Celebrating the music and influence of Frank Zappa on Zappa Universe. Join Zappa aficionado, Tom Tuerff, every Sunday at 6:00 pm (Arizona Time) for an entire hour of great Zappa music. Tom explores Zappa solo, Zappa with The Mothers Of Invention, Zappa with Captain Beefheart plus those that have worked with Frank Zappa over the years and bands that have covered his tunes. An outstanding program and a great primer for those that have always wanted to know more about the man and his music.
As published in The East Valley Tribune, March 16, 2005
Stu D. Baker
As the owner of Tempe based Hayden’s Ferry Records, Stu Baker never planned on hosting a radio program, much less three of the most unusual hours on Valley airwaves.
Baker’s brainchild — ‘‘Jukebox Cantina,’’ the only Valley radio program devoted to Americana music — airs at 7 p.m. Fridays on Globe’s KRXS (97.3 FM) and is replayed at 2 p.m. Sundays.
“I was sending (KRXS) records, so they had heard about me,’’ Baker says. ‘‘They called and asked if I’d be interested in doing (a radio show).
‘‘I said, ‘Well, sure, as long as I can play whatever I want.’ And they said, ‘We want you to.’ ”
In May, Baker, who records the program digitally in his home studio, will celebrate five years on the air, a remarkable longevity for a program that plays music that is still underground as far as the mainstream music audience is concerned.
“My version of Americana includes everything from what is currently coming out — like Alison Krauss and Lucinda Williams — and for me it goes back to the Marshall Tucker Band and anything else that can loosely be connected with a country-rock and a country feel,” says Baker, who answers e-mails and programming suggestions via his Web site,
Baker routinely plays talented but relatively unknown performers such as Texas honky-tonker Jesse Dayton, Texas group Reckless Kelly and neo-noir country chanteuse Neko Case, as well as better-known commodities such as John Fogerty, Nanci Griffith and even The Beatles.
The show also includes local talent such as Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, Truckers on Speed and The Pistoleros.
“The local aspect is what I like,” Baker says. “It gives those bands a chance to get airplay.”
Bringing lesser-known talents to a broader audience is Baker’s passion, and his playlists reflect a philosophy that artists not as well-known as Tim McGraw or Toby Keith aren’t necessarily less viable musical forces.
Over the past few months, KRXS has been interjecting more and more Americana artists into its daily mix.
“A lot of people have been calling in, and the more that people react to (Americana), the more they are going to give time to that,’’ Baker says. “It’s kind of been one of my little agendas, I guess I could say, and a not-so-secret agenda.
‘‘The radio market in town is hungry for a new, fresh station, and Americana is part of that. The station is now showing up at the bottom of the Arbitron ratings, which is a big coup for a small station.”
While the tiny Globe station’s signal is hard to receive in parts of the Valley, changes in the next few weeks at KRXS will boost it.
“In about two to three weeks, they’re going to switch to 94.1 FM and they are changing their call letters to KRDE, and will be called ‘The Ride,’ ” Baker explains. “When they do that, it is going to be a little bit clearer for most people.”
For Valley listeners who cannot receive the signal now, ‘‘Jukebox Cantina’’ streams on the Internet.
“There is a local Internet radio station called Radio Free Phoenix that picked us up and streams the show in its entirety on Sunday at noon,” Baker says.
Baker, who was raised on rock ’n’ roll but discovered a love of country-rock in college, does not spin much, if any, mainstream country on his show.
“It’s country like it ought to be,” Baker says of ‘‘Jukebox Cantina.’’ “The Nashville country — it went so commercial at one point, it’s so formulaic. It’s not a question of right or wrong, it’s just a matter of taste in music — everybody likes some kind of music, but what we’re talking about with Americana is just a wealth of beautiful, great music that kind of gets ignored.
“There are so many people out there who have no idea how much a fan of this music they’d be until they hear it.”
Chris Hansen
East Valley Tribune
Radio Free Phoenix Takes The City’s Ghost Radio To The Next Level
As published in the Phoenix New Times
Thursday, Feb 3 2005
For Cheryl Olson, a registered nurse who also chairs meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, the only thing worse than having her chatterbox, musical know-it-all husband hanging around the house all day, running his quirky little Internet radio station from the den, is having to listen to all the trippy music he plays without succumbing to the urge to, shall we say, fly Mexicana Airlines.
“Sometimes it’s hard, because the music’s on all the time, and it’s like a constant contact high just listening to it,” she says, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the home radio station her husband, Phoenix radio veteran Andy Olson, has built just off what used to be the laundry room (until Andy covered its every wall, top to bottom, with classic rock and pop CDs).
“I have to be careful about listening to ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ too much, you know?” she says, laughing.
DJs Andy Olson and Liz Boyle: “Andy doesn’t want to mess it up with commercials, or sponsors, or having to answer to ‘the man,’” says Boyle.
