Whatever happened to programs 001 through 004?
Radio Filibuster originated in 1990 at a student-run college radio station at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.
The city and university cancelled traditional Halloween festivities in 1989, resulting in thousands of students taking over portions of the downtown on October 27 and 28, and prompting sales of t-shirts bearing the slogan "The Strip Was Mine In '89". Fueled by the startling realization that 200 Illinois State troopers clad in riot gear could indeed be quickly contained to a four-block area by inebriated college students, the city and college agreed that a "fall break" overlapping the Halloween weekend would force enough students to leave the city that such events could never repeat.
Apartment dwellers would not necessarily be affected, but thousands of students residing in the dormitories would have little choice but to leave. This, naturally, had an adverse effect on staffing at our college radio station, which operated 24/7 and did not have the luxury of automation technologies.
The name "Radio Filibuster" and the slogan "Talking about everything... and nothing at all" originated from the primary goal of Radio Filibuster: to fill time. Not to entertain. Not to educate. Just to fill time. While we had enough staff to run a few free-form programs here and there, and while we covered the overnights by putting CDs of either Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" or Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" on repeat, the centerpiece of the effort to keep the station from signing off was Radio Filibuster, with programming ranging from five to eight hours at a time, and featuring three to five "panelists" at any given time. Our "call-in" parts of the program were particularly entertaining, considering the station lacked a broadcast-delay.
Two such programs were scheduled and aired during the fall break, despite protests from the station's Rock Director, who vehemently opposed programming which did not fit within the station's music-intensive format. However, a "Smith and Wesson" beats four aces... and Kevin (one of the current co-hosts of Radio Filibuster) was the station's General Manager. Ironically, this same Rock Director made an appearance on program 002, using the ever creative non-de-plume of "Phillip Buster".
The success of the first two Radio Filibuster programs resulted in a program 003 and 004 airing during subsequent breaks.
When we revitalized the program in 2005, we made the decision to number our first podcast as 005, to commemorate the four programs which aired in the early '90s.
WIDB, the college radio station at which Radio Filibuster first aired, is still going strong, recently celebrating its 35th Anniversary. You can visit the WIDB website at http://www.widb.net.
This is the studio in which Radio Filibuster 001 through 004 were broadcast. The walls and the windows are the same, but most of the equipment has changed. This photograph was taken during a visit to the station in June 2003.
This is the original control board used during the 1990 and 1991 broadcasts, which was retired a few years ago when a faulty phone module shorted out the entire board. While the board is still operational, the lack of replacement modules resulted in the decision to retire the control board. This photograph was taken during a visit to the station in June 2005.