![]() ![]() JC: What takeaway would you like viewers to have after seeing the film? In combination with that musical knowledge and his voice, which is singular and truly stands out, the audience loves him. Needless to say, there’s a lot of personality in him, too. He’s also a font of knowledge not just about music but all the things that happened through the years at the station: all the different DJs and office employees, all the musicians who came through to be on air and so on. It was a very different station, but he has so much history. JS: Beyond everything else, he worked there for 33 years - from 102.3 in Bethesda to WHFS 99.1 in Annapolis and then finally in Lanham, MD, with new owners. JC: Why is Weasel so important to the film? But the times are different, the culture is different, the politics are different and certainly so is the music. You could take a few million bucks now and get the gear, rent the space, find a tower and hire some DJs. These were great years for them not just because they were young but because they got to be part of something special. JS: For the most part, they are just delighted. ![]() JC: What's been the reaction of the former staff and DJs? I’m constantly getting messages and emails from fans around the world who loved and still miss the station and are thrilled we’re going to tell the story. But as I talked to the DJs, fans, musicians, and did my research it was such a compelling story I thought, ‘How can I NOT do this?’ Here we are, 33 years after the station ended, and we have over 21,000+ fans on the Facebook page. JS: My wife, Eileen, who is the film’s executive muse asked me the same question! We have lost a few along the way - Bob “Here” in 2014, as well as GM/part owner and the “face of ‘HFS” Jake Einstein in 2007. WHFS documentary film producer Jay Schlossberg (right) with musician Bruce Cockburn, who is in the. While I knew most of them, seeing so many at one time just crystalized it in my mind. Someone needs to tell this story!” It was really like a blinding flash of inspiration. I was out of town, but someone posted a photo of the panel on Facebook and there they were: Josh Brooks, Bob “Here” Showacre, Jonathan “Weasel” Gilbert, Don “Cerphe” Colwell and Damian Einstein. But the real impetus was that on April 20, 2013, Joe’s Record Paradise in Silver Spring, MD, celebrated “record day” to support used vinyl record stores, and had a panel of former ‘HFS DJs there. As a 17-year-old, I had a summer job there and met some of the DJs including legendary Murray the K. JC: Why did you decide to make this movie? Once the major auto manufacturers started putting FM/AM radios in cars in the 1960s, FM in general benefited in a big way. ![]() One thing that also helped is that ‘HFS was the first High Fidelity Stereo FM station in the Washington, DC, market, hence the call letters. Somehow, until sold in 1983, WHFS 102.3 FM stayed true and the DJs could play whatever they wanted with no playlist. While there were other free-form stations popping up around the country, maybe 50 or so, most by 1974-75 had become corporatized, homogenized and pasteurized as they were mostly owned by big media groups. Jay Schlossberg: Though WHFS started playing mostly classical, jazz and/or middle-of-the-road music in 1961, like most FM stations in the era, things began to change in 1968 when they aired their first “free-form progressive” show and, within a year, this changed everything. Jim Clash: What made WHFS so special versus other FM stations? ![]()
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