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WYSO's Sonic 60th: Koko Taylor at Gilly’s

It’s been 60 years since WYSO went on the air and we’re listening back to some highlights from our rare audio collection.

When WYSO went on the air, most of what you heard was classical music. Programs like Music of Spain, High Fidelity Concert and a nightly show called Land of the Quiet Mind, where you could hear Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and those guys.

In the 1960s came more jazz, rock, folk, bluegrass and more live performances.

Here is a 1979 recording from our archives of Chicago’s Koko Taylor—known as Queen of the Blues—on stage with her Blues Machine at the legendary club, Gilly’s in Dayton. She’s clearly got her mojo workin’.

Archival audio produced in 1979 by produced by Larry Blood, Dave Barber, and the late Chuck Ganzert.

You can record a birthday greeting for WYSO.  Here's how:

Plan a message about 90 seconds long.  You can start it like this:

Hi, my name is _______________ and I’m from ________________.  I’ve been listening to WYSO since_______________ and  (pick one): 

  • My favorite memory of WYSO is_________________
  • I hope WYSO never loses its ______________________
  • The funniest thing I ever heard on WYSO is _______________________
  • Listening to WYSO has been important to me over the years because_____________________.
  • WYSO is different from other radio stations because_________________.

…or craft your own message.

Record this on the voice memo app on your phone.  Send that to: wyso@wyso.org

OR  if you don’t want to use a voice memo app on your smart phone, call this number and record your message.  937-769-1374.

 

Neenah Ellis has been a radio producer most of her life. She began her career at a small commercial station in northern Indiana and later worked as a producer for National Public Radio in Washington, DC. She came to WYSO in 2009 and served as General Manager until she became the Executive Director of The Eichelberger Center for Community Voices where she works with her colleagues to train and support local producers and has a chance to be a radio producer again. She is also the author of a New York Times best-seller called “If I Live to Be 100: Lessons from the Centenarians.”
Jocelyn Robinson is a Yellow Springs, Ohio-based educator, media producer, and radio preservationist. As an educator, Robinson has taught transdisciplinary literature courses incorporating critical cultural theory and her scholarship in self-definition and identity. She also teaches community-based and college-level classes in digital storytelling and narrative journalism.