WYSO’s Audio Archives project began in 2009 when boxes of old magnetic tapes surfaced in a musty storeroom. With funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Archive Project and partnerships with the Greene County Library and other local organizations, over 200 hours of broadcasts, most from the 1960s and 70s, were cataloged and digitized. A project to collect oral histories to complement the recordings was also begun.
With support from Ohio Humanities, the station has been airing this archival content since early 2014. The collection chronicles events at Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, around the Miami Valley, and well beyond.
In our first season, we heard the echoes of the civil rights movement as it morphed into many subsequent movements. In the second season, we explored the Vietnam era, with stories about Vietnam vets, peace activists, the Black Power movement, women’s liberation, and more. We’ll continue to sample news reports, interviews, documentaries, concerts, lectures, music shows, and other historical tape. We’ll listen for our collective presence in the voices, and sometimes add contemporary commentary as we reflect on our progress (or lack thereof). We’re also launching the WYSO Archives Blog to provide in-depth views into this volatile and formative period of our history, and to highlight our historic preservation efforts.
This program is made possible, in part, by the Ohio Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these programs do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
On the last installment of Rediscovered Radio, we heard from Barry Romo, who spoke at Antioch College in 1973 as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the…
In this installment of Rediscovered Radio, you’ll meet a soldier who was deeply changed by what he saw and did in the Vietnam War. Barry Romo spoke at…
Today WYSO brings back Rediscovered Radio, our series exploring the past through the station’s historic audio collection. We’re approaching the 50-year…
In the mid to late 1970s, WYSO broadcast the voices of three remarkable black women writers, and these tapes are preserved in the WYSO Archives. The work…
A few years back, Bob Moore of Yellow Springs took his kids to the public library where he found a shelf of books by local authors. There he discovered…
Almost 50 years ago, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Yellow Springs and Antioch College to address the graduates at his wife Coretta’s alma mater. WYSO News was there to cover the event, and this tape is one of the most significant recordings in the WYSO Archives.
Many families have Christmas traditions that are passed from one generation to the next. From deep within the WYSO vault comes one family’s holiday ritual…
Between the end of World War II and the mid-1960s, about three and a half million people migrated from Appalachia to the urban manufacturing centers of…