Sex and Broadcasting – A Film About WFMU

When Tim K. Smith moved to New York in 1989, he discovered the New Jersey radio station WFMU, which broadcast a potpourri of music and anarchistic DJ jive. Smith was hooked at once. This free-form radio station, according to big boss Ken Freedman, is meant “for everyone who’d get picked last at basketball during high school”. His totally independent station shuns commerce, but at the same time turns out to suffer from a lack of democracy in the workplace.
Smith’s entertaining documentary shows how ethereal harp-playing female vocalists are just as welcome as death metal performances. Just as colourful and unconventional are the unpaid DJs. Smith’s camera films them in the derelict editorial offices, just as the station is facing bankruptcy. Freedman therefore decides to organise a fundraising marathon. Will he and his pals be able to keep their beloved station on the air? And that without bashing each other’s heads in?

• 

• 

• 

•