An Origin Story

March 1993 was a busy time for us; it had been a very rapid five years since we moved into the house in Goldstream -- our first, after ten years in far too many rental properties -- and welcomed two children, the youngest then just nine months old, into it. I was finishing my application for tenure, supervising my first grad student, teaching three classes, advising majors, publishing papers, and setting up the second webserver on campus -- and my radio went dark.

KSUA was off the air. It was like a knife in the back. That flow of activity had floated on, was perhaps somewhat powered by, the music which came from my office speakers. After a week, I bought a five disk player, and the pace of work resumed.

That fall, I was asked to advise a new major. They were excited by everything -- being in Alaska, going to UAF, trying out the major, joining a service organization, and just life in general. We talked about so many things that first meeting -- but, in retrospect surprisingly, not about the music that was playing in my office. And the next meeting, to sign their enrollment form for the spring semester, was hurried in the rush of end-of-year deadlines and activities.

On December 2, I was going through email. First was a general UAF listserv post, announcing the return of KSUA to the air. I excitedly flipped the source to the radio, and caught the last half of Pearl Jam's "Alive". The next message was from an old college buddy with whom I had long traded tapes; my excitement got bumped just from seeing his address. 

He had been contacted on a tape trading bulletin board by a college student who wanted to start a radio show, and was letting me know since that student was at UAF. And what do you know? That student was my new advisee. Shortly after that I agreed to help start a radio show, which is Dead Session.

In January 1994, we were told by the new Program Director that it was doubtful that we would have enough material to sustain the show for a full semester. That was 90 semesters ago: http://5.9.57.5/~cp/dead/showsets.html