Dead End Drive-In: Now Showing – ‘Pirates of the Airwaves: The WSOU Story’
Written by Gaz E
Sunday, 24 May 2015 03:30
‘Pirates of the Airwaves: The WSOU Story’ (2014 – 2121 Productions/Wienerworld)
Championing the underdog has always been the Uber Rock way, so this new two-disc DVD set detailing the almost ridiculous story of a Catholic university’s radio station becoming the go-to place to break metal bands in America is obviously right up our street!
Directed by Rob Longo, ‘Pirates of the Airwaves: The WSOU Story’ opens with tales of Polka, basketball and Catholicism and plays out like a generic made-for-television historical documentary… before it goes batshit bonkers with its unbelievable links to huge heavy metal bands from the mid-eighties to almost the present day.
WSOU 89.5 fm, Seton Hall University’s award-winning radio station, started broadcasting in 1948 and its first forty years were pretty standard for a campus project of its ilk, then heavy metal took hold of its playlist in its leather gloved-hand and refused to let go.
This was a Catholic university, remember: and one that had once banned a Billy Joel single from its airwaves for its ‘questionable’ content. Suddenly, WSOU discovered metal and became the first radio station to champion the likes of Slayer, Exodus, Manowar and Anthrax in the mid-eighties, pulling a genre most frowned upon from its late night slots around the country to up front and centre at all times of day.
This anarchic move did not come easy, of course. As footage of Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider speaking at the PMRC hearings reminds the viewer, the emergence of heavy metal in all its forms was met with resistance almost immediately.
When a metal fan committed suicide while wearing a blue shirt, university scaremongers reminded the programmers and die-hard metal DJs at WSOU that the station’s promo shirts were blue so the poor kid “could” have been wearing one of their shirts. The resulting brouhaha meant that songs containing certain words were not allowed airplay, “hell” being one of the offending words. This, of course, meant that anti-evil anthem ‘To Hell With The Devil’ by Christian rock legends Stryper was not allowed to be played, yet much gnarlier material by nefarious thrash outfits still made it to the air.
Tom Araya of Slayer and Overkill’s Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth appear to help the story along and confirm the oft-unbelievable tales of how bands would get shows booked in surrounding towns and cities, get signed even, off the back of being played on WSOU.
Perennially underfunded and always with an obstacle or twelve to negotiate, WSOU went on to be named one of Rolling Stone’s Top Five radio stations and was the first college radio to stream on the internet.
Neil Fallon of Clutch is quick to point out that it wasn’t just the eighties bands that benefitted, talking of how his band were signed on the back of WSOU airplay, and Frank Iero of My Chemical Romance follows it up with talk of how the station continued to work its magic against the odds into the new millennium, with various members of Killswitch Engage and Lamb Of God seconding that emotion.
Having negotiated around the metal backlash by changing the station’s tagline from “The Hardest Rock” to “Pirate Radio” and rebranding much of the material to get around contrived constraints, the biggest hurdle the station had ever faced came in the early noughties when funds were severely lacking and WSOU was ordered to drop its hard rock playlists altogether.
You haven’t even seen the film but you already want the metal DJs at WSOU to win, right?
Narrated by former DJ (and voice of NBC Nightly News) Bill Rock, The WSOU Story is quite remarkable. The little guy/gal changing the music world simply by championing his/her favourite bands – we’ve all been there, right?
There’s even a second disc of extra interviews (my favourite being the footage of former WSOU DJ Randy Falk, now of uber-toy company, NECA) if the ninety minute film still isn’t enough for you.
In fact, if the filmmaker hadn’t used a Misfits photo when the topic turned to Danzig this would be perfect!
(I was wearing a blue shirt when I typed that – sorry!)
To pick up your copy of ‘Pirates Of The Airwaves: The WSOU Story’ on DVD – CLICK HE
