥ 9:55am Caryn:

My grandpa kept his porn in plain sight, in a neat pile on the sideboard under the tv. Pretty easy to check out. But we also found some mid-century dirty mags at the attic, with quite small and fuzzy b/w nude pics. Quite quaint, really. WFMU I discovered during a Marathon. Listened and pledged the first time within the hour.

9:55am f ☂f ☂ (:

'Keep your porno stories to yourselves' said Ken, the man that share us every week his entire whale porn music collection.

9:56am Dave Wright:

Flipper........well played

♥ 9:57am Listener 108581:

YEAH. Woke up yesterday with this one in my head.

♥ 9:59am Murakami Whywolf:

'I buried a nudie mag in the woods and when I dug it up again it was WFMU.'

♥ 10:00am Snortley:

Back in the late 60s, there was lots of what was then called "underground" radio in the greater NY area. If I wasn't tuned to Gene Shepherd, Murray the K, Bob Fass, Steve Post, or Larry Josephson, I would scan the dial for whatever could be found. Often I would land on WFMU. Nowadays, there's not much else left worth hearing.

10:00am kevlicki:

Ken, just dropped a pledge on ya!

I first heard wfmu in the 90's. I used to hang out and skateboard with my HS buddies at a monument in downtown Goshen. One of my buddies used to sit in his car and listen to the weirdest shit. One day I asked him wtf he was listening to, he said WFMU, it was Joe Frank. After that I found the punk show on Thursday nights, which ran concurrent with the WVKR punk show, wfmu has always been my preference

♥ 10:01am pygmylunch:

One time I applied for a job and at the interview it turned out the job was at Penthouse's editorial department. They gave me three issues and I had to stuff them in my purse and go back to my regular job casually later that morning. My boss was nosy and looked in my bag and asked what I had in there, and I was like "oh just porn mags"

♥ 10:01am Hugh:

Classic trax ! This reminds me of Blurt. Howdy Krys!

♥ 10:01am Dave in Vermont:

This porn discussion could lead to some excellent DJ Premiums next marathon.

10:02am f ☂f ☂ (:

That reminds me when I used to bury the people I murdered in the woods..

Wait. That's another story! Oh, sorry! Hahaha

10:02am Frangry:

This is my favorite show.

♥ 10:03am cthulhu:

CTHULHU approves...

10:05am kevlicki:

Hey Frangry!
You listen to music?!

♥ 10:05am AnAnonymousParty:

Made my pledge, here's my story and I'm sticking to it:

Set the Wayback Machine to late 1980s/early 1990s, St. Louis MO. KMOX has Charlie Brennan and Kevin Horrigan doing this bit called "Pump it or Dump it" where they play a song and listeners would call in and either approve ('pump it') or disapprove ('dump it'). Kevin would tend to play some popular tune, while Charlie would find some Gawd-awful piece of weirdness, one of which was some guy named Ken De Feudis 'singing' something called Lover Without a Cause. This same song would later become a punishment in a call-in game on the same station. Well, I just had to have that song. Fast forward to something called the internet which was becoming something of a fad back then, there was something called Dogpile that would find stuff on these things called 'web pages'. Imagine my surprise when, having typed in 'Lover without a Cause' I got a hit at something called 'Incorrect Music' from a radio station known as WFMU, and you could download the shows and listen in RealAudio.

My life has never been the same since.

10:06am Linda:

I will never forget my introduction to freeform WFMU.....it was in 1997, and I was moving from Minnesota to NYC in a driveaway car with all my stuff. After being lost in the "oranges" of NJ for awhile I finally was on the right track and got on the highway (turnpike/278?) that gets you to the Holland Tunnel where you get the great view of the Manhattan. I was sick of all my tapes, and decided to try the radio, and thats how I discovered WFMU....I remember that great garage rock was playing along with this stunning view of Manhattan and I thought "New York City is gunna be awesome!" So long story short, my intro to WFMU was my intro to NYC! (had never been to the place before moving here). It was a very dramatic intro to both worlds...

10:07am tim - now from Atlanta:

That's the Stanford U. band playing the Tube's "White Punks On Dope"!

♥ 10:07am bobdoesthings:

hey

10:07am Frangry:

@kevlicki: yeah! weird, huh?

♥ 10:07am Listener Robert:

That's it -- gotta get Ken playing a French horn in Hoof & Mouth!

♥ 10:07am Ken From Hyde Park:

By the way, what's the schedule for marathon video broadcasts? SUW usually has one, but I forget if it's the first or second week.

