Ken Freedman

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Ken Freedman is the current General Manager of WFMU, a freeform radio station. He is also co-host of the radio show Seven Second Delay with Andy Breckman and hosts his own freeform radio show on Wednesdays.

Freedman has been Manager of WFMU since 1983. In 1989, he fended off a challenge to the station's license from rival broadcasters. In 1992, he founded the non-profit organization Auricle Communications, which bought the station in 1994. These actions allowed WFMU to survive when its sponsoring institution Upsala College went bankrupt in 1995.[1] A core strategy for the station was to embrace the World Wide Web, launching its website in 1993, streaming its broadcasts full-time in 1997, and archiving most broadcasts from 2001. [2] Under Freedman's management, annual donations to the station (which is funded exclusively by listener support) grew from $50,000 in 1983, to $750,000 in 1999, to over $1,000,000 in 2008.[3]

Freedman began his radio career as DJ and later station manager of WCBN, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor's freeform radio station where he is still remembered for marking the election of Ronald Reagan by playing Leslie Gore's It's My Party (and I'll cry if I want to) for 18 hours straight.[4] His brother, Samuel G. Freedman is an author of several books, as well as a freelance reporter for the New York Times, and a Professor at the Columbia School of Journalism.

Freedman also serves on the board of directors of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. In 2007, Freedman took on the oversight of WFMU's Free Music Archive, an open source library of copyright-cleared music and audio which is expected to launch in 2008.[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Wolf, Jaime (1999-04-11). "No Hits All the Time". New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
  2. ^ Applebome, Peter (2008-02-24). "Looking for Music, but Not 'Celebration,' to Remember Castro? Put the Radio On". New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
  3. ^ Wolf, Jaime (1999-04-11). "No Hits All the Time". New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
  4. ^ "CBN History: Radio/Broadcasting Timeline". WCBN Online (2005-05-10). Retrieved on 2008-06-10.
  5. ^ Freedman, Ken (2007-05-09). "Ken Freedman's Open Source Marriage of Audio, Music & Radio". Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Retrieved on 2008-06-10.