The Studs Terkel Radio Archive is an archive of over 1,000 digitized audio tapes originally aired over 45 years on Studs Terkel's radio show on WFMT-FM or used in his oral history collections in the books Division Street America (1967) and Working (1974). Terkel donated a total of 5,600 tapes to the Chicago History Museum, which contracted the WFMT Radio network (formerly part of WFMT-FM), to publish the recordings online. The bulk of the tapes are not yet digitized, but the archive plans to digitize and distribute as many as possible online. The American public radio network NPR is featuring many of the tapes during the week of September 25 - October 2, 2016. The Chicago History Museum is also working with the Library of Congress to make the tapes available online and to visitors to their buildings in Washington, DC.
Contents
Interviews
Terkel's one-hour radio show aired five days a week from 1952 to 1997. Interviewees included Muhammad Ali, Saul Alinsky, Woody Allen, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Carol Channing, Cesar Chavez, Jacques Cousteau, Allen Ginsberg, Mahalia Jackson, James Earl Jones, Janis Joplin, Buster Keaton, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Shirley MacLaine, David Mamet, Ethel Merman, Bertrand Russell, Mort Sahl, Pete Seeger, Maurice Sendak, and Hunter S. Thompson.
The tapes include 50 programs recorded in China in 1980, as well as programs recorded in the Soviet Union, South Africa, Italy, France, and Denmark. Topics include music, civil rights, gay rights, women's rights, prison reform, and the environment.
Creating the archive
Terkel donated his tapes to the Chicago History Museum where he had served as an artist-in-residence. The museum worked with the Library of Congress which helped digitize many of the tapes. A Kickstarter campaign in 2016 raised $87,152 which will be used for further digitization and to create a permanent website. In December 2016 the National Endowment for the Humanities gave a $400,000 grant to WFMT to digitize the tapes, post them online, and to develop related educational programs.
The archive director is Tony Macaluso and the archive manager is Allison Schein.