Adventurous. Unexpected. Fun. They’re words not usually associated with AM radio. That’s all changed on WOUB-AM, thanks to some music-obsessed community volunteers.
Since debuting in June 2002, Radio Free Athens has been offering an alternative to the usual Saturday AM lineup of talk shows, Top 40 countdowns and the like.
On any given Saturday between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m., listeners will hear a great mix of rock and roll from the 60s to the present, with other genres such as soul, rockabilly, folk and old-time acoustic sprinkled in along the way.
Doug “Rat” Brooks, an avid lover and collector of all sorts of music, has been part of the Athens music scene for many years. His bands include Gravyland and the “performance art/musical act” known as Larry and the Lima Beans. Armed with hundreds of pieces of vinyl and CDs, listeners will hear anything from ABBA to Zappa.
Art Cromwell is a veteran radio and television producer whose radio show is without peer–a comprehensive and entertaining journey through the jazz universe from New York, Chicago and New Orleans to the European capitals. Art covers it all: Satchmo to Sun Ra, traditional, swing, be-bop, cool or outside. Duke, Ella, Miles, Bird, Monk and ‘Trane are of course represented, but so are their less well-known but no-less influential sidemen and women.
Michael Tedesco has championed underrepresented musicians on non-commercial radio on both coasts since 1980, characterizing his programs as “what progressive radio would be if it had remained progressive.” In addition to stints as a guitar technician, tour manager, concert promoter and independent record label director in the 90s, he has also performed in the US and Europe as a guitarist in his own bands as well as with Trap Door and Robert Fripp & the League/Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists.