Archiving the past

Even though Birmingham’s Carver Theatre of Performing Arts is currently in the midst of renovation, it doesn’t mean archive efforts for the Birmingham Black Radio Museum (BBRM), which is housed there, have come to a halt. 

With the help of local and nationwide student volunteers in library sciences and history over the last several years, former WJLD radio host and BBRM Director Bob Friedman continues his mission to transcribe and create a community-based web archive for the oral history of Birmingham-connected black radio. BBRM catalogs interviews from the 1930s through the 1980s conducted by him and other radio show hosts.

“I realized there was this fantastic history of black radio in Birmingham, especially since I didn't grow up here,” he said. “I found these people, did pretty extensive conversations with them, … so what we are talking about here is the development of a very unique kind of archive.”

Friedman, who is the founder of BBRM, was interested in creating the archive after he moved from Chicago to Birmingham in 1987 and spent 25 years on the air. The greater portion of his time was spent at the Birmingham-based WJLD, he said, which is the oldest radio station targeted toward black listeners in Alabama and played on 1400 AM and 94.1 FM.

In 1992, he ran a talk show on WJLD called Sound Off, in addition to a 1950s rhythm and blues segment, which he fueled through his love for the music, extensive record collection and years traveling as a singer in vocal groups.

For the 50th anniversary of WJLD radio, he wanted to do something to commemorate its history.

“I was fortunate enough to have a microphone,” he said. “A number of people came forward with their memorabilia, with the early days of WJLD, and then further along, things from the 1960s. And that gave me the impetus to try and interview more people. My enthusiasm and excitement for the subject matter made it much easier for people to open up and tell me about it.” 

He began to write down names, look in phone books and collect as many interviews as he could. The interviews included Birmingham-connected people who were accomplished in their fields, authors, entertainers and radio announcers.

“The early interviews we did at the station illuminated that there were other stations that had come and gone that were black-formatted,” Friedman said. 

By allowing university students specializing in archival work or history to transcribe the interviews and put them in a web-based format for the websites, Friedman said it allows the archive to act as a community-based education system. It also provides rare value and insight for students to immerse themselves in intimate conversations from an extremely different time. 

Lindsey Reynolds, an intern for Friedman in 2011 and now a librarian for the University of Georgia in Athens, said that being able to transcribe the interviews was a galvanizing experience in her career. 

“The richness of the oral histories and of Bob's firsthand connection to the people who spoke them taught me how rewarding community involvement is,” Reynolds said. “The voices that the BBRM highlights are important and often unheard. I believe they have a lot to teach us as we organize and seek to stand for our community rights.”

Friedman launched BBRM’s web-based archive in 2016 as a free and available resource to researchers and the general public. Each individual interview includes a picture or two of the subject, the transcription and a short clip of the audio.

As of May 2018, the BBRM is only halfway done putting the oral history onto its website, thebbrm.org. Since the individual pieces also have to be digitized, categorized and entered with the most accurate data, Friedman said he expects the remaining work on the oral interviews to last at least another year. 

This will be a prime opportunity for more students to intern with him at the BBRM, he said. 

After the oral history is done, Friedman said he will go on to phase two and three of BBRM, which includes uploading a variety of other materials, in addition to adding new information to a 2013 video retrospective he made for the city of Birmingham called “A Radio Hero” of the history of the early life of Paul “Tall Paul” White, one of the most significant Birmingham Black radio announcers of the time during the Children’s Crusade. 

Students who are interested in interning can email Friedman at info@thebbrm.org. The Carver Theatre is slated to reopen in the spring of 2019 and until then, Friedman said the BBRM collection will be stored at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute downtown.