On Sunday, December 19 Chicago’s longest running radio show for experimental, avant-garde music, phonography, and other genres of audio art makes its final broadcast, concluding 15-years of programming. In less than two weeks Philip von Zweck, the host and producer of Something Else who started the show in October 1995, will move on to other things.
Something Else is a non-commercial, volunteer effort broadcast weekly, every Sunday night for four hours, 10 PM to 2 AM on WLUW 88.7 FM student-run radio from the School of Communication at Loyola University Chicago. Aside from a 9-month hiatus in 2004, while teaching at Brooklyn College in New York, Philip DJ’ed and hosted live performances by a countless number of local, national, and international sound-text-radio artists, avant-garde composers, and experimental, improvising musicians.
I hope Philip’s effort will be remembered and appreciated. The historical significance of Something Else lies in the simple fact that there was no other Chicago radio program focused on live performances and recordings by seldom-heard artists and musicians making non-commercial, unpopular, risk-taking, art historical, bravely exploratory, and “bleeding edge” work in the new and marginal field of sound-as-art. While many occasions to hear this type of work on Chicago’s numerous public and college radio stations existed, as a regularly scheduled, weekly show, perhaps only WHPK’s Radio Dada and WNUR’s Airplay would compare. When WLUW began Internet streaming Philip’s show became internationally accessible.
It would not be an exaggeration, and please correct me if I’m wrong, to say that of any non-commercial, non-profit radio station in and around Chicago, no other one has broadcast the range, quality, and quantity of audio works and live performances as WLUW, simply because of Philip’s show. If my memory serves, in this past year alone I have had the pleasure and privilege to appear on Something Else as a solo artist and with Carol Genetti, Yuko Nexus6, Jason Soliday, and Steve Barsotti. Also, I have performed as a member of several groups, including the Chicago Scratch Orchestra (CSO), American Society for Acoustic Ecology, Auris, and Chicago Phonography. Over its 15-year history I have been on Something Else at least once one each of those years. Needless to say, I have always felt welcome as a guest on Philip’s show.
Along with the recent closure of the late, great Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge, it seems Chicago’s sonic arts is suffering two losses. When Something Else started back in 1995, having my live and recorded sound works broadcast was gratifying. It helped me gain a sense of legitimacy for my audio art that had not yet enjoyed. This was an essential development for my professional practice. Something Else may have served as rare and even the lone radio broadcaster of little known genre of radio art by Chicago artists; a successor to the Sounds From Chicago radio series I directed at Experimental Sound Studio, from 1989–1992. WLUW was among three or four Chicago area college radio stations that fulfilled its community-oriented mission and aired Sounds From Chicago. I thank you and salute your dedication, Philip.
When we last spoke, Philip had no information on what will replace the Something Else time slot. I can only hope it continues his commitment to experimental sonic arts.
The program on Sunday, December 12 will feature the reunion of Gunshop, the local “noise” trio of Joe Mason, Jason Soliday, and Philip von Zweck, in their first live performance since 2002. The last show will air on Sunday, December 19, 2010.
Related links for Something Else:
http://www.stopgostop.com/somethingelse/
http://www.myspace.com/somethingelseradio