Throwback Thursday: Celebrate KJHK’s 40th anniversary with this documentary

October 29, 2015

Nick Spacek,

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The University of Kansas’ student-run radio station, KJHK 90.7 FM, is in the midst of celebrating its 40th year on-air. As part of the celebration, it’s throwing shows, having reunion episodes of long-running programs like Malicious Intent, and just generally reveling in the spirit of “educating through sonic corruption and corrupting through sonic education.”

Our TBT this week is a documentary on the station, produced in 2004 by Matt Beat (currently of Electric Needle Room) and put together right around the 30th anniversary of Lawrence’s sound alternative. It provides a look at what was a very different station from the one currently broadcasting. Only slightly more than five years after Beat made his short film, KJHK would leave its home featured in the documentary — familiar to all in the know as “the Shack” — and move to a half-million-dollar, state-of-the-art facility in the Kansas Union.

It’s a fascinating look back at a retrospective and may raise a tear in the eye of those who did time in the college radio trenches.