By Esmail Hamidi
One of the most fun parts of this project is the alumni of WKDU I’ve had the pleasure of talking to. In gathering information, they’ve been invaluable. So first thing, I’d like to thank everyone I’ve spoken with so far: Kevin Brown, Johnpaul Golaski, Mel “Average Guy” Holmes, and Al Knight.
Today’s find was by way of Facebook. The alumni of WKDU have a group where they keep in touch and post the artifacts of those days. Browsing some shots from the 1974 Lexerd (Drexel’s yearbook) yielded this:
“The Black Experience in Music originated here when the family felt the urgency for relevant communication. With access to the student organization known as WXDT, the EXPERIENCE began its inherent commitment of broadcasting the music. Their number was relatively small at the onset, but like anything else positive, it has progressed.
THE BLACK EXPERIENCE in Music branches out into 360 of the total spectrum of BLACK music. Each member of the Experience transmits a phase of the BLACK EXPERIENCE, with their culture: music. Along with the best in today’s yesterday’s, and the future’s music, messages of community interests are also an integral part of the format.”
WOW. This is one of the few dated materials I’ve come across, and it definitely indicates that 1974 was a great year for the Black Experience, as well as for WKDU. 3 years out of the gate on the FM (WXDT was WKDU’s carrier-current AM predecessor) and they had already built an institution. This blurb also leads to an interesting conclusion – that the Black Experience predates the WKDU call letters. This may indicate that the tenure of the Black Experience stretched back to as early as the mid-1960s, which is much earlier than I previously thought.
As a final thought, I’d like to share a couple more KILLER station IDs. High production value and celebrity content, indeed….
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/251190581″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/251190792″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
Read part 1 on the Black Experience here. More to come….