Andy Olson’s five-month-old, commercial-free Internet radio station, Radio Free Phoenix (radiofreephoenix.com), is actually one of the few places today where someone could hear a little too much Traffic — not to mention Captain Beefheart, the Bonzo Dog Band, King Crimson, the Firesign Theatre, and any number of other resin-stained relics from FM radio’s early progressive rock era that most commercial broadcast stations today consciously avoid playing.
“The last program director we had at KSLX was having a dilemma over playing any songs by Traffic,” says Olson, who still pulls Saturday and Sunday night shifts on KSLX, and previously worked at the now-defunct KSTM (“The Storm”) and KZON. “Because he felt that songs like that, people listened to when they got high. And he didn’t want to bring that element in. ‘Cause it can really take you back.”
No doubt, Radio Free Phoenix takes listeners back — not only to FM radio’s hippy-dippy era, but also to the boss-jock days of AM Top 40, the acoustic-rock period of the mid-’70s, the early days of alternative rock, and pretty much every brief, accidental moment in radio history when the DJ had a chance to experiment a bit and play what he wanted.
There’s a definite Phoenix stamp on the playlist. On his computer, Olson splits up the thousands of songs in his personal archive into sub-playlists like “Storm songs,” “The Zone [KZON] songs,” as well as a pack of ’60s garage-pop classics he calls “KRUX/KRIZ” stuff. Acts who were big only in Phoenix, like Jerry Riopelle and John Stewart, are represented, as are the songs of legendary local bands like the Jetzons, Billy Clone and the Same, Blue Shoes, Bob Meighan, and even Commodore Condello, from The Wallace & Ladmo Show.
“It’s so cool to play a song by Mike Condello and know this is streaming out to the whole world,” says Olson, whose ISP-unscrambling software tells him when a Web surfer from Germany, Japan or England is tuned in.
It’s not all nostalgia, though. The station also plays a healthy dose of new music that Olson feels fits the mix, from Wilco to My Morning Jacket to Guster.
“People will call up KSLX and say, ‘There’s been no good music since the Allman Brothers,’” Olson says, laughing, while Wilco’s nearly 11-minute Crazy Horse-style jam “Spiders” streams out from one of the two PCs competing for desk space with old reel-to-reel decks, turntables and CD players in Olson’s home studio. “I go, ‘Yes, there has. There’s somebody making music that you would like right now. You just haven’t been hearing it.’”
In conceiving an electronic-age update to the freeform radio style that ruled the early days of FM, Olson, a native Phoenician, was most clearly influenced by legendary Phoenix program director William Edward Compton.
“When they mention all these great underground radio innovators, like [KSAN’s] Tom Donahue and others, at large, no one’s really aware of Bill Compton — and what he stood for, and what he did. He was who he sounded like. He was real.”
Olson never personally got to work with Compton, who started Phoenix’s first underground station, KCAC-AM, in the late ’60s, and who took the format to the FM band with the creation of KDKB (Compton died in a car accident in Phoenix in June of 1977). But Olson later came to know and work beside other jocks from KDKB’s early days, like Toad Hall and Hank Cookenboo, who are now also deceased.
“The music those guys played was a portal into who they were,” he says. “So the music was mixed with the social consciousness, what the station stood for, and also who these guys were. They were credible people.”
Bringing those kinds of people back to radio is Olson’s other mission with Radio Free Phoenix. Using his radio biz connections, Olson has brought in a slew of familiar on-air voices, like KOOL’s Liz Boyle, KDKB/KSTM vet Lee Powell, KZON’s Dave Cooper and, recently, Jeanne Sedello, another KSLX alum.
“In a lot of ways, we’re so simpatico with KCDX,” says Liz Boyle, referring to the mysterious commercial-free — and DJ-free — automated radio station broadcast out of Florence on 103.1 FM. “The big difference is, we’re real people. And we’re familiar voices to a lot of listeners of this kind of music. We’re old friends.”
“We’re real people who stand for something and mean something to listeners — as opposed to just a box of songs,” Olson adds.
Olson, who’s been funding the operation with the help of listener donations and a click-through partnership with the Barnes & Noble online music store (Radio Free Phoenix earns 3 percent of revenue from CDs purchased online through its links), admits his hardest job so far has been getting the older listeners who love the music he plays the most to make the switch from “terrestrial” radio to the new online frontier.
“It’s the people from our generation [Olson and Boyle are 47 and 45, respectively] who still have the dial-up connections and are the most computer-illiterate,” he laments. “But they were also the same people who didn’t want to switch from vinyl to CDs, and now you have no choice.”
DJs Andy Olson and Liz Boyle: “Andy doesn’t want to mess it up with commercials, or sponsors, or having to answer to ‘the man,’” says Boyle.
“Sooner or later, everyone will come around,” adds Boyle. “This is the rebirth of freeform radio. It’s just not on the radio anymore.”
