Chicago, IL ( January 29, 2016 ) — The legacy of Studs Terkel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian and influential broadcaster whose interviews drew insights more relevant than ever from a pantheon of the 20th century's greatest leaders and thinkers, will be preserved and made accessible for free in an online archive through an ambitious initiative spearheaded by the WFMT Radio Network. The Chicago organization is part of local station WFMT, which served as Terkel's professional home for 45 years.
Created in partnership with the Chicago History Museum, the Studs Terkel Radio Archive, studsterkel.wfmt.com/ . will ultimately showcase over 5,600 interviews and stories ( a total of 9,000 hours ) from Terkel's pioneering daily radio show, which aired on WFMT from 1952 to 1997. During his nearly half a century on the air, Terkel shared his studio with a who's who of political and cultural icons that shaped modern America from Martin Luther King, Jr., Betty Friedan, and Muhammad Ali to Janis Joplin, James Baldwin, and Tennessee Williams. Terkel died in 2008 at the age of 96.
To introduce Terkel to a new generation of listeners, historians, journalists, and activists, a Kickstarter campaign active until February 25th will support the audio archiving, transcription, and uploading of 1,000 of Terkel's most notable interviews, which were originally recorded on reel-to-reel tapes and which have been largely inaccessible to the public until now. It will bring the total number of interviews available online to over 1,400, spanning more than 40 topics, including civil rights, labor rights, literature, and music.
Beyond his historic interviews with many of world's most prominent leaders, Terkel also earned a reputation as the forefather of today's storytelling and podcasting boom by giving equal time to the stories of average citizens, producing historical audio documentaries, and creating sound collages. The collection will feature some of Terkel's conversations with marginalized or rarely heard communities, including members of an early PFLAG ( Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays ) group, survivors of the Hiroshima bombing, and a small group of pioneering female producers working for the BBC.
"We cannot afford to lose the priceless history, insight, and intelligence that Studs Terkel captured from his studio in Chicago over the course of nearly 50 momentous and turbulent years," said Steve Robinson, General Manager of WFMT and the WFMT Radio Network. "Studs was always one step ahead of everyone else both in introducing audiences to the leaders and uncelebrated people who were changing the world and the arts, as well in pushing the boundaries of modern broadcasting."
"By preserving Studs' work for future generations, we will ensure that he continues to have just as significant an impact on the future of storytelling, social justice, and broadcasting as he did during his lifetime," added Robinson.
Ira Glass, host of This American Life, noted that Terkel seemed to recognize the historic value of his interviews as he was conducting them.
'There's such a sense of drama and history, and also the sense that what he's doing is creating an archive," said Glass. "He's making it for the future."
To demonstrate Terkel's continued relevance to students, artists, journalists, and more, the Kickstarter will also enable the archive to offer users an innovative editing tool, HyperAudio, which will allow fans to remix audio from the archive to create and share new audio works inspired by the archive.
Kickstarted campaign at the link: www.kickstarter.com/projects/1038252771/building-the-studs-terkel-radio-archive-online-col .
Ultimately, the online archiving initiative will bring all of Terkel's WFMT radio programs to the Internet, where they will be available for listening, creative reuse, licensing, and educational purposes. The digital archive will offer a collection of primary source material for students, teachers, and researchers, while providing artists, journalists, and authors with inspiration and raw material for new works. The archive has already partnered with organizations like This American Life and the BBC on radio projects and the Great Books Foundation on an educational program for high school students. The development and growth of the Studs Terkel Radio Archive is managed by Tony Macaluso, Director of the Archive, and Allison Schein, Archive Manager.
Born in 1912, Terkel got his start in the radio division of the WPA Writers Project during the Great Depression. In 1952 he launched a music show on WFMT that evolved into "The Studs Terkel Program." He published his first book, Giants of Jazz, in 1956, and a decade later published the first of many oral histories, Division Street: America. He earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two. Terkel continued to interview people and make public appearances into his '90s. His last book, P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening was released in November 2008.
About the WFMT Radio Network
The WFMT Radio Network creates, seeks out, and distributes radio programs of importance, depth and beauty to stations serving audiences across the United States and around the world. In addition to syndicating concerts by such renowned orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and festivals such as the Salzburg Festival and the Edinburg International Music Festival, the Network also produces and syndicates shows like Leonard Bernstein: An American Life with Susan Sarandon; Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin; Collector's Corner with Henry Fogel; Fiesta! with Elbio Barilari, focusing on the classical music of South America, Spain and Portugal; and Relevant Tones with Seth Boustead, exploring contemporary music in the classical tradition and many other classical, Jazz, folk and spoken word programs.
WFMT Radio Network programs have received every major broadcasting award and honor, including the George Foster Peabody Award, Prix Italia and the Major Armstrong Award.
