My Time at WPKN 1981-1984

I'm originally from Trumbull, Connecticut. I was born in Bridgeport and lived in Trumbull until I was almost sixteen. One of my earliest memories is of going to Read's department store in Bridgeport in the early 70s and encountering the guy who was probably the very last elevator operator in America still employed. ("Down?" he said.) I ate grinders at Fortunas. I saw Star Wars at the Merritt Twin, I saw Shakespeare performed in Stratford long before the theater was abandoned and later burned, went to the very last Danbury State Fair and went on record shopping trips on the train to New York. I was definitely a local.

My mother, Marianne, was a violinist and at one point all three of my brothers were brass players. She played with the Norwalk Symphony. Members of my family were in various school ensembles and I was always going to concerts. My brother Chris Kase became a trumpeter and music educator and lives near Madrid. My brother Ray Kase was a trombonist and arranger in the jazz program at the University of Bridgeport, and I saw him perform with Randy Brecker, Clark Terry and Dave Brubeck. I took drum lessons there from John Simeone and later Todd Strait, both of whom were in the jazz program then. I wanted to be Philly Joe Jones when I was 14, but I wanted to do so many things musically.

I volunteered at WPKN beginning in January, 1981 at the age of 11 after John Lennon was assassinated on December 8, 1980. I did a lot of growing up that day. I was a fan of the Beatles and the classical and jazz I heard growing up. Not many of my peers even knew who they were or why Lennon's death was significant. I heard countless radio specials up and down the dial paying tribute and I got the idea into my head that I wanted to make my own. I was already a WPKN listener because I liked the fact that you never knew what you would hear next. I called and spoke with Harry Minot, then manager. He approved the idea and asked me to come to the station. The show I produced wasn't really any good, but it was my first hands-on experience operating the board, using reel-to-reel tape and trying my hand at being an announcer.

I was born with a rare eye condition called achromatopsia, but I was very high-functioning, walking a fine line between being a sighted person and a blind person--a dance move I still do to this day. I find ways to adapt and get the job done. The treatment I received from my classmates at school forty years ago would be called assault now and I was beginning to have problems with mental illness. But the people at WPKN treated me with respect and dignity and encouraged me to learn. The adults there took me seriously. Having a refuge was a crucial release valve for me in my early teens and it was a fantastic opportunity.

In the early 80s, the studios at the University of Bridgeport were cold no matter what the season. I remember rubbing my hands after walking into the AM studio on Saturday mornings and turning on the lights. Sometimes in winter you could see your breath. This was the studio where I received hands-on training in radio operation and production on Saturdays and Sundays and sometimes after school in the middle of the week. I had an air shift on the campus-only AM radio station because I wasn't yet fourteen, which was the minimum age for an FCC license. I played mostly oldies. On weekends, sometimes Harry would spring for cheeseburgers from Duchess. I dream about the old studios now and then.

I remember the New York Philharmonic broadcast came on reel-to-reel tape in a big plastic box with gaffers tape around it until it was time to broadcast on Saturday afternoons. I usually went to get it from the mail. Jo Willard used to come in to do her show about healthy living. I heard Glen Hauser's "World of Radio", a show about shortwave radio which I followed with a keen interest. Hugh Brower would become a good friend and mentor, introducing me to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books and sharing the fun of listening to shortwave radio at the very end of the bandwidth's golden age.

I remember Colette Rossignol doing Capital Radio on Saturday nights which introduced me to punk and alternative music and it didn't take long before I started playing records by The Clash, The Buzzcocks and the Ramones. None of the music I encountered at WPKN was even on the radar of my friends at school. I was ahead of the curve again.

I observed Bob Gottlieb and Glenna Basset as they spent most of the weekday in the production studio putting together the nightly newscast. I noticed how serious and dedicated they were. It was about this time I started reading newspapers regularly and with greater and greater interest. I remember operating the classic Revox reel-to-reel machine I used for news production in a tiny, narrow studio as I pulled news reports from CBS and Mutual for the evening newscast. I can still hear the mechanical chugging of the Associated Press ticker and feel the warmth of the tiny room it shared with the transmitter.