Jimmy Magahern
Phoenix New Times
Listener Email generated by The Phoenix New Times story
I just discovered the station and it’s great. I am a Mesa person who had KSTM, K104 and the old KDKB (yellow hippy lettering) bumper stickers on my high school era Volkswagen Bug. I still have a K-15 pin somewhere in my stuff. This is the way radio should be. I would even endure some not-obnoxious commercials, if the music stayed true to your chosen course. Good job.
Douglas D. Brimhall
Mesa, AZ
Andy, I started listening to KSTM in the ’84 timeframe after I graduated high school. What a cool radio station. I learned about so many cool artists and cool songs by artists I knew about. I remember listening to you in the evenings on KSLX in probably the 87-88 timeframe. You played such a good mix of music. I remember laying on my bed with my girlfriend listening to KSLX thinking life couldn’t get much better. I just saw the article about you and Radio Free Phoenix on the New Times website & tuned in to listen. Thanks for putting Radio Free Phoenix together. It is a worthwhile project. I’ll be listening to it.
Oh, I have a little page about stuff I remember about Phoenix music in
the 80s and other assorted memories. Its at:
http://zeus.illusions.com/~dennis/phxmusic.html
Dennis Sacks
Phoenix, AZ
Hey! I just read about you guys in New Times today and, first I’d like to say right on! It’s really cool to see you guys pool together and bring back something sorely missed from radio. Hopefully what you do catches on and bring some relief to all us soon-to-be-old-farts who continually suffer through this city’s excuse for radio. I wish you the best of luck. Losing the Storm was a very dark day….
Bruce Ward
Phoenix, AZ
Hi Andy, just read the new times article and just wanted to let you know I love your format!!!! I was raised here in Phoenix and when Bill started KCAC and KDKB, I became true freeform listener and have been a fan ever since. I really enjoyed KSTM and K104 with Jeff Parets over the years and now I listen to KCDX, but wish your format was over the air. I really loved the days when you cold hear artists like John Stewart, Davic Bromberg, Tom Rush to Jerry Riopelle, Jerry Jeff and so many others. Keep up the great music!!!!
Long May You Run…
Dan Griffin
Phoenix, AZ
I just picked up the latest edition on the New Times to see what bands are coming to town. I’m sure glad I did, as I read the article titled “Straight Outta (Bill) Compton”.
I wondered what ever happened to Andy Olson and Liz! I’m glad to hear that you are still broadcasting great music. I’ll be 40 next month, but I still like the alternative stuff and always will…
What the latest New Times did not discuss were all of the other great radio stations that we used to have in the Valley; K104 FM, K15 AM (with Johnny D), the KEY FM, as well as AM 1060 with Jonathan L. I loved those stations and I miss them very much. I still remember listening to the radio when K15 played their last song before going off the air permanently, it was around 5 or 6 in the afternoon and I think it was “It’s No Game” by Bowie.
I remember when the Storm went of the dial as well… I called the station and I was told that the transmitter was damaged. I was devastated to hear Hispanic music in place of Storm music. Makes me wonder if that transmitter really was damaged, but at least they kept playing music…
It was also nice to see some acknowledgment that The Zone used to be a different kind of radio station than it is today. Most of my fellow employees are in their late 20’s to early 30’s and have no idea what the real definition of “Alternative Radio” is.
I kid you not, I still have dreams where I am tuning a radio dial and I come upon a station playing great music like all of those past gone stations used to play. I wake up disappointed, knowing that those tunes are now memories, most of them lost forever in someone’s long-gone vinyl collection (I still own a turn table). Enough sadness.
I now have a new station to “tune” to. Thanks very much!
Bob Gromko
Phoenix, AZ
I still rue the day my beloved KSTM went off the air, great to hear real music again! Great to see some Harry Nilsson and Tom Rush, David Bromberg, Riopelle, and Steve Goodman(!). This storm trooper is happy. Thanks, from a Phoenix native that hasn’t listened to FM in over a decade.
Roger Spellman
Phoenix, AZ
Remember you all from my days at KUPD in the 70’s and KNIX in the 80’s, best of luck I crossed over to the dark side and now a GM for Regent Broadcasting, AKA corporate radio. You are the future keep it up the rest of the world will catch up!
Don “Cristi” Wagner
I read the article on Radio Free Phoenix in the New Times, and decided to give your station a listen. I like what I’ve heard so far. As far as I’m concerned, FM radio in the Phoenix area is pretty lame. Small towns have better stations with better variety than what I’ve found in Phoenix. My tastes run to heavy metal and album-oriented rock of the 70’s. I just wanted to let you know I like what you’re doing here and will try to turn as many people as possible on to RFP as I can.
