FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Cob Carlson, 617-319-9850
WPKN Documentary “The Greatest Radio Station in the World” Screening at the Westport Library
WPKN programmer Binnie Klein had a letter in the New York Times March 26 pointing out that, in this streaming era, people shouldn’t forget the importance of an old standby, FM radio, in introducing them to new music.
“WPKN, the free-form station where I host a show, has a devoted base of listeners who are passionate about the form,” she wrote. “You actually listen and discover in real time. It’s an experience. And it’s presented by, of all things…humans, with quirky and enthusiastic personalities,” Klein wrote.
Do you want to learn more about this highly unusual outlet for not only music, but offbeat news and public affairs, too? Cob Carlson’s new two-hour documentary about WPKN, The Greatest Radio Station in the World, will have a screening at the Westport Library on Sunday, April 16 at 2 p.m. It is being brought to the community by Verso Studios at the Westport Library. Learn more
The film tells the 60-year history of WPKN (launched in 1962) with a great deal of color, in-depth interviews with employees, programmers, station volunteers, and listeners going back to the founding, and unique “found” footage. According to director Carlson, “The great writer Joan Didion once said, ‘We tell ourselves stories in order to live.’ The radio station’s story is a dynamic one. It 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 propelled me to do the film.” Carlson will host a Q&A session with the audience after the screening.
A trailer for the film can be found at https://vimeo.com/714993269.
About Cob Carlson:
Cob Carlson was born in Bridgeport and grew up in Fairfield. He attended Fairfield Prep High school. Cob has been a film editor/producer for 33 years, the past 30 spent in Boston. Cob has worked on documentaries, feature films, major network television programs, music videos, trailers, commercials, and web videos of all kinds. He is currently an adjunct professor at Eastern Connecticut State University. His 16-millimeter documentary film, An Irish American Story, about his grandmother who lived in the South End of Bridgeport, received critical acclaim and was broadcast on PBS in 1998. He also produced the 2015 feature-length golf documentary Donald Ross: Discovering the Legend.
About WPKN 89.5 Community Radio
WPKN, rated “the greatest radio station in the world” by The New Yorker, recently completed its long-awaited move to 277 Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport—walking distance to Read’s Artspace and other arts venues. Founded in 1963 as a 100-watt campus outlet, WPKN is today a 10,000-watt listener-supported community radio station broadcasting at 89.5 FM and streaming online at WPKN.org. WPKN’s terrestrial signal now reaches to a listenership of 1.5 million people in Connecticut, Long Island, parts of New York and Massachusetts. Operating 24/7 and largely run by volunteers, WPKN offers a unique and eclectic mix of live and recorded music, news, public affairs, spoken word, arts and culture and other free-form programming which defy genre. WPKN is proud to be listener-supported, commercial-free, community-driven radio available to the public at no cost, any time, day or night.