WRFL 20th Anniversary in FULL EFFECT

WRFL Window shot
Originally uploaded by jacktastic

It's game time, folks — Amazingly, Radio Free Lexington has been on the air since 1988, 24 hours a day, non-stop. In celebration of that, please join us all week long for WRFL Alternative Music Week featuring all kinds of bands, shows, art and so forth. And especially come out, come out for FreeKY Fest, which happens all day long this saturday, April 26.

For my part, this week on Trivial Thursdays, I'm delighted to have as my guest, my old friend and WRFL's patron saint, Kakie Urch. Kakie is the one who set the wheel's a-turning with her 1987 Kentucky Kernel column and then was the station's 1st Music Director.

This is a don't-misser this Thursday from 7-9 am. Tune in at 88.1 FM or listen online.

As we celebrate this wonderful occasion, old-school WRFL deejays are pouring into town, some having been away for 20 years. You can catch some wonderful sets by these WRFL originals, too. Here's the schedule (verbage courtesy of Unca Bill Widener):

• 
  Monday, April 21
• Eli Riveire and Kakie Urch 2-4pm..the soft-spoken Sweetheart of the Airwaves takes on the Mouth of the South!
• Chuck Clenney and David King 6-8pm - the Poet of the Streets faces off with the "King" of Pop!
  
  Tuesday, April 22
  
• Ben Allen and JJ Haws 2-4pm - pretty boys make graves! Dig, Lazarus, dig!
• Brian Manke and Dave Schatz 8-10pm...uh...dang, I dunno WHAT to say about this one!
  
  Wednesday, Apr. 23
  
• Jack Kirk 6-9am - the Ripper flies SOLO!
• Shanna Sanders, Patrick Smith and Mark Tarter 8-10pm - I can hear it now: "Children, have you heard the Good News about CHARLIE?"
  
  Thursday, Apr. 24
  
• Kakie Urch on Trivial Thursdays with Mick, 7-9am...more jaw-jackin' than the last Flair vs. Funk bout! It'll be a SLOBBERKNOCKER!
  
• Dave Condra and John Clark 4-6pm - Seventies Reviver vs. Seventies Survivor! There's gonna be BLOOD ON THE TRACKS!
• Ross Compton and Will Burchard - "to all the dj's i've loved before" tribute to the lost/middle-generation of RFL djs (early/mid/late-90's folks).
  
• Larry Sykes and Matt Dacey 10pm-Midnight - will mettle be proven by METAL?
  
  Friday, Apr. 25
• Jeremy Russell and Scott Abraham-Lakes 10pm-Midnight - forget the music: just listening to these two TALK will melt your bubbling fudge mind!
  
• Subbing on The Trip - Heather Kennedy and Tom McMurdo 6-8pm - the Love Nest Killers bring their crusade of carnage to the heart of the Bluegrass!
  
• Robert Beatty and "Mad" Mike Connolly subbing for "The Uncle Bill Show" 8-10pm - the Sons of the Pioneer show the Old Man how it's done!
  
  Saturday Apr. 26
  
• Amberly Warnke, Neil Glass and Ian Christy 6-9am - it's a Three-Way Dance for the cartoon crown!

As a lead-up, here's some photos from those heady, silly days in the late 80's of the 20th Century, before the Internet, at the dawn of college radio in Lexington. Fond memories…