Scott Hanks
Andy… just read the article in the New Times (Feb 3-9 2005)…what Liz states about being familiar voices is true…I’m 50 years old and I was born in Phoenix…I grew up listening to KRIZ, KRUX, KCAC etc in the late 60’s …I remember Bill Compton spinnin tunes at KCAC and going to BILL’S RECORDS to buy Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Cream, etc…then in the early 70’s listening to KDKB going to EVOLUTION RECORDS in Tempe while attending ASU…what great times for music…listening to your station brings back ALOT OF GREAT MEMORIES…
Are there any plans to broadcast from FM signal or (think BIG) satellite signal? There is an audience out there in our demo that would support such like station…there is no competion and KCDX lacks personality.
I was in the record biz from mid 70’s to early 80’s…worked for distributors Associated Distributors and Pro One Stop and retail at Circles, Cheap Record, Hollywood Records so music consumed me 24/7…I even helped my late friend Brad Singer open his 1st ZIA record store with part of my album collection…got to see almost every group that played at Celebrity, Dooleys, Coliseum, Mason Jar etc courtesy of the record labels…
THANKS FOR THE MUSIC AND THE VOICES…KEEP ROCKIN’
Francisco
I read about your station in the New Times and I think it’s terrific. I see that you have Michael Stanley listed on your artists list. I’m from Cleveland (lando’cleves) and used to go to Michael’s concerts in ’74.. I have one of his LP’s (probably his only one). Just wanted to say hi and that you’re doing a terrific service. I will tell my friends about you too. Take it easy,
Carol
Hey Andy And Liz, I remember Bill doing KRUX Underground on Sunday nights, with Blues Magoo’s Never Goin Back to Georgia at the beginning. I was lucky enough to hear Bill announce one Sunday afternoon, a free concert at Thunderbird Park with Alice Cooper and a band known then as The Beans (who we all know became The Tubes w/Bill Spooner). One other thing that sticks in my mind about B.C. was the promos and business cards with his picture for Long Hair Inc. barber shops. We all were sadden with his death back in the 70’s, we all miss him I’m sure. Enough of that, you guys are doing a great job and service to us “we’re going to change the world” generation, by bringing back important people and events back to memory. If it was the old days I’d offer all of you a shot of cactus juice and a toke, but that was the old days. I’ll just offer my thanks, and keep up the good work.
Chuck Goforth
Hey – Just read the write-up on Radio Free Phoenix. Fantastic! I’ve been grieving since McRadio killed KUKQ, but y’all help ease the pain 😉 Thank you for getting good tunes out, if not on the airwaves, at least into the ether of the virtual realm. Be well,
Lee Einer
As a former DJ, I’d love the opportunity to be on Radio Free Phoenix. I grew up on great stations in Boston like WBCN & WBOS. I listened to Charles Laquidara, Mark Parenteau and eventually was a DJ at my college station during the heyday of the 80’s college music revolution. I ended up working for commercial radio station in Massachusetts and Providence. I left radio when deregulation reared it’s head in 1993. I miss the days of DJ influenced radio. This format is great and I’d relish the opportunity to return to the booth one more time….
Bill Smith
Scottsdale, AZ
Dude!
Somebody’s been messing with my clock… I think it’s running backwards! Full cirlcle… deja vu… and here we are , right back where we started. Good on Ya and all the best to all of you. It’s about time somebody turned this maddness that passes for radio around. Let’s hope the unruly masses have enough consciousness left to appreciate radio as an art form!
Warmest Regards…
John Robertson
Greetings pioneers, I’ve been listening to your amazing station for a bit as my best friend shared it with me one day, and actually still listen to KSLX on the way to work (No suckup intended). I grew up being a Navy brat, as mom had us travelling all over, living everywhere from England to Ventura to Boston to San Diego. Went to high school in San Diego with the good fortune of a great renaissance of radio there, and had my earlier years in Boston first really getting into music and actually having a Billboard subscription for Christmas when I was 11. Keep up the great station!
Robert Sprenger
Phoenix, AZ
Luv ur station………I’ve been listening all night long, and yes it does remind me of the old KCAC and KDKB stations of free-form whatever the fuck the dj dude wants to play format. Especially the occasional too much dope selection, like what’s playing now.( Robert Wyatt – Las VegasTango (Part 1) Please don’t play this again. I’d rather hear the long version of Inagodadavida! (just jokin’)
Bob
Hello Andy,
After reading the New Times article about Radio Free Phoenix, I realized that you and I shared a studio one cold night in early 1986.
The late, great KSTM used to have a listeners’ show called “Nine O’ Clock Jock” that aired at 9 a.m. on Sunday mornings–real prime time *lol*. The show was taped on either a Wednesday or Thursday night….my memory is a little fuzzy.
I remember driving a helluva long way to tape the show; the Storm’s studios were somewhere in Apache Junction, which was *waaay* out in the sticks 20 years ago. And you were the DJ in the studio who ran the board; I remember Seger had just released an incendiary live performance of “Fortunate Son”; we listened and thought it stood up well to John Fogarty’s original.
