Press
Quite possibly the most famous press WPKN has garnered, would be David Owen’s 2021 New Yorker article, On Air with the Greatest Radio Station in the World claiming WPKN as such – “the greatest radio station in the world.” Owen expounds, “Depending on when you tune in, you might hear a Stevie Wonder song performed by an all-women jazz septet, or a dozen different covers of the same Bob Marley song, or twenty minutes of Tuvan throat singing, or a totally addictive cut by the group that the founder of Morphine founded before he founded Morphine… WPKN is an important resource for people in radio-dependent occupations: house painters, carpenters, kitchen workers, artists, procrastinating freelance writers, and others who can be driven mad by stations that seem to play nothing but the same six songs by Aerosmith, Journey, Bob Seger, and Yes. Steve di Costanzo, the general manager, said, “We get a lot of calls from truck drivers who have discovered us in the late-night radio wasteland around here. Also early-morning delivery people and gardeners in the Hamptons.””
Jisu Sheen’s, March 2025 piece for the New Haven Independent – Buddies Drop In For EP Drop provided mention of WPKN in the Neubody Buddy City EP release show in New Haven at Cafe Nine. WPKN was a media partner for the popular underground techno vinyl debut release party. Sheen reports, “[John] Hatch had come to the vinyl release party after hearing about it on local community radio station WPKN, where radio host Brendan Toller interviewed HEATSYNC’s larger collective Neubody earlier this week. Iseldbjörn’s mission for the night was less clear. Hatch asked if he was staying or going, and when met with silence, added, “It’s not a quiz.” Iseldbjörn responded through action, already walking toward his next stop as he called out over his shoulder, “‘Don’t hurt yourself,’ is what you’re supposed to say!” Ravers and late arrivers waiting to get in the venue would encounter Iseldbjörn here and there over the course of the night, but he never went inside.”
July 2002, CT Post article by Andrew DaRosa – “‘Working on this documentary story injected a bolt of life force into me,” Carlson said in a press release. “The station gives its programmers a tremendous amount of creative freedom to produce great radio in whatever way they choose. That was one of the things that enticed me to do the film.’”
July 2002, Cinema-Crazed blog piece by Phil Hall – “With its mix of charismatic talking head interviews coupled with the ultimate little-engine-that-could story of a tiny station finding and maintaining a strong and loyal audience, Carlson’s truly marvelous documentary is the feel-good film of the year... In August 2021, David Owen of The New Yorker published an article that declared WPKN-FM in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to be “the greatest radio station in the world.” It was a highly subjective opinion, of course, but Owen’s celebration of the community-supported station’s free-form programming made a cogent argument about how this eclectic station was able to maintain its originality and spirit during a time when too much of radio broadcasting has become stale and predictable.
Cob Carlson’s documentary carries over the title of Owen’s work but takes a deeper dive into the station’s tumultuous history, staring in 1963 as the studio radio outlet for the University of Bridgeport and its evolution into a radio station that reflected the great diversity of its community (many of whom keep the station operational as volunteers). Today’s WPKN is the rare New York metropolitan area station that offers eclectic programming absent from the rest of the dial, from old-school blues to contemporary Asian music to invigorating Zydeco.”
June 2022 piece written by local reporter/muscian Christopher Arnott, ‘The Greatest Radio Station in the World:’ WPKN celebrates 60 years with a new documentary on filmmaker Cob Carlson’s 2022 WPKN Documentary, The Greatest Radio Station in the World.