Larry Josephson has been making trouble on the radio since 1966, starting as WBAI's infamous grumpy morning man. The competition, John Gambling and his ilk, were pushing oleaginous treacle on morning radio. Larry broke all the rules of radio: he ate his breakfast on the air, insulted listeners at a time when Howard Stern was crawling around Levittown in leather diapers. He told the story of his life on the radio, or as much as the FCC and the libel laws would allow.
Larry's program, In The Beginning (1966-72) became the morning switchboard of the "revolution." He never prepared, just opened the mic and talked, connecting his id and his heart directly to the transmitter. Larry read from the Times over the music of his favorite composers, Ravi Shankar and John Philip Sousa; took calls from students telling tales out of school; announced demonstrations, sometimes mocking causes dear to his lefty listeners. Katie, a four-year-old going on 40, andLisa, age 14, called in every morning to tell Larry what was happening in their lives.
Larry will explain how a nice Jewish boy from 1950's Los Angeles became a nonconformist, an intellectual juvenile dilenquent. "I owe everything to Dwight David Eisenhower, who gave his name to an era of smug self-satisfaction and conformity. "I worked against that zeitgeist," said Josephson. "When I graduated from Junior High School, the principal handed me my diploma and said, 'Good luck, Josephson, you'll need it.' "
"After five years of math and physics at Berkeley, I knew almost nothing about life, the life of the mind, or sex (I was a virgin when I walked into WBAI). During the six years the program lasted, I got a real education in politics, literature, music, love, death and sex--and the dark side of the left. I've seen the left with its pants down. Not a pretty sight."
The program came to an abrupt end when an infant daughter he had with his firstwife, died. "I was too grief stricken to continue doing confessional radio." The marriage died with the baby. Larry returned to radio after a year of academic rehab in Berkeley. Sixteen years after he entered as a freshman Larry finally graduated with a degree in Linguistics. Governor Ronald Reagan conferred the title "punning linguist" on Larry at a special ceremony held in the third subbasement of Sproul Hall.
Larry Josephson's debut monologue is dedicated to the memory of his dear friend, mentor and model, Spalding Gray.
Produced by Larry Josephson, Jennie Josephson, Matthew Flanagan & Nellie Gilles. Monologue title: Matthew Flanagan. Photo: Dana Ullman. Sound design: Robert Auld. Special thanks to Robin Hirsch, Angelo Verga, John Morrison & Joshua Rebell and the chef of The Cornelia Street Cafe.
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Larry Josephson has worked in radio for 45 years, starting as an engineer at WBAI-FM, Pacifica's New York outlet. His infamous morning program, In The Beginning ran from 1966-72. Six months after he began, Jack Gould, then the Times' Radio/TV critic, wrote a rave review that ended with
"... for those who get out of bed on the wrong side, Mr. Josephson is to be recommended in place of instant oatmeal and diet toast."
(NY Times 11/22/66)
Josephson was often late arriving to his program, after working all night debugging his programs at IBM, where he was a programmer.
Occasionally he did not arrive at all, which meant that WBAI did not start broadcasting until the next announcer showed up.
"When this happens his loyal fans presumably wait by their radios for two hours listening to the sounds of inter-stellar static ... For sheer creativity in extending the medium, these may very well be Josephson's finest hours." (NY Times 3/26/67).
Larry Josephson has been Bob & Ray's producer for 30 years: curating over 100 hours of Bob & Ray on CD and iTunes, an NPR series, and two sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall: He won a Peabody Award and three Grammy nominations. BobandRay.com
Josephson also created and hosted two national talk shows heard on 150 NPR stations
MODERN TIMES WITH LARRY JOSEPHSON about Life, Death and Everything; and BRIDGES: A Liberal/Conservative Dialogue, a failed attempt to get conservatives talking to liberals on NPR.
In 1977 Josephson established The Radio Foundation, a nonprofit radio production and distribution organization. In addition to Bob & Ray, Larry hosts and produces an annual reading of excerpts from Ulysses by James Joyce, heard for the past 30 years everyBloomsday (June 16) on WBAI, New York (99.5 FM) and on Pacifica stations and affiliates nationwide.
His current project: recording of every word of Ulysses with actors like
His other productions include Only In America: The Story of American Jews (an 8-hour documentary featuring Ellie Wiesel and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) and
What Is Judaism?, conversations about the history, liturgy and foods of seven Jewish holidays, with Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor Emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary. These programs were heard on 220 NPR stations. Links to all of Larry's past work can be found at radioart.org
Larry Josephson, 72, twice divorced, lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with a cat named Chloe. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, for which he profoundly apologizes, and was educated at Berkeley. Much to his surprise, Larry joined a synagogue a few years ago (he had barely been inside one since his bar mitzvah). He has three grown children and a set of twin grandchildren.
Josephson's obsessions are cats, kids, radio and food: thinking, dreaming and talking about food, and consuming lots of delicious dishes. His motto: food is more important than life itself. He often can be seen at Zabar's, the Jewish Vatican. Larry has his own table atBarney Greengrass, which he shares with 10,000 other people every Sunday morning.
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