My memory isn’t always this good….it’s almost *never* this good, actually…but it was jogged by the fact that about two weeks ago, I found a tape of that 1986 show (recorded by my then-girlfriend, who later became my wife, then my ex-wife). I hadn’t listened to it in several years; in fact, I’d forgotten most of the songs I played that night. Funny how timing works; I stumble across that old tape and a few weeks later I read the article about your Internet station.
Needless to say, I *love* Radio Free Phoenix. It brings back many fond memories, and I also like how you’re introducing new music. I remember how cool it was to discover new artists on the Storm and (the original) Zone; when they changed formats, my passion for music slowly ebbed away. I’m thinking RFP might bring that passion back; I haven’t been this excited about a station in a very long time.
Mike Fimea
Scottsdale, AZ
I just found out about Radio Free Phoenix and I want to thank you for bringing it to those of us who miss those ‘good old days’ of music. I’m going to share this with all of my friends because this is just what we’ve been hoping and waiting for. All of the best to you and the others on the station!
Brandy
It’s been a while since we’ve heard the great “AO”…….got turned on to this Wonderfull Commitment to local radio……listened yesterday to about an hour or so,………….Threw my $100.00 boom box in the trash and replaced it with on-line listening. Nice job guys and girls…. P.S. God bless crazy Dave Otto
Alan Dearsmith
Wow! I recently discovered your station from the story in the New Times. I was a regular listener to early KDKB, K-104 and The Storm so needless to say you have another devoted listener…and I’m spreading the word to others.
It’s great to see your acknowledgment of Mike Condello who is often overlooked as a great Phoenix talent and is fondly remembered by many. If you haven’t seen it: www.mikecondello.com.
Maybe you can help me. Back in the late sixties I was a fan of KRIZ radio especially Phil Motta who did some great comedy parodies and bits on his show. You may remember Joe Nasty, Red Nose Motors, Doremefasolatedo, etc. etc…. used to have a lot of it on reel to reel but it all got lost!
Anyway do you know of anyone who might have some of Phil’s old stuff on tape?
Thanks again for Radio Free Phoenix.
Scott Smith
Phoenix, AZ
Just found the article in the New Times and I’m so happy! I was raised in Phx in the late 60’s and grew up listening to KRIZ/KRUX and then KCAC and KDKB. You may remember Frank Bennett (Lehmann) from those days. We’re still in contact and are great friends. Reading about Hank & Bill & Toad really brought a smile to my face! I’m listening at work right now and I’m thrilled to hear the old music once again. No one ever “got” Jerry Riopelle outside of Phoenix, did they? And the “Phoenix Concerts” by John Stewart are so great to dig out every once in a while! Thanks for being a part of bringing it back!
Demaris Williams
Prescott, AZ
Thank you for your service to humankind!!! Just found your site today; right on & far out, man. I’m gonna turn on all the brothers. sisters, heads & freaks I can.
Bob Pinnick
I love what you guys are doing! The New Times article was key, I probably would have taken a while to find you otherwise. I almost got a tear in my eye when I saw that you have a weekly Zappa show! I moved here in 1992 from DC (WHFS) and was thrilled when the Zone started off. Doesn’t take long to get corrupted, I guess. Keep the faith!
Best of luck to you (Donation to follow!)
Dan Stanton
Tempe, AZ
Just wanted to give you greetings from Dallas, TX. A friend of mine in Phoenix turned me on to your little internet station, and I’ve been tuned in for the last few days on and off. Major kudos to you and your staff! I did most of my musical growing up in Phoenix (I landed in town when KZZP launched way back when for a reference) Again, kudos on the station!
Chris Potter
Dallas, TX
GREAT Station. Perusing the play list and find it hard to believe you have no Mahogany Rush. I have been looking for Mahogany Rush since I lost my album collection many many moons ago. You guys are the greatest. Brings me back to KCAC, Toad Hall and the best days of my life.
Richard
As on “old timer” whose musical interests were expanded listening to Bill Compton’s show on KRUX and everything on KCAC, I have to say this is an exciting new source of great music. There is about 50 years worth of great rock, folk, etc music out there and you seem to tap into it all. Keep up the great work!
Rick Maxon
YAY!!!! I grew up with WABX in Detroit . Underground radio at its finest. Thank you for reminding me why I ended up playing music for a career.
Ron Anderson
An old roommate I haven’t seen in years stopped by work recently with the recent article you were featured in from the New Times. I went to the site and am so incredibly taken back. This is soooo cool and I personally thank you from the bottom of my heart. Keep up the awesome work Andy and I’ll guarantee I’ll listen more and spread the word around about your site. Peace!
Bill
Howdy,
Been listening the last week or so now, looks like I’ll have to not give my $25. annual bucks to KJZZ! I will be contributing in March, as you’ve become my main internet radio spot. Thanks, I love the programming, I’m a listener from the KCAC/ KRIZ vs KRUX 60’s days.
Steve Weiss
Picked up the New Times while visiting my best friend Jan. 30-Feb. 6 in Scottsdale. Now I can’t get enough of RadioFreePhoenix. Are T-shirts available and if so, how do I go about getting one?
