A pioneer in organic agriculture in New England, Bill Duesing has been as an environmental educator, writer, artist, and lecturer over for four decades. After graduating from Yale University (1964), Duesing worked as a Cooperative Extension agent before turning to organic principles in the early 1970s. Emphasizing sustainability and greater local food sufficiency, he has been instrumental in developing organic standards for gardening and land care and he has served as both founding president and later executive director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association Connecticut and president of the NOFA Interstate Council. During the 1990s, Duesing produced two radio shows, "Living on the Earth" (WSHU) and "The Politics of Food" (WPKN), and he is author of (1993). The Duesing collection consists of transcripts of his radio show, "Living on the Earth" (1990-2000) and fourteen recordings of "The Politics of Food," which was broadcast monthly over WPKN (89.5 FM) in Bridgeport in 1997-1998. Each half hour segment of "Politics" included news, a fifteen minute interview, recipes, and tips, with interviewees including Mel Bristol, Jac Smit, Vincent Kay, John Wargo, Hugh Joseph, Joseph Kiefer, Julie Rawson, Michael Sligh, Kathy Lawrence, Lee Warren, and Elizabeth Henderson.
Content types:
Spoken word
Formats:
Polyester open reel tape
Extent:
14 items
Repository/Collector:
UMass Amherst Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives
The Black Mass Communications Project was founded as an educational and informational outlet for Black students at UMass Amherst in 1968 and authorized in the following year as a Registered Student Organization. Over the years, BCMP played varied roles on campus, hosting cultural events, lectures, workshops, and social gatherings as to help keep black music alive. Many of its early members were also affiliated with the student radio station WMUA, and throughout the 1970s, the organization played a prominent role in providing programming to the station, offering programming highlighting African American music and current affairs. The BCMP collection consists of many dozens of reel to reel audiotapes of radio broadcasts aired over WMUA during the 1970s and early 1980s by and for the university’s African American community. Included is a range of locally-produced public affairs, cultural, and music programming, with some content licensed from around the country. A few of the tapes are associated with the Five College’s National Public Radio affiliate, WFCR.
Content types:
Spoken word
Formats:
Polyester open reel tape
Extent:
15 linear feet
Repository/Collector:
UMass Amherst Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives
The first public radio station in western New England, WFCR Five College Radio has provided a mix of high quality, locally-produced and nationally syndicated programming since May 1961. In 2012, the station reached over 175,000 listeners per week, with a mix of classical and jazz music, news, and entertainment. The WFCR Collection contains nearly 4,500 reel to reel recordings of locally-produced radio programs, reflecting over fifty years of the cultural and intellectual life of western Massachusetts. Drawing upon the talents of the faculty and students of the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and UMass Amherst), the collection offers a remarkable breadth of content, ranging from public affairs to community and national news, cultural programming, children's programming, news and current events, scholarly lectures, classical music, and jazz.
Content types:
Performed music, Sounds (Other than music & language), and Spoken word
Formats:
Analog audiocassette and Polyester open reel tape
Extent:
462 linear feet
Repository/Collector:
UMass Amherst Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives
In 1955, the Literary Society of the University of Massachusetts and Professor H. Leland Varley received a grant of $5,800 from the Educational Television and Radio Center to produce a series of one-hour radio programs centered on a discussion of the impact of eight major American novelists from a European perspective. The subjects included Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, and John Steinbeck (who replaced the original choice, John Marquand). The collection is comprised of recordings of the Literary Society radio program, ‘As others see us.’ Moderated by a member of the UMass Department of English, each broadcast featured discussions by distinguished literary critics such as W.H. Auden, R.P. Blackmur, Perry Miller, Maxwell Geismar, and Renato Poggioli. Dos Passos, Faulkner, and Steinbeck participated in person.
Content types:
Spoken word
Formats:
Polyester open reel tape
Extent:
0.5 linear feet
Repository/Collector:
UMass Amherst Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives
Records of the Amherst College student radio station, WAMH (formerly WAMF). Records include audio recordings, publicity materials, program guides, correspondence, photographs, training materials, FCC materials and internal documentation of radio station operations. This collection recieves frequent additions.
Content types:
Performed music, Sounds (Other than music & language), Spoken word, Still image, and Text
Formats:
Analog audiocassette, Polyester open reel tape, Acetate open reel tape, Digital audio file, Photographic print, and Text document