Pop Chronicles

The Pop Chronicles are two radio documentary series which together "may constitute the most complete audio history of 1940s-60s popular music."^[2] Both were produced by John Gilliland.

The Pop Chronicles of the 50s and 60s

Inspired by the Monterey Pop Festival,^[3] the Pop Chronicles of the 1950s and 1960s was originally produced at KRLA 1110 and first aired on February 9, 1969.^[4] John Gilliland narrated the series along with Sie Holliday and Thom Beck (pictured).^[5] Also performing interviews were Dick LaPalm, Lew Irwin, Harry Shearer, Mike Masterson, and Richard Perry.^[6] The show's brief recurring theme song “The Chronicles of Pop” was written and performed by Len Chandler.^[7] The engineer and associate producer of the series was Chester Coleman.^[8][9]

KRLA 1110 originally broadcast an hour a week of the Pop Chronicles,^[8] which were later syndicated^[1][10] and broadcast on Armed Forces Radio.^[11] The photo above indicates that it was broadcast on KABC-FM sometime before that station became KLOS.

The University of North Texas Music Library has made the Pop Chronicles available online^[3] since June 2010.^[12]

The Pop Chronicles of the 1940s

The Pop Chronicles of the 1940s was produced by John Gilliland and broadcast on KSFO (AM) while he worked there beginning in 1972^[10] and 1976.^[13] To promote the show, KSFO "had a 40's month celebration with a dance remote and a jitterbug contest at Union Square."^[14] This was also syndicated^[14] and broadcast on AFRTS.^[15] In 1994, an edited version was released as the four cassette audiobook Pop Chronicles the 40's: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40's.^[16][17] This was later rereleased as The Big Band Chronicles.^[18][19]

After his death, Gilliand's sister donated the Pop Chronicles tapes to the University of North Texas Music Library where they form The John Gilliland Collection.^[2]

See also

• The History of Rock and Roll

References

Online sources

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Pop Chronicles

• The Pop Chronicles audio at the University of North Texas Music Library
• The Pop Chronicles Presents The Forties originally broadcast Sunday, November 5, 1972
• "Index to Interviews at the John Gilliland Collection". The University of North Texas Music Library. Archived from the original on 2009-06-03. 
• Los Angeles Radio People, B
• Los Angeles Radio People, G
• The Man on the Beat: John Gilliland and The Pop Chronicles, 2008 Association for Recorded Sound Collections conference presentation by Andrew Justice and Jonathan Thorn (audio).

Print sources

• Gilliland, John (1997). "On Chronicling Pop". In Barrett, Don. Los Angeles radio people: Volume 2, 1957-1997. Valencia, CA: Db Marketing. ISBN 978-0-9658907-0-0. OCLC 38994418. (The pages in this book are not numbered, but Gilliland's essay is located between the E and F entries.)

Notes