Production materials documenting Smithsonian's thirteen-part program on the role of radio in transforming the African American community in the twentieth century. The program was produced in 1996 by Jacquie Gales Webb for Smithsonian Productions, with assistance from the AAAMC. The collection contains over 400 hours of interviews and historical aircheck tapes in addition to articles, research files, program scripts, and transcripts. The audio interviews feature conversations with over 150 well-known disc jockeys, radio professionals, record company executives, journalists, and scholars. The historical airchecks include station identifications and jingles, radio interviews with prominent Black figures, coverage of historical events, and programs highlighting or influenced by the contributions of Black performers, disc jockeys, and other important persons in radio.
Content types:
Performed music, Spoken word, Still image, and Text
Formats:
Analog audiocassette, Digital Audio Tape, Data cartridge, Optical disc (Including CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VCD), Text document, and Data disk (floppy disk)
Extent:
4.3 linear feet (10 boxes) + 297 audiocassettes (DAT : digital, stereo), 168 audiocassettes (analog), 9 8mm data cartridges, 7 audio discs (CD-R), 3 data disks (1.44 MB floppies)
WGLT is licensed to Illinois State University and is affiliated with NPR. It was originally a student operated radio station, signing on the air on April 24th, 1962 as a closed circuit radio station. A few years later, on February 4, 1966, the station received FCC licensing and began FM boradcasting. The station became a full NPR member in the 1970's. Both the audio and paper records are unprocessed. In the past year, the university archivist and the station’s general manager (along with a School of Communication professor) started the process to inventory all the audio and paper records.
Content types:
Performed music, Sounds, Spoken word, and Text
Formats:
Open reel tape (unknown material), VHS (including SVHS and VHS-C), and 8-track cassette