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| Greenville area info | Memo-News | Area photos Art news | History | Outdoors | House & Garden | Pets & wildlife | Links | Homepage | E-mail | Site Map Greenville's Luke Phillips, radio visionary Luke Phillips has been doing radio shows since November 1977. "I started at WUSC in Columbia the same month that Elvis Costello's first album was released in the United States -- a very auspicious time for college radio and for music in general." Joining the Public Radio branch of South Carolina ETV in May of 1979, Phillips produced radio shows featuring a surprising variety of musical genres -- classical, jazz, even alternative rock. "I'm sure I was the first, quite possibly the last, to air the B52s simultaneously over seven or eight 100,000 watt stations in South Carolina. It was good to know on that Friday night in 1979 that a lot of folks were hearing the B52s for the first time and saying, "Wow, I didn't know anything like that existed. I wonder if I like it?" Over the next 14 years, Phillips and his collaborator and alter ego Richard Mañana produced several thousand radio shows, always choosing the music themselves. This musical exploration culminated in East of the Sun, a two-hour program of eclectic music that premiered on Sunday afternoon, January 4, 1987, and appeared virtually every Sunday for the next seven years. "After doing East of the Sun for about four years, I picked up a trade magazine that featured and article trumpeting the hot new format in Public Radio, 'Triple-A'. The article explained that they couldn't give this format a specific musical name because it always featured many different styles of music and seemed to be dependent on the editorial discernment of whoever was producing the programming." "To me, the point of radio is to turn people on to good music, whether it's something new or something they've almost forgotten about and can hear in a new way. In addition to the musical flow, the DJ should be somewhat entertaining and illuminating in a way that enhances the music. In my case, the deejay should also be intermittently surrealistic and enigmatic, partly because a great radio show is much like a great beat poem. Radio does retain overlooked historical context. DJs like Dewey Phillips (who broke the first Elvis hit in Memphis) and Alan Freed were crucial in the creation of Rock'n'Roll as a mass phenomenon." Though that sort of individual inspiration was weeded out by corporate forces and is and is now impossible on general broadcast radio, Luke Phillips aims to continue in the spirit of creative radio with, "Radio Misterioso." Radio Misterioso is envisioned as a "radio" show that seizes control of the music like deejays of old, on behalf of people who are looking for a uniquely tasty mix, and takes it out of the hands of boring demographers and consultants. "The only rule is that any entity featured on the site must be consonant with the Misterioso universe," Mañana whispered into Luke's ear. Contact Luke Phillips at sevensprings@excite.com or if that fails to work for you, send an email in care of this website and include "Luke Phillips" in the subject line, I'll send him your connection. BACK to the - - - Main menu sections of this website Greenville area info | Memo-News | Area photos Email Privacy Policy: Your e-mail is encouraged and welcomed and your privacy is important. This Web site is maintained by one person and your e-mail goes to that individual only. Your e-mail address is not traded, sold, or offered in any way to anyone. You will not receive junk e-mail from this Web site, So fire away. © 2006 greenvillesouth.com --gs
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Misterioso, Greenville's Radio Exploration
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Each week the program would segue through at least a half dozen musical genres, defying conventional radio wisdom of the time, which said that a show had to pick one kind of music, "Reggae" or "Blues" for example, or the public would be unable to follow it.