Vernon Redd
Richmond, Indiana
By Dave Cooper
Not everyone listens to radio, and there are many reasons for making this choice – too many commercials, seemingly endless, repetitive cycles of specifically chosen music within a particular format, political affiliations among large broadcast companies, idiotic shock-jocks, or overly opinionated talk show hosts. You name it, it’s out there, and it’s causing changes resulting in alternative programming content, also in the manner in which the sonic transmission is received. You can’t have it all, unless you do it yourself.
Wouldn’t you like to reach into the vast depths of your musical awareness and personally select melodic content, massage it to its most pleasing sound and texture and ultimately create the most perfect aural, lyrical playground imaginable? Some people have taken that very thought and put their dreams into audible reality; it can be heard on the Internet.
Phoenix, Arizona resident, and friend, Andy Olson is one of those people who have taken this concept, creating and operating his own personal 24/7 radio station earlier this year. It is now readily available via Internet connections at www.radiofreephoenix.com.
Andy has been a Valley radio personality for more than 20 years spinning various forms of Rock-n-Roll at several stations, KSTM (The Storm), KOOL, KZON (The Zone) and is currently in his second run with Classic Rocker, KSLX. So with a couple decades spent in the “air-chair”, he now takes that experience, plus his infinite musical knowledge and an insatiable passion to play a mix of eclectic sounds that is reminiscent of what was called “underground” when FM radio was emerging in the 60s and 70s.
Andy’s medium of choice is the world-wide-web; he explains, “With the advent of the Internet came the ability to send digital music files over the net either thru email, downloading or streaming. Streaming offers the ability for anyone with the ingenuity and resources to start their own radio station, and to have it reach every corner of the world.” Radio Free Phoenix consistently interacts with listeners on a global level.
Multiple wireless electronic devices make it relatively easy for our ever-mobile society to communicate, even listen to music. Among various media is Wi-Fi (Wireless Internet).
Andy further illustrates, “With the proliferation of Wi-Fi, Internet radio will one day be as common and easy to listen to as broadcast radio, especially for those on the go. It offers unlimited musical formats and allows listeners to hear music that is not being played on today’s tightly formatted radio stations.”
And the quality of the sound may even be superior, Andy continues, “Radio Free Phoenix streams audio on the Internet with a low speed connection (for dial up) and a high-speed connection (for cable, DSL and high speed). The high-speed connection (128 kbps) is in stereo and is equivalent to or better sounding than FM radio. This is the plus side of Internet radio. The sound is sweet to the ears!”
The musical content at RFP is equally superb; Andy describes the play list as “everything from Rock, Folk, Blues, Psychedelic, New Wave, Americana, Progressive, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and new music too”. You’ll hear well-known performers, but not always their more familiar tracks; you will also be introduced to an extensive collection of new artists (over seven thousand songs and two thousand artists). It’s an enjoyable musical odyssey, experiencing obscure, eclectic sounds that are not commonly available on your radio dial.
In addition to Andy Olson, Radio Free Phoenix’s air staff presents a couple other familiar voices including: Liz Boyle (KOOL, KDKB, KSLX), and yours truly (KYOT & KJZZ). Also spinning tunes are several well-known, talented Valley radio personalities/veterans Jeannie Sedello, Lee Powell and Bill Rogers. Talk of having recurring guest deejays has also been considered as a possible weekly feature.
There is a rich history and tradition of musical excellence within this core of on-air talent; there is also a commitment to serve up some of the most enticing tunes available – anywhere. So click on and come along for the ride.
Originally from Texas, William Edward Compton’s impact on radio began in 1969 when, with only 5 years of radio experience under his belt, he set out for Los Angeles. It is our fortune that he only got as far as Phoenix.
In 1969 Phoenix Top Forty AM Radio ruled the dial. Rival stations KRIZ and KRUX were locked in a continual battle to be number one. In the late 1960’s, hoping to win the ratings war, KRUX took a chance on Bill Compton. That’s when Compton began forging his own path to fame.
KRUX took a bold step for a Top 40 station when they hired him to host a new, ‘open format’ music show, something nonexistent on the dial. With Compton in charge suddenly something different began happening on the radio. Every Sunday night, using the on-air name “Little Willie Sunshine,” Compton brought KRUX head long into the ‘Age of Aquarius’ with his engagingly diverse sets. Rock, folk, jazz, R&B, blues – simply any music that spoke to him came floating through the airwaves.
But at KRUX, his open format radio was only a hint of what Compton wanted it to be. So he grabbed an opportunity to become program director for a little 500-watt daytime only AM radio station called KCAC. First, KCAC broadcast out of what would now be known as a ‘historic house’ on Camelback Road, between 7th and 15th Avenues. The presence of a bunch of hippies running a radio station not far from quiet family streets ruffled some feathers.
