KCRW’s Lost Notes (Season 1)

Audio excerpt from E2: Outlaws of the Airwaves (4:47)

Premiered on KCRW on 5 April 2018

Role: Producer, Story editor, Audio editor, Sound designer, Engineer/Mixer

Lost Notes was an anthology series of some of the greatest music stories never truly told. In its first season, top journalists presented stand-alone audio documentaries that highlighted music’s head, heart and beat, with host Solomon Georgio as your guide. These eight stories include a look at the FBI investigation into a classic rock anthem; unheard conversations with Captain Beefheart; a critical examination of New Edition’s basketball connection; and the chronicle of a man plucked from Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash and thrust into the spotlight of country music stardom. Senior Producer: Myke Dodge Weiskopf. Creator/Executive Producer: Nick White.

LISTEN:

Trailer: Introducing Lost Notes. Hear a preview of Lost Notes, an anthology of some of the greatest music stories never truly told.

E1: Louie Louie: The Strange Journey of the Dirtiest Song Never Written. By David Weinberg. An FBI Investigation, an engagement ring, wine coolers… the surprising story behind the ubiquitous anthem that every teenager bangs out on their first guitar.

E2: Outlaws of the Airwaves: The Rise of Pirate Radio Station WBAD. By David Goren. Pirate radio station WBAD in New York was a beloved source for fans of underground, unsanitized hip-hop in the 1990s, but how high could this illegal operation fly while also staying under the radar?

E3: Electricity: Conversations with Captain Beefheart. By Kristine McKenna and Gideon Brower. In this intimate radio portrait of one of music’s most legendary eccentric geniuses, writer Kristine McKenna offers you a visceral experience of what it was like to be friends with Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart).

E4: New Edition’s Neighborhood Secret. By Donnell Alexander. The boys in New Edition were basketball fans from Boston, aka Celtics country. So what happened when they hung out with the L.A. Lakers in a music video during the height of the 1980s Celtics/Lakers rivalry?

E5: Johnny Tried: The Ballad of Glen Sherley. By Peter Gilstrap. When Johnny Cash played his iconic concert at Folsom Prison, he covered the song of one very talented inmate.

E6: Shaggs’ Own Thing: The Story of the Wiggin Sisters. By Susan Orlean. One of the most unlistenable bands of the ‘60s became a cult favorite decades later, garnering praise from the likes of Frank Zappa, Kurt Cobain, and Sonic Youth.

E7: A Million Dollars’ Worth of Plastic. By Richard Parks III. In 1989, McDonald’s ran the biggest flexi-disc promotion ever, sending out 80 million discs (playing the “Menu Song”) as inserts in newspapers all over the country.

E8: Searching for the Root: The Incredible Journey of Aisha Ali. By Arshia Fatima Haq. In the wake of the swinging ‘60s, a young woman named Aisha Ali travels to North Africa in search of her roots.