10:08am Frangry:

@Ken From Hyde Park: SUW is web streaming both shows. BUT THIS IS ABOUT KEN.

♥ 10:09am Marcel M:

Hi Franny!!! Did the adoption go thru yet?

♥ 10:11am Ken From Hyde Park:

Thanks, Frangry. Wednesday is Ken's day, for sure.

♥ 10:11am bobdoesthings:

I discovered WFMU just as knowing it was the weird/interesting station on the radio dial when driving in my car as a freshly-licensed 17 year old.. but really got into it when Douglas Rushkoff had his 'media squat' show. then began exploring more and more.. also early days of SUW when Andy was on.

♥ 10:13am Caryn:

It's weird how it seems for generations of men I've heard tell their stories, the standard tale is "we'd go to the park/woods after school and found a porn mag under a bush". Nice to know how universal this is, although I'm increasingly thinking all urban greenbelts were just giant unofficial porn stashes. Heck, they still might be, if the kids could be bothered to check under some shrubbery instead of just staring at their smartphones.

♥ 10:13am Listener 108581:

FUCK. I didn't win Spex! That's it, never listening ever again.. Good bye for ever.

♥ 10:14am Listener 108581:

Full disclosure: we stole porn mags from my friends step-father and THEN hid them in the woods.

10:18am Bethany Ryker:

Keep in mind that your pledge of $30/month or a buck-a-day puts you into the running for Ken's GRAND PRIZE the Velvet Underground's COMPLETE MATRIX tapes (4 CDs!) 1-800-989-9368 / wfmu.org

♥ 10:18am Listener 108581:

I mean "beer cans."

♥ 10:18am AnAnonymousParty:

Years from now archaeologists will be digging up these petrified porn magazines and making all the wrong conclusions.

♥ 10:19am Uncle Michael:

Wrong in what way?

♥ 10:19am groucho:

I can't find the black Woof Moo hoodie in the store. I bought one last pledge season and left it in a bar, Can't I buy another?

10:19am cory:

we can only hope that happens

10:20am bob from bushwood (swag for lifer):

WHFS origin story: switched to WWOZ when Radio GaGa died, then found Doug Schulkind in 1998 and became WFMU loyalist. When WFMU reached out and helped WWOZ post-Katrina I felt like part of a family.

♥ 10:20am groucho:

Hello from northern England btw, I listened to the Do Or DIY podcast with a friend for years, then Jeffrey Lewis mentioned you in a song so I tuned in one wednesday afternoon. You've been the soundtrack to my Wednesdays ever since

♥ 10:22am Caryn:

@groucho: have you checked the prize warehouse for the hoodie? If it's available there, a big enough pledge will entitle you to a warehouse item.

10:22am John:

origin story:

On a Sunday afternoon in 1989 when I moved to Jersey City from Upstate NY, I tuned to the left of the dial and came across Bill Kelly's show, loved it, and tore the tuning knob off the radio to lock in WFMU.

10:23am Frangry:

@Marcel M: I don't know! But you're my daddy forever anyway.

♥ 10:23am MD:

First discovered FMU on a static filled boom box in Astoria Queens in the Spring of 1985....31 year listener....PHONE SLAVE THIS WEEKEND!!!!

10:24am People Like Us:

most of this song isn't true

♥ 10:24am common:

thank you

♥ 10:25am pygmylunch:

Where can I get a recording of this song though? It's been pulled off everything

♥ 10:25am AnAnonymousParty:

Well it looks like, once again, I got my money's worth.

10:25am Bethany Ryker:

If anyone has ever doubted how tirelessly hard Ken Freedman works for this station, watch the trailer for the documentary "Sex and Broadcasting" vimeo.com... opening at the IFC Center in NYC March 30!

10:25am Mark S:

I think it is about someone working as a waitress in a cocktail bar

♥ 10:25am melinda:

I so love this song. It's like the version sung by the world's worst song lyric rememberer.

♥ 10:26am Marcel M:

This Svantana is just the best.. !!

♥ 10:26am common:

where did you work?

♥ 10:26am Caryn:

Dammit, Mel Giedroyc has caused me to associate these lyrics with Bowie.

♥ 10:26am Listener 108581:

I think I had the idea of recording this cover with only these words. Never got around to it of course. Now it's too late. Crap.

10:26am the Canterbury wood-elf:

i remember discovering FMU around 2000(?), listening online to Terre T's "Cherry Blossom Clinic" (was that the name? what became of her). Then somehow I forgot about it until about two years ago. I tuned in randomly one Tuesday(?) morning to hear DJ Stashu playing Eno's "The True Wheel" six times in a row while chatting her insomniac madness through tons of reverb. Couldn't quite believe my ears, and never looked back...