One day Compton walked into his station to find that KCAC had been burglarized. The station’s library of LP’s had disappeared. He appealed to his listeners to loan the station records while KCAC rebuilt its library. In no time, the faithful were streaming in to the little brown house, balancing their unwieldy stacks of LPs. The station happily accepted listener’s LP’s and offered ‘herbal compensation’ to those who came to the rescue.
KCAC later moved from the house on Camelback to inside a big music store housed in Tower Plaza, near 40th Street and Thomas. At that location, Compton broadcast live from the display window of Wallich’s Music City. The booth faced a sidewalk filled with curious teens, inspired listeners and anyone else who happened by. That kind of set up would probably result in chaos today, but Compton already had a reputation as one of a kind, Arizona’s musical pied piper. Compton respected his listeners and received nothing less in return.
Broadcasting from Wallich’s had another big upside. Compton had access to all kinds of albums and undoubtedly was partly responsible for the store’s great selection of records. At Wallich’s, would be customers were invited to listen to records before buying them. If the store didn’t have an “open copy” they’d open one. Customers were shown to glass enclosed “listening booths” where they lovingly placed records on the turntable and decided if they liked them enough to buy them.
By l971, KCAC was in financial straits, so Bill Compton joined forces with Valley newcomer Dwight Tindle, who formed “Dwight Karma Broadcasting.” On August 23, l971, KDKB and Compton signed on, broadcasting from a two story red brick building on Country Club and First Avenue in Mesa. Tindle recognized exceptional talent and as the station’s first program director Compton had free reign to create a radio station that would transform the dial.
Compton told his hand picked crew of passionate music connoisseurs to do their own thing. And they did. KDKB (affectionately called ‘Krazy Dog Krazy Boy radio’) regularly featured local artists performing live, in-studio. Compton played their records; he was a tireless champion of the music scene. KDKB even made a yearly “Arizona Sounds” compilation of local music that was culled from hundreds of band tapes.
KDKB listeners always knew they had a surprise or two in store for them. On the air there were hilarious live comic sketches, ad promotions for non-existent products and services, and award winning radio commercials that were created in house.
A riotously fictitious ad campaign for the “First Women’s National Credit and Trust Bank,” (“run by and for women only!”) landed KDKB in lots of hot water. The station received a “cease and desist” letter from the state warning them to end the promotion. The Arizona State Fiduciary Board feared listeners might expect a branch to “open soon near them.”
The fake bank’s ads promised ‘interest free car loans for women,” and “free sperm from the bank’s own sperm bank” for women who opened accounts. Calls from women lit up the KDKB telephone lines asking when the bank would open its doors.
The station also broadcast “The Love Workshop,” a “radio theatre” segment known for its peculiar trademark of tasteless hilarity. There were no sacred cows at KDKB. 93.3 FM became a kind of pulpit, preaching fun and the musical dogma of the cutting edge. One of the sketch writers even landed a job at the irreverent, iconic National Lampoon Magazine.
Compton generated listeners for nationally touring acts like Jerry Riopelle, Buckingham Nicks, Bruce Springsteen and Van Morrison, among others. Compton’s support affected the careers of Stevie Nicks and John Stewart, who is best known for a hit record with Stevie Nicks (made after the release of Stewart’s many critically acclaimed solo albums.)
It is next to impossible to pare down a biography about William Edward Compton. When you talk to people who knew Bill Compton you know you missed something that won’t ever again happen in radio. A picture emerges of a man whose beliefs in the power of music, community action, tolerance and non-violence were evident in the way he lived his life on and off the air.
For example, under his charge, KDKB featured comprehensive daily fifteen-minute newscasts, and a weekly show devoted to political and social issues, Valley culture, music and arts. In addition to his stewardship of KDKB, Compton was an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, occasionally performing marriage ceremonies.
Music lovers and musicians both locally and nationally are forever in Compton’s debt. Compton turned the Valley from a ‘cow town’ into a ‘cool town’ with his visionary approach to radio, along with his laid back, unpretentious personality.
Born in Tyler, Texas in 1945, his vision for Valley radio was cut off in its prime on June 21, 1977 when William Edward Compton swerved to avoid a bicyclist on Osborn Road in Phoenix. He died instantly. After his death, a large site adjacent to Legend City was used to build a concert amphitheatre. Jess Nicks, Stevie’s father, was an owner of the venue. It was named “Compton Terrace.”
Mariah Fleming
Music & More Arizona
From an issue of Arizona Days & Ways from September 20, 1970
The patriarch of pop in Phoenix, KRIZ’s Pat McMahon, undoubtedly feels William Edward Compton’s hot, hip breath on the back of his neck. Compton comes across as a more with–it Dick Cavett to McMahon’s establishment comic, Johnny Carson. “Unless you really get out and mingle with the people,” he declares, “and I’m not talking about throwing a concert for them every three months–you can’t find out what they’re doing. Most radio personalities tend to isolate themselves.
