A Prayer for a Flooded Record Collection

My friend Mark Pisani lost tons of records while he was on vacation.ย  His loss affected me as well. Spin back to college.ย  Mark and I attended Hamilton College, and graduated together.ย  We were both part of the “Young Turks” who changed the college radio station, WHCL, from an afterthought to a broadcast powerhouse. Mark’s…

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Saved by Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka and Gil Scott-Heron!

It’s a cool spring day, April, 1985. It’s finals week at Hamilton College, and the students who were part of Hamilton’s on-campus radio station, WHCL, switched over from the playlists of alternative pop, new wave and R&B, going for a week-long “Classical Orgy” of finals study music. Yeah, nothing improves your grades more than hearing…

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