During the fateful summer of 1966, a handful of restless and frustrated deejays in New York and San Francisco began to conceive of a whole new brand of radio, one which would lead to the reinvention of contemporary music programming. Gone were the screaming deejays, the two minute doowop hits, and the goofy jingles. In were the counterculture sounds and sentiments that had seldom, if ever, made it to commercial radio. This new and unorthodox form of radio--this radical departure from the Top 40 establishment--reflected the social and cultural unrest of the period. Underground radio had been born of a desire to restore substance and meaning to a medium that had fallen victim to the bottom-line dictates of an industry devoted to profit. In this compelling and intriguing account of the counterculture radio movement, over 30 pioneers of the underground airwaves share insights and observations, and tell it like it was. Michael Keith has interviewed some of the most prominent figures of underground radio and has woven their reflections into a seamless, engrossing oral history of one of radio's most extraordinary moments. From the first broadcasts of a Screamin' Jay Hawkins record and a live Love-In and Be-In Rock 'n Roll concert, to the ultimate corporate takeover of the commercial underground airwaves, Keith provides the reader with a unique and fresh look at this turbulent era. There had never been anything like commercial underground radio before its '60s debut, and there has not been anything like it since its premature demise in the early 1970s. The innovativeness and boldness of underground radio brought a new golden age to the medium. Ignoring playlists, rigid programming formulas and program clocks, the underground deejays attracted a dedicated following of maturing baby boomers.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
When people complain there's nothing on the radio, it's only because they live in the wrong time. And a ticket back to the right time, the heyday of the freeform FM radio of the 1960s, is contained in the pages of Voices in the Purple Haze. In 1966 a few radio deejays began a revolution, doing away with loudmouth schtick between top-40 songs, adopting a cool understated attitude, and playing music that had never made it to the airwaves before. Many of the principals are quoted extensively, and in some particularly illuminating pages the author, Michael C. Keith, reproduces internal radio station memos. It seems inconceivable that anyone today would write that playing In A Gadda Da Vida by Iron Butterfly is "the best favor you can do for your audience" as "this heavy group can do no wrong." But reading such documents today brings back another time as it truly was.
Beyond a nostalgia trip, Voices in the Purple Haze also makes some serious points about what happens when fringe culture becomes big business.
Review
“For many readers who experienced the 1960s, this book will prompt memories... It is an integrated collection of tightly edited oral histories, from 32 people who had significant roles in underground radio during the period.”–Choice
“...[T]he beauty of Micheal Ketih's book is the forum it provides for all of these strong and vibrant voices to emerge and comment on a moment and a medium that shaped not only the 1960s, but the world as most of us will continue to know it. It is a valuable study and enjoyable reading.”–Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television
“[A] brisk and intelligent account of [the] revolution which changed our listening habits and mirrored an even greater change in American culture. Using dozens of interviews with programmers and DJs and extensive quotations from internal station and network documents, Keith has compiled a vivid portrait of this land of listeners in the '60s and '70s.... any student of recent American cultural history will value [this book].”– The Boston Phoenix
“Do you remember the sixties? If so, according to Lenny Bruce, you weren't there! But a new book will bring Sixties radio back. Voices in the Purple Haze: Underground Radio and the Sixties, by Michael C. Keith, is a terrific read for those of us who lived through that rough-and-tumble era in our industry and our society. It's also great for those who didn't; it exposes a bunch of wacko hippies who have subsequently become major radio players!....Highly recommended.”–KMCD & KICK/96 Radio
“...[T]he beauty of Micheal Ketih's book is the forum it provides for all of these strong and vibrant voices to emerge and comment on a moment and a medium that shaped not only the 1960s, but the world as most of us will continue to know it. It is a valuable study and enjoyable reading.”–
“[A] brisk and intelligent account of [the] revolution which changed our listening habits and mirrored an even greater change in American culture. Using dozens of interviews with programmers and DJs and extensive quotations from internal station and network documents, Keith has compiled a vivid portrait of this land of listeners in the '60s and '70s.... any student of recent American cultural history will value [this book].”–
“Do you remember the sixties? If so, according to Lenny Bruce, you weren't there! But a new book will bring Sixties radio back. Voices in the Purple Haze: Underground Radio and the Sixties, by Michael C. Keith, is a terrific read for those of us who lived through that rough-and-tumble era in our industry and our society. It's also great for those who didn't; it exposes a bunch of wacko hippies who have subsequently become major radio players!....Highly recommended.”–
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More About the Author
Michael C. Keith was born in Albany, New York. After serving in the Army, he spent a decade as a broadcaster and then became a college professor and eminent radio studies scholar. He has authored dozens of books, articles, and short stories. Among the former are a critically praised memoir (The Next Better Place), the most widely used text on radio (The Radio Station), a young adult novel (Life Is Falling Sideways), and two collections of storiesĀ (And Through the Trembling Air and Hoag's Object). His short stories have appeared in countless webzines and printed anthologies and have been nominated for the Pushcart Award and PEN/O.Henry Award.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Turn on..tune in..,etc.,
By
This review is from: Voices in the Purple Haze: Underground Radio and the Sixties (Media and Society Series) (Hardcover)
One of many things the 1960s brought us was the advent of "free-form" or "underground FM radio." As a young teenager growing up in this era in Los Angeles, I had the chance to listen to KPPC-FM and later KLOS, KMET, and KWST-FM. I even had a chance a few times to listen to KSAN in San Francisco in the early to mid 1970s. In some ways I look back and think those stations were likely the best I ever heard. This book chronicles that era and describes the conditions that brought it about: social unrest and tumultous times, along with extremely restrictive radio programming. In interviews with numerous former "underground DJ's," they talk about what it was like to be a part of them. The book also goes on to describe the evolution of, and ultimately what "killed" them. It was again the same culture that spawned them in the first place, the "children of the 60s" who later became the "working class heroes and yuppies of the 70s and 80s." Reading this book brought back memories of an era that most likely will never exist again. As a former college and briefly "pro" disk jockey who still is intrigued by the wild and wooly side of radio, this book was a nostalgic trip back in time.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL FM RADIO,
By Joe (Hellmont, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Voices in the Purple Haze: Underground Radio and the Sixties (Media and Society Series) (Hardcover)
Having grown up on "underground" FM radio during the 60's and 70's, this book was extremely enjoyable. More than just a book about a bunch of hippies running radio stations the right way (ie, playing good music as opposed to corporate-pushed excrement), "Voices in the Purple Haze" also delves into the history of rock and roll radio, from AM right up until the first FM stations started taking a chance with the new musical genre. Keith shows the cultural and financial reasons for the growth of the underground format as well as its mutation into what eventually became AOR (Album Oriented Rock). He does this with pages and pages of interviews with the actual DJ's and executives who invented, drove and changed the underground radio scene. A case for and against the idea and ideals of the freeform format eventually appear, with both cases getting equal time right up until the end of the book. The final product is a fairly well-balanced document that gives the reader enough data to understand the history and genesis of FM radio and form their own opinions. All in all a great book about a very important and fun period in the history of radio. By the end of the book, you'll understand why modern radio [is] so bad.
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