Rediscovered Radio: Women’s Voices, Women’s Music in the WYSO Archives

No discussion of live music in Dayton could take place without mentioning Sharon Lane. She’s a living legend who has graced local stages for over four decades. This bonus episode features excerpts from her free-wheeling conversation with co-host Jocelyn Robinson.

In this episode of Women’s Voices, Women’s Music, we explore the Dayton Women’s Music Collective and the singers and songwriters who brought women’s musical genius to local stages.

Women in Music aired on WYSO from 1975 to 2001. It was believed to be the longest running women’s music radio show in the United States.

Cohosts Jocelyn Robinson and Juliet Fromholt have an audio preview of the next few episodes, which dive deep into women’s music of the past four decades.

Take a trip down Memory Lane with Suzanne Hopkins of the Hotmud Family.

In this bonus episode of Rediscovered Radio: Women's Voices, Women's Music in the WYSO Archives, an interview between co-host Jocelyn Robinson and WYSO’s former general manager, Neenah Ellis.

In the 1970s, Celtic music found a home on WYSO’s airwaves alongside bluegrass, and numerous other genres. It was a love for Celtic music that brought Phyllis Brzozowska to WYSO, and eventually to presenting concerts for the Dayton community. Those concerts led to the creation of Cityfolk, a local organization that celebrated music from a variety of folk traditions.

In the early-mid 1970s, WYSO was the site of an explosion in bluegrass and old-time music, both on the air and at venues throughout the Miami Valley.

Over the past 66 years, WYSO made the transition from a student-run college radio station to community radio to the Miami Valley’s major public media outlet, and the WYSO Archives holds the chronicle of that transition.

In our upcoming six episode podcast, hosts Juliet Fromholt and Jocelyn Robinson will share gems from WYSO’s extensive archive, featuring the work of women musicians, and women hosts and presenters in different stages of the station’s history. The podcast series will celebrate women’s voices past and present, and look at the role those voices were given in the local and national music scenes with a critical lens.