Harry introduced me to the joys of Fats Waller and a great LP of Count Basie sides with Bennie Moten's band in 1929 and 1931 called Moten Swing on RCA. I remember being so excited when I found the album ten years later at Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis. He knew a lot about old movies and radio shows, which I also enjoyed. He also knew a lot of terrific old songs and had a playful sense of humor. He talked to me like an equal rather than like a child and I appreciated that. He taught me a lot and listened to endless questions. Other people in his position might not have bothered with a kid, and one with a disability at that, but Harry had good sense and imagination and he gave me a shot.

In the record library, which back then had 30,000 titles, there was a large poster on the back of the door that read in large, Gothic letters: "Thou Shalt Not Steal". There was a big jar with a sign that encouraged people to contribute their cigarette butts so it could be entered in an art competition. When I had some free time, I would find random albums and listen to them. That's how I first heard Art Blakey, Coleman Hawkins, Talking Heads, The Jam, The B-52s, Laurie Anderson, Frank Zappa, Ornette Coleman and countless other artists.

I didn't like everything I heard the first time, but I would discover later in life that some of the most rewarding musical experiences required repeated efforts to listen and understand. I wasn't crazy about asparagus when I first encountered it, but after trying it a few times, I came around and it was ultimately good for me.

So I had access to vast musical resource at a time when my pliable teen mind soaked up all the music I could get my hands on. I heard Latin, reggae, jazz, blues, folk, bluegrass, avant garde, electronic music, classical, music from India, early hip hip, punk, new wave, ska, alternative...you name it!  All that exposure to different kinds of music and the DJs who specialized in numerous and various musical styles made me a better producer, composer and musician. There are things you just can't learn in school. You have to be near it so it can soak through you. I learned a lot and I'm grateful for my time at WPKN.

In 1984, I started volunteering for WMNR in Monroe as a classical disc jockey, which I did for about a year before my father's job transferred him from New York to St. Louis and I had to move away. Back then, without social media to keep in touch with friends and family all over the world, moving that far away culturally and geographically was like moving to the moon: new friends, new house, new school, new life. "Here you go, kid." I realized after I left Connecticut that I didn't really want to be a disc jockey after all. I wanted to be a musician and producer, and grew more and more sure of it. After high school and some attempts at college, I started to become both, putting bands together and writing and recording music.

Fortunately, St. Louis is an amazing place that's crawling with great musicians and I've had the good fortune to work with many of them. After all, St. Louis is where Miles Davis, Clark Terry, Chuck Berry and Ike and Tina Turner cut their teeth as musicians. It's also within driving distance of key cities like Chicago and Memphis where I've played many times. And the state of Missouri gave us Charlie Parker, Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Chris Connor. I've travelled through the Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas in search of waterfalls to photograph. I've heard and absorbed American roots music in a way that con only happen if you live here. The region, often dismissed as "flyover country", is rich in musical history.

Now I have a little studio in my house and I write, record and produce in a tiny bedroom in south St. Louis. I also do some session work for other people's albums as an instrumentalist and a vocalist, sometimes working with people in other parts of the world. If my eleven-year-old self only know that emerging technology would one day make a fully functioning studio at home a reality! I stopped performing in public six years ago. I dislike hanging out in bars and I like to sleep at night. The studio is my happy place.

I grew up thinking I'd never live west of the Hudson River but the journey west broadened my horizons in the truest sense of the word, continuing the musical education that started from WPKN. It was there that I learned to keep my ears and my mind open to all kinds of music, new and old, to listen beyond my own musical prejudices and to seek to experience and understand music on its own terms rather than mine. The rewards of cultivating such an outlook have been rich.

You can hear me guest host on WPKN in Bridgeport, CT online until 11/8/23 by clicking here

Thanks to Harry Minot and WPKN for giving me a guest shot so I could share my music with you. Please support WPKN today.