Radio Days! The Audio Ecotone for Aug. 22, 2025

Truetone-Radio.jpg

Truetone Radio. Image from wikipedia.org

This past Wednesday was National Radio Day, the annual celebration of radio broadcasting. The date commemorates the first daily broadcast by the station 8MK in Detroit. Set up in the Detroit News building and operating under an amateur radio license, 8MK's daily "Detroit News Radiophone" broadcast news interspersed with music from phonograph records. Early broadcasts also included updates of the Jack Dempsey/Billy Miske heavyweight boxing match and play-by-play updates of the 1920 World Series. 8MK eventually received a commerical license with the call letters WBL and then WWJ, under which it broadcasts to this day.

On this week's Audio Ecotone, we celebrate our favorite broadcast medium with selections from Joy Division, The Blasters, Steve Early, the Southern Mountain Boys, Raphael Saadiq and more! Tune in live Friday @ 3 p.m. Pacific on 95.7 FM in Davis or kdrt.org online. Replays on Saturdays 6-7 p.m. and Tuesdays 7-8 a.m.

In the Key of Folk, Aug. 20, 2025

It's getting close to In the Key of Folk time, so tune in your radio or rev up your electronic device and tune in. Today we'll be featuring some new tracks by Sam Robbins, a Grammy-nominated folk musician. We'll also be playing tracks by Patrick Street, The Milk Carton Kids, Richard Thompson, Robert Earl Keen, and even more! So tune in today at 2 p.m. PST on KDRT 95.7 FM, Davis, or KDRT.org worldwide. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Jazz After Dark, Aug. 19, 2025

On tonight’s show:

  • Louis Armstrong, Sittin' In The Sun
  • Nat "King" Cole, Route 66
  • Julie London, Goody Goody
  • Mundell Lowe, Crazy Rhythm
  • Ella Fitzgerald, Misty
  • Horace Parlan, There Is No Greater Love
  • Etta Jones, And the Angels Sing
  • Jacy Parker, But Beautiful
  • Bud Shank, A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing
  • Nina Simone, Mood Indigo
  • The Jazz At the Philharmonic All-Stars, I Surrender Dear (feat. Roy Eldridge)
  • Abdullah Ibrahim, Manenberg (Revisited)
  • The Charlie Byrd Trio, Jive at Five (Live)

Davisville, Aug. 18, 2025: Remembering an important book by the late Davis journalist, Joel Davis

This interview was recorded in January 2013

Few journalists have had as much impact in Davis as Joel Davis, who died in April at 62.

In 2005 he wrote his book Justice Waits about the kidnapping and murders of two UC Davis students, John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves, in December 1980. His book helped sustain interest in solving the crime, ending in the conviction of Richard Hirschfield for first-degree murder in December 2012 — 32 years after the tragedy.

In January 2013, Joel appeared on Davisville to talk about the book, the effect the murders had on Davis and on him, and finishing his work even as he was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s Disease. We replay that interview today.

Joel grew up in Davis. He cared about getting this story right. “I knew this would be an unusual case,” he wrote in the preface to his book. “I just didn’t realize how unusual.”

Photo is an excerpt from the Justice Waits book jacket

Divine Intervention – Aug. 15, 2025

Divine Intervention strikes the airwaves and your eardrums with the latest releases from Black Moth Super Rainbow, Bogue, Cory Hanson, Frankie & the Witch Fingers, Slow Up, and The Darts, who'll be playing the Ivy Room on Aug. 22. We'll also showcase our Goddess of the Month, Ms. Fontella Bass, and enjoy a Vinyl Vespers spin – here on KDRT 95.7 FM + stream on demand via KDRT.org and the podcast apps.

David Abramson shares his passion on Listening Lyrics, Aug. 15, 2025

Spend an hour with David Abramson and you’ll walk away feeling lighter, brighter, and a little more in love with the world. A fixture in Davis, David wears many hats—musician, activist, music teacher—but none of them fully capture his easy warmth and boundless optimism. He radiates joy in the most natural way, turning everyday moments into acts of connection. In this episode, David dives into his music, the mission behind his activism, and the heart he brings to teaching. It’s an hour of conversation that feels like a song you want to play again.