LGBTQ+ and Radio/Audio Media Symposium Introduction

On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Uprising erupted from a routine police raid at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in New York. A number of incidents continued to plague Sunset Boulevard and the neighboring area for more than a year. Stonewall (2019) (actually a series of incidents surrounding it, before and after) has symbolically marked the start of the LGBTQ+ movement in the United States. By 1970, the Gay Liberation Front in London UK organized in part due to change in the national conversation on civil rights pertaining to sexuality. Each nation has had its own breaking point(s), and the authors selected in this symposium provide perspective to the ongoing debate through the world, particularly how it is framed by and within the media. The idea for this symposium sprang from the celebratory preparations in New York City commemorating Stonewall 50 in 2019 with an ear toward radio and audio programming in this instance. While this is the springboard for the LGBTQ+ discussion, it certainly is not the only factor propelling it.

More than 50 years after the Stonewall Uprising, the authors bring to the discussion a multitude of perspectives on the role of “queer” radio and audio in an effort to achieve equity across the airwaves. The acronym in current usage, LGBTTQQIAP, demonstrates the breadth of sexual and gender identities and experiences in the contemporary world, though for reasons of brevity and simplicity, the symposium is using LGBTQ+ as the tile descriptor. LGBTQ+ radio and audio exist across broadcast radio in traditional formats, as well podcast and multi-platform audio. Lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, and extensions of those communities have interacted with radio and audio for generations, creating a transformative effect on many lives. Queer voices on air challenge traditional institutions, formats and genres, identities, production methods, and political and social structures, creating counter-cultural communities of listeners and producers. Some, if not all, of these points are articulated in this symposium.

Paraic Kerrigan and Steven Dryden, in “Openness through Sound: Dualcasting on Irish LGBT Radio” examines the role of an experimental station with a mission to serve both LGBTQ+ and mainstream audiences, by providing positive airspace for sharing discussion.

Stacy Copeland provides an overview of queer audio and radio in her article “Broadcasting Queer Feminisms: Lesbian and Queer Women Programming in Transnational, Local and Community Radio,” particularly in Canada. She invites us into a historical perspective of the leading role of women in radio and podcast audio, noting the successes and tribulations along the way.

In “Diversity on Display: Framing in the Gay Perspective Radio Program,” Ryan Charles Sugden and Christopher Terry present a look into Canadian gays rights in radio of the 1970s from three frames of reference—culture, diversity, and assimilation.

Matthew Linfoot’s article, “Queer In Your Ear: Connecting Space, Community, and Identity in LGBT BBC radio programmes, 1992–2000,” explores the contribution made by the BBC to gay & lesbian radio in the 1990s, by comparing programs in London and Manchester, UK, and how they interpreted identity, community, and the intersection of spatial relationships with sexuality.

Brian DeShazor in his invited article “Queer Radio History: Pacifica Radio” examines the Pacifica Radio archives, researching the radio program guides (1949 to 2008) for LGBTQ+ material. Pacifica Radio was the first radio network to broadcast LGBTQ+ voices with Allen Ginsberg’s reading of HOWL on the flagship station KPFA in Berkeley, CA in October 1956 and two years later with The Homosexual in Our Society, a panel discussion. Other Pacifica Radio stations opened their airwaves to the LGBTQ+ perspective, and DeShazor discusses his archival findings.

DeShazor’s story goes back to 1958, with the interview of Hal Call by Pacifica’s KPFA Elsa Knight Thompson, the director of public affairs. Call was the editor of the Mattachine Review, and the interview became one of the first radio recordings to speak openly about homosexuality on the airwaves. Thompson’s contributions to journalism and documentary production at the BBC strengthened Pacifica radio’s ability to cover civil rights on all fronts, and across the world.

This symposium barely scratches the surface of issues that need to be examined aurally, often providing anonymity while encouraging conversation, in communities across the world. One of the most influential, longest-running LGBTQ+ shows, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary, is This Way Out, founded by Gordon and Chapelle (2018), syndicated to more than 200 stations and outlets internationally. Johnson (2018) identified 40 international outlets (Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia) from the carriage list, several were internet or cable outlets, 16 were U.S. low-powered FM stations, 22 were commercial stations (5 AM and 17 FM), and the rest were non-commercial stations in the United States. Typically, those that air This Way Out (TWO) also carry other LGBTQ+ programming, so it has become a source for identifying those stations and outlets more likely to air such content. Many of these stations air additional LGBTQ+ programs, which have become part of the larger queer audio texture of daily life.

As reiterated clearly in many of the articles of this symposium, LGBTQ+ radio and audio research should be expanded to embrace the diversity of ideas and expression needed to offset stereotypical depictions and a lack of adequate historical references (beyond Johnson & Keith, 2001).

The symposium editors hope that this collection of articles serves to extend the conversation on the role of queer radio and audio, and to celebrate the past successes of LGBTQ+ producers and audiences.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Phylis Johnson

Phylis Johnson, PhD, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is professor and director of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University, and emeritus professor of Sound & New Media in the College of Mass Communication & Media Arts at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She is a former editor of The Journal of Radio and Audio Media. She is the author of five books in media studies and numerous research chapters and journal articles, as well as gaming and arts reviews and magazine features dealing with issues in sound and new media. She has presented internationally, and has more than 20 years of professional radio experience.

Matthew Linfoot

Matthew Linfoot, PhD, University of Westminster, UK, is a Principal Lecturer in Radio and the Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Radio and Digital Production. He also manages the student radio station, Smoke Radio, which he co-founded in 2004. Prior to joining the University of Westminster, Matthew worked at the BBC as a presenter and producer, including the LGBT programmes ’Gay & Lesbian London’ and ‘The Lavender Lounge’. He won a SONY Gold for best music documentary for ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’, with Tom Robinson. His current research concerns BBC Local Radio and the history of LGBT radio in the UK.