AIRPLAY: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio

• June 7, 2011

Friday, June 10 at 9:30 p.m.

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If you want to see how America works, look at what happened to Rock Radio. For fifty years, it was our revolutionary medium. Radio had the power to move people then. And deejays seized it. In the 1950s, a handful of AM pioneers introduced White America to Black R&B. New York deejay Alan Freed changed the course of American culture by branding it "Rock ‘n’ Roll."

AIRPLAY: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio documents the history of rock radio — from the AM deejays to the FM pioneers who fanned the flames of the ’60s, to the silencing of rock radio by the government and big-business interests, to its promise of rebirth on satellite radio. AIRPLAY shares the story of the 50-year struggle for the soul of music radio, told by the deejays and the artists they made stars. Musicians include: Crosby, Stills and Nash, Grace Slick, Little Steven Van Zandt, Bob Weir and Ray Manzarek (The Doors). In addition, legendary disc jockeys talk about the hits and the history they made together through interviews, archival footage and airchecks, some never seen or heard on television before.

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