Voices in the Purple Haze: Underground Radio and the Sixties

From 1966 to 1972, underground radio shattered the conventions that had kept the medium in a state of rigid conformity. At a time when the United States was shaken be widespread social and civil upheaval, a few broadcasters provided the listening public with a whole new brand of contemporary radio. While most radio stations were kept to the dictates of the bottom-line profit seekers, underground radio stations had no prescribed programming formulas, music playlists or program clocks. These innovative stations were characterized by their boldness and their expressions of freedom, idealism and pride. This is a comprehensive study of the underground radio phenomenon, in which 30 pioneers of the underground share insights and observations, and tell it like it was. It was a time when underground deejays beamed their messages of flower power and Hell no, we won’t go! through the tie-dyed cosmic ether of the American airwaves.