Archives Receives Grant to Preserve LGBTQ Radio Show Recordings from the ’90s

Bert Wylen, host of Gaydreams radio show, interviews Jesse Jackson at the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation in Washington, DC. Au Courant photographs, Ms. Coll. 23. John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives, William Way LGBT Community Center, Philadelphia, Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (August 5, 2024) — The John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia has been awarded a $24,450 Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant will cover the costs of reformatting 312 recordings on magnetic media from the Philadelphia radio show Gaydreams and putting them online for access to anyone with a computer or mobile device.

This is the Wilcox Archives' third such grant from CLIR. The first two awards, given in 2017 and 2019, covered the reformatting of cassette tapes on LGBTQ history (1967-1992) from the Archives’ Tommi Avicolli Mecca collection and cassette tapes documenting performances from the Gay and Lesbian Coffeehouse of Philadelphia (1977-1982). The first sets of reformatted recordings are available online at: https://digital.wilcoxarchives.org/

The Archives’ Gaydreams recordings, dating 1990-1996, are made up of open reel audio tapes, audio cassettes, and digital audio tapes. Imperiled because of their age, format, and historic storage environment, they will be transferred to digital files by the audio and moving image preservation company, George Blood, LP, in Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania. Once reformatted, the sound files will be cataloged in house at the Wilcox Archives and will be made public through the Archives’ digital collections repository.  

"We chose the recordings for this project both for their content and their need for treatment. As numerous studies have shown, collections of magnetic tape are in dire conditions," says Wilcox Archives Director, John Anderies. "We know that the medium itself is deteriorating through natural aging and that the format is well on its way to obsolescence, with playback equipment that will not cause further harm becoming increasingly difficult to come by."

Begun in 1974, Gaydreams was the first weekly gay radio program on the East Coast, broadcast weekly on WXPN through 1996. The show eventually came to see a level of mainstream success and was notably deemed the "gay All Things Considered" by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Bert Wylen, host of the show from 1990-1996, was urged to take the program national by Bill Siemering, the force behind the creation of NPR’s Fresh Air and All Things Considered. Unfortunately, Siemering and Wylen both concluded that the nation’s airwaves were not yet ready for an out gay radio host of a show about the LGBT community, and the plan was scrapped. 

Nevertheless, throughout its run under Wylen, both he and the show earned a staggering number of awards, receiving recognition from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Gay & Lesbian Press Association, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Philadelphia Gay News Lambda Awards, the Philadelphia Press Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists.

The recordings feature content spanning topics such as activism, the arts, psychology, health, AIDS, family, reproduction, youth, and religion. Access to recorded sound allows scholars to employ first-hand accounts of the times they are writing about, which increasingly includes more recent history. The 1990s was a particularly crucial time in the history of America’s LGBT community and significant change took place in a very short period of time. The AIDS epidemic, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and the rise of same sex marriage initiatives, as well as many other consequential topics and themes are apparent in the contents of the recordings. The recordings were donated to the William Way LGBT Community Center by host Bert Wylen in 1996. 

Historian Rebecca Davis, who wrote in support of the Wilcox Archives’ grant application, stated: “Preservation of the queer past has never seemed quite so urgent. As some state legislatures debate whether this history may even be legally discussed within public schools and several universities shutter gender and sexuality studies programs, we more than ever need to save irreplaceable primary sources like these recordings of Gay Dreams. They are not only indispensable evidence of the LGBTQ past but crucial resources for anyone who today seeks to understand the enduring presence of queer people in American life.”

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The mission of the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives is to collect, describe, interpret, and provide access to publications, personal papers, organizational and business records, audiovisual materials, and ephemera created by, dealing with, or of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals. 

The William Way LGBT Community Center seeks to engage and support the diverse LGBTQIA+ communities in the greater Philadelphia area through arts & culture, empowerment, and community connections. We want all LGBTQIA+ people to feel safe, connected, and empowered. We strive to be a community center whose staff, management, and board reflect the vibrant and richly diverse communities we serve.

For more information please contact archives@waygay.org.