Studs Terkel, PhB '32, JD '34: Studs’ Renowned Radio Programs Made Public
Studs Terkel Radio Archive will be made public this week, with 5,000-plus stories that needed to be saved
I knew Studs Terkel since, actually, the day I was born. He took my father, his friend, out for a celebratory drink, or three, that long-ago day, and over the next decades, I wrote many thousands of words about him: his best-selling books, his WFMT radio show, his activism, his awards, enthusiasm and insatiable curiosity. I wrote about him when he underwent a risky open-heart procedure when he was 93 and from which he emerged saying, “I’m a medical miracle,” and when he died on Halloween in 2008 at 96, I wrote his obituary.
What more can there be to say?
Well, I am done, actually, because when this story ends, I will stop writing about Studs and start listening to him. That will occupy a great deal of time because on Wednesday, the first 1,800 or so of the 5,600 or so hours of Studs’ remarkable radio programs will become readily available for any interested ears and minds. (You can also watch more than 200 hours of Studs on video at no cost at mediaburn.org.)
It is, for many reasons, cause for celebration, a celebration that starts Tuesday with an invitation-only event at the Chicago History Museum that will feature a preview of the radio archive and some commentary from such people as museum President Gary Johnson, jazz vocalist Dee Alexander, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Mark Kelly, writer Alex Kotlowitz, me and some of Terkel’s colleagues and friends.
Read more at Chicago Tribune