In essence, what has happened is that within the past year a group of longhairs has captured a music and is espousing a lifestyle which was previously foreign to the Valley. The resultant rise in KCAC ratings has been as dramatic as KTAR-FM’s. Compton is realistic about the future, however.
“My purpose in embarking on this format is not to have a number one station,” Compton said. “I think we’re more of a spiritual-force. KCAC is an exercise in freedom”.
Compton is the station manager and, along with the other three staff members, serves as music director, disc jockey and janitor. Broadcasting is entirely free-form, and the DJ’s may say and play whatever they please. Conflicts over FCC, and over certain progressive rock lyrics with sponsors, have ensued as a matter of course, but KCAC is confident it can weather any controversial storm. Climbing ratings and revenues, Compton hopes, will enable him to set up a news department and a production room. Eventually he would like to simulcast on both AM and FM which would give KCAC 24 hour capabilities (their AM broadcast is restricted now from sunrise to sunset).
As to the future, he is optimistic that eclectic, electric rock is here to stay in Phoenix and fatalistic about hassles with government and the older generation. “You can’t drop out, man,” he asserts “and escape people and the problems people create”.
Miles Swarthout
The Arizona Republic
Arizona Days & Ways
September 20, 1970
The Arizona Republic
August 12, 2001
Many people remember the rumble of thunder and the voice. “The Storm in the Valley, KSTM, 107, Phoenix-Apache Junction.”
Just as MTV was debuting on cable television, a new radio station was debuting on Valley radio. The Storm, as it was called, hung around for less than six years, soaking its audience in a mix of old music and new, insight and humor, with a lineup that could be the envy of any radio station today.
Doing business out of Apache Junction at 107.1 on the dial, KSTM-FM was the Valley’s last refuge from highly formatted, overly programmed and irritatingly repetitive music. It debuted 20 years ago, on Aug. 5, 1981, with the Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows.
It featured Mary McCann, who later worked at KZON-FM (101.5) Andy Olson, now doing weekends on KSLX-FM (100.7) and Dennis McBroom and Lee Powell, who have been heard doing traffic reports on radio lately. Jeff Parets, who works at KJZZ-FM (91.5) and does a program for KSLX called Acoustic Storm on Sunday mornings, was program director, music director and disc jockey.
“At the time, corporate rock was pervasive,” Parets says. “There was such a large void for informative and entertaining music programming.”
Variety, thoughtfulness, musical context and balance were the intangible keys to making it work.
The station resembled an FM from the early ’70s, when the Top 40 charts included not just rock and pop music, but also country, jazz, even standards and show tunes. It played such artists as U2, Police, Eurythmics and R.E.M. long before any other station.
“For years, we were the only ones playing R.E.M.,” Parets says.
Andy Olson, the KSLX personality who covered nights for KSTM, says the magic of the station was that “the audience was never sure what we were going to play next.” It could be jazz, reggae, the new British rock or Rolling Stones.
“People listened, and they stayed listening,” he said.
The station had a weak signal. It couldn’t reach the west side of town for much of its existence. The audience was small. Parets says the station averaged a 2 share, a rough indicator of percentage of the total audience. Such are the hazards of operating on a shoestring and playing not only popular songs but also deep cuts from albums, which many programmers say will drive away listeners.
The signal and the format gave KSTM the feeling of a feisty underdog that respected its audience.
“It was a special audience,” Parets says. “It was not a passive audience.”
The station broadcast for six years before its owners decided they could make more money by making it more like their AM station. On June 14, 1987, KSTM became KVVA-FM, the first Spanish station on FM in Phoenix. KVVA exists to this day.
The last song was Pete Townshend’s Pure ‘n’ Easy.
Arizona Republic radio columnist Bud Wilkinson was deluged by letters from outraged listeners he ran three columns covering them.
“I’m still in shock,” wrote Jan Molina of Scottsdale three weeks later.
“Don’t people have any pride in a quality product?” asked Michelle Frogge of Tempe.
“Once again, the powers that be have silenced the beat of those who march to the beat of a slightly different drummer. We are left with an audio wasteland consisting of the force-fed pabulum of ‘popular’ music and the self-indulgent sameness of retread oldies,” said Mike and Kathy Jacka of Phoenix.
The change was made quietly on a Sunday evening.
“People were heartbroken,” Parets said.
Olson says, “You’d be amazed how many people call up and hang on to it, to this day.”
There were a few attempts to recapture the feeling, but none, not even full-powered KZON-FM (101.5) in its early days, could recapture lightning in the bottle.
Parets believes it could be done, however.
“If done right, a station could succeed. It depends on finding people (to hire) who believe in the concept. The audience was loyal, and you could sell that loyalty to advertisers.”
Olson thinks it is more likely that such a station might show up on the Internet, but he also believes it could work.
“A station like that becomes your friend.”
– Michael Clancy
Vintage AO at KSTM Photo by Michele Robins
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