Bob Fass of WBAI Dead at 87

[TheBigA]

Very sad news as WBAI legend, one of the few remaining voices of the station's glory days, passes away at age 87:

Bob Fass, Pioneer of Underground Radio, Dies at 87 (Published 2021)

His provocative “Radio Unnameable,” long a staple of the New York station WBAI, offered a home on the FM dial to everyone from Abbie Hoffman to Tiny Tim.

www.nytimes.com

 

[TTalkradio1]

I first heard him in 2002, and he sounded really old by then. The article says his show went to one day in 2006, but he was on one day per week in 2002.

 

[TheBigA]

I first heard him in 2002, and he sounded really old by then.

Can you imagine working at WBAI for over 50 years? I can't. By 2002, it wasn't a very fun place any more. Still there really wasn't any place in NY for him to go. Some of his contemporaries went to WFUV or WFMU, but Bob had no real option.

 

[rtetro]

Bob Fass, Pioneer of Underground Radio, Dies at 87 (Published 2021)

His provocative “Radio Unnameable,” long a staple of the New York station WBAI, offered a home on the FM dial to everyone from Abbie Hoffman to Tiny Tim.

www.nytimes.com

I spent a good deal of my teen years in the 60s listening to Fass's all night Radio Unnamable on WBAI. (Which may explain my being tired in high school a lot.) His program in those days was the original underground radio program, long before WNEW-FM or WFMU, and before Rosko began doing Kahlil Gibran reading on WOR-FM. It was THE program for the counterculture, with live studio performances by Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, and others. Arlo Guthrie performed an early arrangement of Alice's Restaurant on the program before it was recorded at the Newport Festival and became ubiquitous. He also did regular interviews with major (and minor) counterculture people like Abbie Hoffman, Allen Ginsburg, and and others. Fass was also one of the first (if not the first) to do long music montages

He was a true innovator.

 

[oldradiotapes]

RIP Bob.

Goodnight, cabal.

 

[TheBigA]

Here's an obit written by longtime New Yorker John Kalish. He got a quote from Bob's contemporary at WBAI Larry Josephson:

Bob Fass, Free-Form Radio Pioneer, Dies At 87

Bob Fass hosted the influential New York City radio show Radio Unnameable for more than 50 years. It served as a megaphone for the 1960s counterculture and boosted folk and blues artists.

www.kpbs.org