Title: Possible Tape Exchange Sound Recordings, 1969-1975
ID: 9/50/50
Primary Creator: National Federation of Community Broadcasters Program Service (ca. 1970-1985)
Extent: 3.0 cubic feet
Subjects: Music - United States, National Women's Music Festival, Radio Broadcasting, World Music
Languages: English
Consists of 1/4" audio reels from the library of the Possible Tape Exchange and its subsequent incarnation the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) Radio Program Exchange. Programs were recorded from community radio broadcasts, and cover subjects including blues music; classical music; ragtime music; jazz in the Soviet Union; the music of Madagascar, Argentina, and Mexico; American gospel; and the 1974 and 1975 National Women's Music Festivals held in Urbana, IL.
The Possible Tape Exchange grew from an informal network of American non-commercial community radio stations formed in the late 1960s. At that time, Bill Thomas of Urbana, IL began publishing a newsletter to explore the notion of sharing programs among these stations through the dubbing and exchange of programs recorded to tape, titling it the "Possible Tape Exchange Newsletter". Thomas eventually established such a library of programs collected from public radio stations. The library started in his homes in Urbana and Champaign, IL, and later moved to commercial space in downtown Champaign. According to Bill Thomas, the newsletter had been using the phrase "possible tape exchange" for long enough that it seemed natural (and amusing) to use it as the official title of the program exchange. This network of Possible Tape Exchange participants later evolved into the National Alternative Radio Konvention (NARK) and its descendant the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB). The Possible Tape Exchange and NFCB Program Exchange served the NFCB member stations until approx. 1985, when the Exchange and Bill Thomas became part of the Pacifica Program Service.
Sources:
Bill Thomas, personal correspondence, January 28 & February 14, 2014.
"History", National Federation of Community Broadcasters, http://www.nfcb.org/history/