FolkScene to Sat.

Subject: RE: FolkScene to Sat.
From: GUEST,TK Major
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 06:52 PM

Ah... glad I found this page... it takes me back to when I discovered FM radio on my mom's new portable (probably around '62). John Davis, Les Claypool, Rooftop Singers, KCBH, KHRM, so many familiar names... so far away.

[sigh]

Those were the days that shaped me...

Subject: RE: FolkScene to Sat.
From: Mary Katherine
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 10:49 AM

Sorry, I don't know how to get in touch with Les Claypool any longer. Your project sounds great! You might want to start a new thread with a better header ("Looking for Les Claypool" or something like that) so that more people will see it and hopefully be able to assist.

Subject: RE: FolkScene to Sat.
From: GUEST,Bjorn Joffee
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 01:44 PM

Hello,
Maybe MARY KATHERINE or someone else can help. I am making a documentary on the Century Plaza protest of the Vietnam war on June 23, 1967. I am trying to find LES CLAYPOOL who did some excellent reporting. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I have interviewed ED CRAY who created an incredible book on the event for the ACLU (Day of Protest, Night of Violence). You might find it interesting that BARBARA DANE and PHIL OCHS sang that day. I have interviewed Barbara and have some great pictures of Phil that RON COBB took. I am trying to secure music rights...
Thank you,
Bjorn
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: FolkScene to Sat.
From: fsharpdim7
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 01:13 PM

Mary Katherine, I certainly agree with you that KPFK doesn't seem to know how to treat people, when it purports to be a station of the people. I read on the KPFK board that John and Deanne were criticised for not agreeing with the station - doesn't it dawn on their listeners that is also what the station is supposed to stand for? And how about the cancellation coming just after a pledge drive ........
But enough ranting -- I think internet radio will be our salvation, since it can reach the audiences that most radio/tv will ignore.
My hope is that webcasting will improve and I will be able to watch the groups that do not come through Chicago.
I certainly want to thank you for all you have done on the Alive and Picking site, previously on KPFK and elsewhere to keep folk music alive.
In the meantime, I guess I will contiue to listen to Ben and the Larmans on Sat am.
Chris in Chicago
p.s. Chicago folkie Mark Dvorak is on River City Folk this week - don't miss it!

Subject: RE: FolkScene to Sat.
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 11:46 AM

I discovered KPFK and the FolkScene show only about a year and a half ago--through a Mudcat link, I believe (of course). I loved listening to their streaming archived shows. (It's a little difficult to get the station on the radio from 3,000 miles away!) Then that stopped, but it seemed that they were on the way to getting enough money to start it up again. Their playlists always had a good balance between traditional music and "newer versions" of traditional music, without straying very far from the tradition.

In Philadelphia in the late 60s we had Gene Shay's folk music program, and in the 70s when I came back for my residency there was another show on WXPN whose name and host I've naturally forgotten. In Seattle in the 80's I listened to Susan Madden's show on KUOW, but since moving to Hawaii in the mid-90's it's impossible to find a live folk/traditional music show on the radio--except for Hawaiian music, of course, and the rare NPR show like Thistle and Shamrock. So FolkScene was a welcome addition.

It's sad but not surprising that KPFK is making those changes. Maybe it's because all the folkies are getting old and the younger people aren't listening to the music like we did. Or maybe it's just another step toward MTV/CNN nation--even on Pacifica network. Anyway, I'll certainly make my voice heard to the station.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: FolkScene to Sat.
From: GUEST,Mary Katherine
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 01:53 AM

Ed Cray's fine; we email often about various projects.
Les Claypool, who was fondly referred to as Clay Cesspool when he was on the air, is still around, but retired. I invited him to come on the Sunday night folk show during my caretaker tenure there, but he didn't want to. Everyone's loss....I would have paid big money to hear him on the air again.
Skip Weschner, who was married to Lynn Taylor (who was the best-looking Rooftop Singer), passed away a few years ago. He was never the same after Lynn chose to end her life. I don't know what happened to all those hours and hours (gosh, must have been hundreds of hours) of radio interviews that Skip did during his long career in folk radio.

Mary Katherine <-----really ticked off at the decision to cancel John Davis and cut back the Larmans' time and move them. Dumbness.

Subject: RE: FolkScene to Sat.
From: John Hindsill
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 09:00 PM

Ah, Mary Katherine, how I miss your doing the Sunday show on KPFK! Yes, I know it was a temporary gig...our loss.

You know, I had forgotten Ed Cray. And I miss the self-destructing (radio-wise) Les Claypool. Do you know anything of him now?

Subject: RE: FolkScene to Sat.
From: GUEST,Mary Katherine
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 02:18 PM

John Davis on KCBH and Les Claypool on KRHM (and Ed Cray on KPFK) were the only folk shows on the raido when I moved to L.A. in 1962. I've spoken to John and he is very upset, to say the least, about his show being canned with 48 hours notice and without so much as a thank you for 33 years of volunteer programming.
Moving Folkscene from the Sunday night slot they have held for over 30 years to early Saturday mornings seems kind of pointless too.
And Preaching the Blues, a show I hosted for over a decade before handing it off to the current host in 1988, is also being shunted off to the "graveyard shift" -- and since the host, Ed Archer, is 75 years old, he will probably not be able to continue doing the show, as it will mean ge gets home at 2:00 a.m.
I hope a lot of people will write to the station.

Mary Katherine

Subject: RE: FolkScene to Sat.
From: John Hindsill
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 11:59 PM

I have listened to John Davis since I was in college, about 40 years. He started in 1958 at an another FM station in 1958; when it was sold and changed format he moved over to KPFK. The station has dropped several music shows, or moved them to less convenient hours. Rhapsody in Black, a rhythm and blues program, will be a time when I'll be sleeping. I have written in protest, and will not be renewing my membership in the winter pledge drive. Politically I am 187 degrees from them; there is precious little I agree with on Pacifica.

Subject: FolkScene to Sat.
From: fsharpdim7
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 12:10 PM

Has anybody been following the commotion at KPFK in LA?
John Davis has been booted and the Larman's move to his spot on Sat. am. - which means one less hour of the show.
Ben Elder is hanging in at 6 am
I guess the good news is that KPFK still has a good web feed.
If you don't listen to the music on KPFK, I think you'll be missing something. Ros and Howard are treasures of the folk music world.
But I will sure miss John and Deanne Davis who have put on their show for 32 years with no pay. I would not likely have ever heard many of my favorites, like the Thomas' if not for John.
Chris in Chicago