While KSHE 95 has enjoyed 51 years on the air, the station’s very first podcast is only a month and change into its existence. The station, now running under the auspices of Hubbard Broadcasting, has smartly dipped a toe into the roiling waters of podcasting with some programming that references its half-century of broadcasting rock and roll. It’s dubbed The KSHE Tapes, and is hosted by Morning Rock Show’s John “The U-Man” Ulett and assistant program director and Afternoon Drive host Favazz. The podcast mines interviews spanning more than 50 years and highlights back-stories, with the hosts chiming in during playback. The podcast debuted on October 12 with an interview with an artist long affiliated with the station, Sammy Hagar.
SLM caught up with Favazz and Ulett late last week, in the hopes of getting a bit of additional information about the podcast’s short history. They didn’t disappoint.
Perhaps the most obvious question relates to the amount of material available to you. What kinds of numbers are we talking about, in terms of compiled interviews? On what formats are your archives found? Has much of it been digitized, or is there still a portion on reels, cassettes, or other formats?
Favazz: Needless to say, we have tons of material. A total of 69 years combined between the two of us as I’ve been at KSHE for 27 years and John 42. Interviews are on cassette, mini discs, DAT (digital audio tape), and, yes, reel-to-reel tape. And really the only digitized interviews are the ones we do for the podcast, which are archived.
There's always been some amazement at the amount of interest in KSHE archives. For example, there's a trader at the St. Louis Records Show who has sold CDs of old board tapes. Do you sense that the 50th anniversary stimulated a greater interest in the historical/archival material? Or have you all always sensed that there was a want/need in the audience?
Favazz: The desire for KSHE interviews or air checks has always been out there. You must be talking about Kenneth Hawkins, who has recordings of KSHE dating back to the late ’60s. In fact, if someone is looking for something in particular and asks about it on the KSHE Facebook page, Ken is right there with an answer.
Looping back to the current Tapes project, can you give us a sense of the format, for those who haven't listened yet? How much work goes into a piece, in terms of production?
Favazz: Basically, we take an interview and give a preview of what the artist talks about. Then we might talk about the circumstances of the interview. Like the Paul McCartney interview (Episode 2), there was a lot of cool backstory on how it came about and the hoops I jumped through once I was inside of Savvis (it was still called that back in 2002). We usually decide on an episode a few days before. We text one another with ideas and interviews that we think might work and then we go from there. John sits behind the controls and records it and then does any editing. He puts the final product into a folder on the computer and then I do the upload on Fridays. But our banter during the interview is what really makes this whole thing fun. We pause the interview during playback and might ask the other questions regarding what was said, etc.
Ulett: These are interviews of which Favazz and I played some role. Since I’ve mostly been on the air with morning show partners, many of my interviews included other people. Since Favazz has always worked alone, his interviews are usually one-on-one with the artist.
Even realizing the collection of stuff available to you, have there been "aha!" moments, in terms of finding or re-listening to a classic interview? Perhaps that's because the subject died, or the piece had particular historic ties? Maybe it's just an interview that was thought lost?
Favazz: John has found numerous interviews that he has stored at his house, and I can tell from his reaction that he forgot about some of them. The same with me. I came across a Ronnie James Dio interview on mini disc and don’t remember the interview at all. But it’s there!
To what degree was the earliest KSHE keeping material on-site? I can imagine that whole months of early stuff have been lost. And has that station ever gotten donations from super-fans of material that wasn't known to station staff?
Favazz: I’m sure John has some interviews on reel that are pretty old. Episode 4 was Shelly Grafman (original GM from ’67–’84) that was an interview that John and Smash did from 1988 that was on cassette. The quality was really good. And we just had a meeting about archiving old tapes that are currently in storage. We moved in April after 32 years at Union Station and we’re eager to see what’s there. Kinda sucks that it takes a move before you realize that there’s some really cool stuff laying around. And yes, when we put together the online museum (KSHE Real Rock Museum), we had many listeners give us air checks from back in the day, but even more incredible was the amount of pictures that we received. Some real “wow” moments, for sure.
Ulett: The only thing I might add is the effort involved in mining some of these interviews from many dozens of large boxes that are filled with tapes. I have a reel-to-reel machine set up in my basement, and I’m listening to every one of the tapes in real time. In some cases, these tapes are old and filthy and I’ve got to stop and clean the heads with alcohol constantly in order to hear some of the content. The cassettes tend to be in better condition than the reels for some reason.
What pieces can fans expect to hear next?
Favazz: Personally, I can’t wait to do my Zakk Wylde interview when he threatens to kill me over a goofy question and then tries to destroy the mini disc player that I was recording it on. I also have a Jimmy Page interview on reel-to-reel that will be there soon. In December, we have a Nick Mason of Pink Floyd that John did, and I have a Roger Waters interview that will go up right around when El Monstero plays The Pageant.