♥ 10:26am Marcel M:

@Franny: <3

♥ 10:28am pygmylunch:

I never hid porn but I did bike to the post office and use a money order to buy fetish gear from the internet as a teen.

♥ 10:28am AnAnonymousParty:

So Wednesday really is 'hump day'?

♥ 10:29am Uncle Michael:

So...this is my first exposure to Flight of the Conchords. It's kinda funny!

♥ 10:29am Listener Robert:

Canterbury, you got the program name right, and like so many former WFMU DJs, apparently Terre got a life, and her gain is our loss.

♥ 10:30am AnAnonymousParty:

This is what happens when a dentist writes a love song.

♥ 10:30am common:

i discovered fmu delivering porn and sex toys from philly to new york. just happened and i couldnt change the station

10:30am cory:

@Uncle Micheal, you've got to check out their tv show

♥ 10:30am Jeff Golick:

@UM: see also: www.youtube.com... (might be #toosoon).

♥ 10:31am melinda:

Yes, UM you need to watch the show!

♥ 10:31am MichelleinGreenBay:

Back! Did I miss the horn?

10:32am OTB:

First I listened to Bethany in person, then on WFMU. Then I started listening to other people on WFMU, but not in person. Then I started sending money.

♥ 10:33am joe:

Ok some incidents are fuzzy and mix together but I remember hearing about WFMU's FCC
license issues in the early 90's (in a couple of local media outlets) and if I remember this was right around the same time that Vin Scelsa actually called the station on the air during Idiots Delight of which I was a fan. I also found a copy of LCD at Pier Platters (the one with the deer who met his/her unfortunate end on the back cover). I also remember a small article in I think Spin magazine which may have been at the around the same time. I would go to the station every now and than but would not call my self a regular listener at this time. A year or so later I stumbled upon Browyn C's Truck Stop Tea Party and that would be my gate way show to become a regular listening.

10:34am the Canterbury wood-elf:

i used to play French horn!

♥ 10:35am MichelleinGreenBay:

I still do! I even get paid to play sometimes. I make literally dozens of dollars!

10:36am Frangry:

When Ken dyed his goatee....NO.

♥ 10:36am Webhamster Henry:

I donated a copy of SEX AND BROADCASTING to the WFMU library.

♥ 10:36am Listener Robert:

Wait a minute -- there's something that can be very embarrassing to Ken? How is that possible?

♥ 10:40am LexRay:

AOL Radio got me hooked!!!!!!!!

♥ 10:40am Marcel M:

Sean in BK was me :-)

I wish there was a way you can get the wfmu user name read...

♥ 10:41am It's just Bob now.:

one small step to the magic factory .. one giant leap.. ehh whatever you figure the ending

♥ 10:42am MD:

KEN FOR PRESIDENT 2016!!!!

♥ 10:43am Caryn:

WFMU is in such dire financial straits that even their staircase is just a single step. Pledge, people, and maybe one day they can use the plural form of "step" to refer to their staircase!

♥ 10:45am Goyim in the AM:

My WFMU origin story: I used to listen on my way to and from law school in Boston back to Maryland in the late 90s. It was always the most interesting half hour (an hour if I got lucky and stuck in traffic on the Turnpike) of my long trip. And then on evening, a madman promised to take off his clothes and dance on the roof of the building for enough pledges. That was it -- it stuck.

10:45am Chris M.:

did Beck sample this?

10:45am jan:

I missed the start of the party! My wife can't tolerate WFMU and left late this AM. The DJ is still spinning but any food and drink left?

♥ 10:48am ChrisB.:

WFMU needs more than one step. In fact, I'd recommend the 12 step program.

♥ 10:49am Dave in Vermont:

@jan I'm so sorry.My wife started tolerating it over time. Whoever rents the room in our house is always a grapeshot tho whether they will like it or no and my daughter loathes it but she still wants my t-shirt from last marathon. It helps to tune in to a funny show or a genre show while she is around to get her used to stuff she already likes but doesn'tt know she likes yet. You can have the rest of my beer and this pizza crust.

10:51am Ken Jong-Un:

Comrade Ken Show is BEST show! He is Ever-Glorious JUCHE Radio-Monger!

I am Of Course receiving Signal on Radio from GREATEST distance ever, using only small Socialist coat-hanger from window of Palace.

