We've started to share some interesting original programs from our past! These are from unearthed cassettes of our first ever broadcast in 1981 and our first ever broadcast using the name Musical Starstreams from 1982. It's miraculous that the cassettes even still played, given their age and all the climate variations they've endured during nearly four decades of storage and movement. All these years later they've been converted to digital and the quality is excellent! Enjoy!
The back story for these first pgms:
Musical Starstreams originated and first aired in San Francisco on Dec 20, 1981. Ronald Reagan had been President for just eleven months, interest rates were in the double digits and musical recordings were still sourced from vinyl, open reels and cassettes. There were no CDs yet! This first ever broadcast was heard only in the San Francisco Bay area. Although Forest actually uses the name Starstreams in the intro of the first set without any conscious recognition that it would later become his brand, he called it Music For Your Innerspace and Musical Starstreams did not become the official name for the first time until Apr 25, 1982.
Forest put the first show together to see if his KTIM Radio listeners might be interested in this music. There was no thought of creating a program for syndication or that it might become something that would end up being his life-long work. It was just to gauge interest for offering this unique style of music the last two hours of his 2-6pm Sunday broadcasts. The phones at the station lit up that day and lots of listeners sent in mail supporting the show. The response was so great it became a regular offering on Sunday afternoons from 4-6pm and then additionally on Weds nights from ten to midnight on KTIM.
A few years later KTIM sold and knowing everyone's days were numbered there, Forest (half way through USF Law School while all this was happening) decided to try to find other stations that might air the program. Over the years more than 200 stations have done so and the rest is Musical Starstreams history!