RADIO REBEL
West Marin's Ben Manilla reflects on time at iconic radio station
When some West Marin people came across the 2017 documentary, “New Wave: Dare to be Different,” an homage to the iconic Long Island radio station WLIR and its monumental impact on radio and music culture, they spotted a familiar face in it — Lagunitas resident Ben Manilla. Manilla worked there as a DJ and production director when the station changed gears in the 1980s to showcase cuttingedge new wave music and helped launch the careers of many well-known bands and singers.
Although he didn't realize it fully at the time, he was a part of radio history.
Manilla will discuss radio's past, those who have shaped it and its future with rock journalist Ben Fong-Torres and legendary radio personality Bonnie Simmons at San Geronimo Valley Community Center's “Radio Rebels: When Eclectic Music Mattered” at 6 p.m. Sunday online. Register for the free event at radiorebels.eventbrite.com.
After working for various radio stations, the audio producer started his own company, BMP Audio, in 1991, and has directed or produced hundreds of features, specials, documentaries, commercials and more.
Q
What got you into radio?
Awe wanted to, which commercial radio stations couldn't.
Q
What music were you playing then?
A
If you could play Jimi Hendrix into Miles Davis into Beethoven into Chuck Berry and make it sound good, you were on the right track. We played the Grateful Dead and deep cuts of Pink Floyd and others. Now, you can hear it anywhere, but you couldn't hear it then except for a few radio stations.
My father was an ad man. He bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder in the late '40s. He was an avid recordist and listened to a lot of music, so I grew up with
Q
a lot of music in my house. I gravitated to Whom did you idolize in the industry? what was then called underground radio.
They were playing my music and speaking
A
my language. In 1975, I got my first job The late Ray White was a fantastic making alternative news features called disc jockey with an incredible taste “News Blimps.” We did what Stephen Colbert in music. I used to go on air after Ray at and Jimmy Kimmel do now, where WLIR and I would stand behind him and they take news and make it palatable for think whatever he is doing, I want to do. a greater audience and have fun with it. I then got hired at WLIR. It was free-form, progressive and we could play anything
Q
You changed from being an onair personality to more behind the
scenes, why?
A
I was drawn to the storytelling of it, telling stories through audio and when I began to make documentaries and specials, I realized I preferred being behind the scenes and working my magic that way, instead of being in front of the microphone and being a performer.
Q
What stands out in your career?
A
I produced a weekly radio show called “Radio MTV” and it was the first time MTV did anything in Spanish. For 12 years, I worked with the Library of Congress, and worked with Disney for over a dozen years, doing Disney Christmas specials. I got to chance to work with Whoopi Goldberg, John Goodman, Michael J. Fox and did a blues radio show with Dan Aykroyd for 25 years and won all kinds of awards. I feel incredibly lucky that I have had the chance to do all these things.
Q
Did you realize how groundbreaking your work through WLIR was?
A
No, we were kids following our noses. What it comes down to is that we were music geeks and there was a community that existed around this music. That's the power of radio, when it can service a specific community and help people be together and feel a sense of commonality and that's what we did.
Q
You recently retired from teaching radio journalism at University of California, Berkeley. What did you want your students to take away from your classes?
A
I wanted them to understand the basics of storytelling and I would hope they get the power of radio, the power of storytelling and there's incredible creative freedom. You can do good with your work, you can inform, you can entertain people and it's fun. I wanted my students to get hooked on it, to get the bug.