Eternal Grandfather for life KimIl-Sung first tuned into WFMU in 1948 while fighting imperialist aggressors from mudhole. Used fork and salt crystal to make super DX radio.

10:52am drewo:

I remember a glowing Village Voice article about WFMU around 1986 that led me to the station. KBC's (daily) late night show was my gateway audio drug.

♥ 10:55am Roberto:

You know, I actually wanted to do this when my wife and I drafted our wills last year. My wife was like, NO

10:56am Cooh John:

We can be heroes by pledging to WFMU you.

♥ 10:57am Webhamster Henry:

You can still get a dose of KBC via his podcast, BITSLAP.
WFMU has a full spectrum of audio distribution: terrestrial, streaming, alternate shuffling streams, archives, and podcasts. SUPPORT THEM ALL!

♥ 10:57am AnAnonymousParty:

Was WFMU on AM in 1948?

♥ 10:57am Listener Robert:

Drewo, you sure you're not mixing that up with the NY Press article that jumped from the full front page Kaz cartoon of the station?

10:58am Whooda:

Thanks a lot DJ Station Manager Ken, Because you said, "Put down the bong and pick up the phone", I put down the phone and picked up the bong. Now my ear is full of nasty bong water!"

11:00am drewo:

ListenerRobert: you may be right - I might be conflating. But I seem to remember a RJ Smith article about WFMU in the VV that caught my eye. That might have been a later date.

♥ 11:00am Listener Robert:

The 1st time I called WFMU, I too called Irwin, & he treated me too like a crazy man, which I of course was.

♥ 11:01am Listener Robert:

Russ Smith in the Voice? Interesting considering the NYPress was his paper.

♥ 11:02am -Ken:

That 1987 Voice article was by RJ Smith

♥ 11:05am Listener Robert:

I remember that NYPress piece & cover very well, because whenever I had WFMU on for long in the lab, the boss would eventually scream, "Turn that shit off!" A labmate sad WFMU sounded like screeching cats. So when that issue came out that actually cartooned WFMU as a screeching cat, I had to show it to them.

11:06am josh:

my first exposure to wfmu was a mere 4(?) years ago, when i woke up in the bed of a beautiful woman to the sound of julie's dark night of the soul bed music. bed music in bed. the relationship with the owner of the bed didn't last too long, but the relationship with WFMU has grown every day since.

♥ 11:06am Listener Robert:

Thanks, Ken. Maybe the NYPress piece was earlier.

11:07am Okasa:

In case nobody has mentioned it yet, from the world of Go, Google's AlphaGo software defeated Korea's World Champ Lee Sodel in Game 1 of their 5 game match.

11:07am Okasa:

Game 2 is tonight. www.youtube.com...

11:07am cory:

my wife says that wfmu is a sexualy transmitted disease. this will be her second year pledging.

11:09am Okasa:

This is a clear signal of the end of human dominance on this planet. I for one welcome our Google AI Overlords.

11:09am Lyle:

The first time I heard WFMU was on Stan Kenton's bus. I was playing fourth bone in his band and we had just finished a gig in Brunswick. Kenton was angry, as I recall, because the show was poorly attended. I distinctly recall that he bummed a Tareyton from me and told the bus driver to turn on the radio. "What station?" the driver asked. "I don't give a s--t, Kenton said, "just turn the radio on, now!" The driver found WFMU on the dial and the DJ was playing "Rubber Duckie" by Jim Henson. Kenton was so annoyed by this that he yanked my trombone out of my hands and bent my slide in half. "You're fired," he told me. That's how he was. The next morning he apologized and gave me a fresh pack of Tareytons.

11:11am Polyus:

I think I first started listening to WFMU after hearing people talk about Best Show all the time. Funny thing is, I never listened to it much, but instead just dove in to other programs at random.

♥ 11:12am Sem Chumbo:

"a 'bonist remembers." Only on the fun 91

11:13am Ralphine:

I first heard of WFMU from a New York Times Magazine article, a fact that horrifies DJ Bronwyn C.

♥ 11:13am Ike:

That Bat Cave operation is "Part 15" of course. Perfectly legal.

♥ 11:15am MichelleinGreenBay:

Horn! Horn! Horn!

♥ 11:16am AnAnonymousParty:

Flight of the Bumblebee on the French Horn?

♥ 11:16am Marcel M:

I've seen those lips touch a different kind of mouth piece.

11:16am f ☂f ☂ (:

Lyle,

Great story. It has something for everyone. People that like buses, people that like Kenton, people that love radio, people that like rubber duckies...and of course, people that like Tareytons.

