“The Greatest Radio Station in the World,” September 20, 2022, Director’s Cut, on-line. This is a must see for fans of non-commercial, independent radio. I am one of those. I grew up with parents who listened to the John Carroll University station. When I moved to Long Island in 1973, I found this brilliant station. When, in 1977, I tried to listen to another station I couldn’t. The metal slide on my tuner was rusted to 89.5. That is the frequency occupied by WPKN in Bridgeport, CT. I took it as a sign and didn’t bring out the rust remover.
This film is a history of that station and what makes it and the people who embody it tick. A full disclosure is required: this is the station I started doing radio at in 1978. Or was it late 1977? I am not an unbiased viewer here. I know and knew many of those older PKNers. They were and still are amazingly talented, thoughtful and distinctive. Even at the very first major fundraiser the station ran in either 1979 or 1980 (my last year of formal affiliation), the station manager, Harry Minot, mused on air that PKN had more djs with receding hairlines than any other college station in the nation. Many folks who were on air when I started are still there. I am now on WMBR at MIT in Cambridge, MA.
Cob Carlson’s film follows the station from its birth at the University of Bridgeport to it present status as an independent, community supported station, off the campus. ‘PKN’s staff is almost entirely volunteer and, while underwriters do support operating expenses, it takes no advertising. Neither is it connected to NPR. Programmers are themselves creative artists, often with that temperament. Many are on a musical mission, others act politically through their radio work. Most devote insane amounts of time to this volunteer work. It is not a hobby. It is a way of life. The director’s cut I saw weighed in at a robust 2:30, the theatrical release is under 2 hours. If you’ve ever been interested in opening the black box of what is a crucial public institution in a city struggling to reconstruct itself after sixty years of decline, this movie’s for you. It certainly was for me.