WYSO has launched a podcast series celebrating local women's voices past and present, and looking at the role those voices were given in local and national music scenes, with a critical lens.
In this interview with WYSO Weekend Host Jerry Kenney, Music Director Juliet Fromholt and Director of Radio Preservation & Archives at WYSO Jocelyn Robinson share gems from WYSO's extensive archive, featuring the work of women musicians, and women radio hosts and presenters in different stages of the station's history.
Jerry Kenney: Joining us in the studio we've got Juliet Fromholt, music director, and Jocelyn Robinson who is the director of radio preservation and archives at WYSO and the HBCU Radio Preservation Project director. Welcome to you both. So we're talking about an exciting project that just launched this week and it's a new podcast which kind of encapsulates a great portion of WYSO’s history.
Jocelyn Robinson: Yes it does. It actually takes us all the way back to 1958 and the the start of, wyso. The podcast is entitled Women's Voices Women's Music in the WYSO archives. And our archive is very rich, very full of voices of women who have not just made music or hosted music but actually helped to get this station up and off the ground.
Kenney: Jocelyn, as part of Rediscovered Radio, you've been delving into the WYSO archives for a long time now. So was this something that was on your to-do list, or is something that just came up because it was time?
Robinson: It was absolutely on the to do list and it it's been high time to really look at women's voices in the archives, and women's voices on the air at all times. So I think that that that's really, you know, something that's important to do. One of the things that Juliet and I are doing with this project is looking at women's voices on the air with a critical lens, and identifying those places where, you know, women's voices are heard and present and those places where they're not.
Juliet Fromholt: Yeah. We really decided to look at, not just women musicians, in part because at different eras of our local music scene and a voice history, there weren't very many women musicians featured, but we also wanted to look at women radio hosts because there were so many pivotal women who were on the air here at WYSO presenting both women's music and other types of music that really made an important impact on this community, and we don't celebrate them enough. So this was also an opportunity just to celebrate some of our foremothers here at WYSO.
Robinson: Yeah, for sure. And our foremothers not only helped WYSO get off the ground, but they have been instrumental in public media, well away from WYSO and from the Miami Valley. So recognizing their contributions to our efforts, but also to public media in general, I think has been, you know, one of the goals of the project.
Kenney: So what came first, collecting the content and then identifying your approach, or was it the other way around?
Robinson: Well, you know, the collection has been inventoried. We know what's in it. We've known what's been in it for a long time and, just looking at an inventory list, a spreadsheet of the titles of some of the shows that are represented, the voices that are represented, the different individuals, both musicians and, you know, folks who were hosting that really was the start of it. But we also have, you know, as an archive, we don't just have audio, we also have program guides that go back to the very first week that the radio station went on the air in February of 1958. And that gives us another sort of glimpse into whose voices were, being heard, who was being represented. And so, you know, it's a combination of that - the paper materials that are in the archive, the audio materials that are in the archive, and our own experiences as people who have been involved in the music scene in Dayton at different times, as well as being music lovers and musicians ourselves.
Kenney: Can we talk a little bit about the trajectory of the podcast, like maybe a little bit about the first episode and then where do you go from here?
Fromholt: Yeah, our first episode really starts off with an overview of WYSO's history as it pertains to women's voices on the air and women's music on the air. So we do start with our very first broadcast, our founding in 1958, and we take you forward, really, to a pivotal moment when Julia Reichert was on the air as an Antioch College student hosting The Single Girl, which is believed by scholars to be the first feminist radio show in the country and really kind of set the standards for what was to come in the 1970s as culture began to explode on college campuses, and obviously here in Yellow Springs, that's kind of the first episode, is laying that groundwork. And then from there, we'll be taking you into specific moments, genres and movements within WYSO and the music scene because often those things were happening very parallel to one another.
Kenney: It's a very exciting project, and I know a lot of long time WYSO listeners are going to be really tuned into where this podcast goes. Can each of you talk a little bit about your personal interest in this?
Robinson: Well, the second episode actually, really explores, WYSO's relationship with bluegrass in the Miami Valley through the Living Art Center and the show that we aired for many years, The Country Music Jamboree which was broadcast live on, I think it was mostly Wednesday nights back in the day. So there will be folks who will remember The Living Art Center and the wonderful things that happened there, that show being one of them. And they'll remember a band that was really important to that effort and it's lady singer, Suzanne Hopkins, who you may remember as Suzanne Thomas or Suzanne Edmundson, but she's Suzanne Hopkins, and she will be featured. And then it goes on to really, you know, talk about some of the other bands and other voices that would have been heard during that time. So for me, that's very pivotal that the bluegrass and roots music that WYSO has traditionally aired through Rise When the Rooster Crows and other shows, and that sort of intersection between the live music that was happening in the Dayton area, but also regionally with bluegrass festivals that were popping up and that sort of thing during that time, it was just a really rich roots period. And from there we go into the other roots music that came into the Miami Valley. And, Juliet you want to talk about those a little bit?
Fromholt: Yeah. So episode three is going to focus on Celtic and folk music, as well as other sort of world music - really the emergence of the world music genre as we heard it on the air here on WYSO and as we experienced it as a community through Cityfolk. So we talked to Phyllis Brzozowska, who founded Cityfolk and got her start in radio here on WYSO. And there's a very clear connection between Phyllis' start presenting live music and her start hosting Celtic music here on WYSO in the 70s. And of course, we check in with Cindy Funk who's carrying on that legacy today.
So for me so much of this is connecting, you know, things that may have happened 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago on WYSO that we're still hearing today in some way, shape or form, you know, Rise When the Rooster Crows back then was a daily show. It's obviously a weekly show now, but there are still those connections there. It's a program that's still on the air. Jennifer Berman, who is, one of our current hosts, started hosting Rise When the Rooster Crows way back when she was an Antioch College student, and has come back to host now. So there are all these really neat connections, that kind of tell us that the past isn't as far back as we think, and we have, as a station, really carried forward a legacy.
Kenney: Juliet, just quickly, as your role as music director, can you tell us how this ties into the future that you see at WYSO with regard to women's voices?
Fromholt: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think we've been striving as a music department and as hosts to really ensure that we have gender parity in our playlists, to really intentionally, program, women's voices, non-binary voices, trans voices alongside male voices and really make sure that we're doing a good job. So that's been kind of step one is really making sure that that parity exists and that we're really practicing what we preach. You know, by putting out a podcast like this, we will be bringing some more women hosts to the airwaves. That's a little sneak preview right there.
Later this summer, you'll be meeting, some new women hosts. And as we develop some other music department growth, there will be more opportunities to kind of laser in on some of these genres and to do some more specialty programing. I can't say much more than that right now but getting to delve back into what we were doing in the 70s, 80s and 90s especially has been an inspiration as we start to grow what we're going to be doing musically and WYSO's future.
Kenney: Juliet, you're always great at dropping hints of great things to come at WYSO, so thank you for that. Final comments about the podcast or anything coming up on WYSO?
Robinson: Well, just stay tuned and subscribe to the podcast. I think that's really the most important thing. This actually is WYSO's first podcast that was intentionally produced as a podcast. It is not based on broadcast material, and the best way for you to take advantage of the work that we've done is to go to your wherever you subscribe to your podcasts and subscribe to it, and then every two weeks, you'll be able to listen to a new episode.
Kenney: Jocelyn Robinson is director of radio preservation and archives at WYSO - Juliet Fromholt, music director. Thank you both for your time and good luck with the podcast.
Fromholt: Thank you so.
Robinson: My pleasure.