11:16am Frangry:

Marcel M for the win.

11:18am Mary Wing:

Ken's embouchure is in for a shock if this happens. Surely that's worth pledging for!

♥ 11:18am joe:

Wow searching Village Voices archives is not very user friendly.

♥ 11:18am Webhamster Henry:

Hey in that gif for Helden, the restaurant is serving Knuckles ($15)! What a very good dog you were!

11:19am jan:

I found WFMU down on the left side of the FM dial when I could no longer tolerate commercial radio- around 1976 when I moved to NYC. Back then, the Urban/disco sound had been around for a few years and the station to listen to had been WBLS, but like all music stations, when their innovative programming and music becomes less so, the radio station becomes unlistenable. Down at the lower MHZ, there were WSOU, WFMU, WFUv and WKCR to choose from. Something interesting could be found, but WFMU seemed to attract me most often. Alas, many of the personalities have moved on or worse, passed on. But there are still a few of those long time WFMU personalities that are a must listen. Ken's show in particular.

11:19am Torque:

The first time I heard WFMU I was absolutely blotto behind a Denny's in Wilkes-Barre, PA. I think Mike Lupica was on. I threw up into a dumpster and woke up in the back of my Pontiac Sunbird the next morning with the worst hangover possible.

11:24am geiger countah:

Love the flying lizards especially this album a masterpiece

11:25am gnd:

what an amazing track! hi from Prague !

♥ 11:26am Ike:

Don't wait until the last minute, people. It may take a few minutes for web pledges to process, so if you want to hear that French horn clusterflop, get moving.

♥ 11:29am joe:

Is this dialog from Altamont?

11:30am Mark S:

Yes it from the file "Gimme Shelter"

♥ 11:30am MichelleinGreenBay:

This is killing me...I want to hear the horn, but I have to leave in 10 minutes to teach my next class. Will have to check the archives later. Good luck!

♥ 11:31am Carmichael:

Hi Ken. You always have the talking egg, but you rarely have the chewing Nazi.

11:32am Clay:

Ken, you could have been the next Dennis Brain.

11:35am Ken Jong-Un:

Avatar @10:57 AnAnonymousParty:

Was WFMU on AM in 1948?

Great Leader Eternal President Goiter-Growing Master could listen to Radio IN THE FUTURE... Wait till you hear what will be on in 5 years from your "Now"

♥ 11:37am Ike:

Weev's program was called "Christian Living". I don't think I ever listened to more than a couple of minutes. Is he a gross MRA or something?

♥ 11:38am -Ken:

WFMU Signed on in April 1958

♥ 11:40am Marcel M:

I have to go to work, I'll have to check later to see if this horn duo went down. Good luck all!

♥ 11:41am chinchilla:

my story is not nearly as historied, but a dear noise/music comrade of mine introduced me to FMU while we worked together at a MPLS home-brew supply shop. we structured and experienced our weekly work days around the schedule and DJs/shows for a few years there together and a deep hot love will burn in my heart for it from here on. Ken is now one of my heroes and I often espouse and rant WFMU's virtues to people when they ask about a t-shirt. LONG LIVE FREE FORM and HAIL DICTATOR KEN!!!

11:43am f ☂f ☂ (:

CRYSTAL CAAAAAAAT!!

Check the video. It's very Lo-fi funny.

11:44am Col. Bat Guano:

Avatar @11:31 Carmichael:

Hi Ken. You always have the talking egg, but you rarely have the chewing Nazi.

I think you mean General Turdgeson / George C/. Scott from Accurate Documentary Dr Strangelove...?

♥ 11:46am Carmichael:

No Colonel, I mean the chewing Nazi from Inglorious Basterds.

11:47am jan:

Yeah, missing Jim Price and the Bean.

11:47am P-90:

If you were a kid growing up in New York City in the seventies and eighties, when there was no interwebs and the radio was a faithful companion and you knew every inch of the AM and FM dial, you knew about the college stations clustered at the right side of the FM band. There were young people you could relate to on the air playing music and doing stuff that just couldn't happen on a commercial station. There were also still some pretty cool commercial FM stations like WOR and WNEW that stopped being cool, and the Pacifica station WBAI which had been REAL wild and "freeform" and then disappeared up its own ass. So in the darkness of those Disco Days, WKCR (Columbia), WFUV (Fordham), and WFMU (Upsala) became our main sources of music and... stuff. So for a local boy who loved music there was no "moment of discovery", it was a part of the landscape. Then the college went belly-up, the inmates took over the asylum, and things REALLY took off...