On the Cage/Feldman “Radio Happenings”

On the Cage/Feldman Radio Happenings

This is a series of posts about the Radio Happenings shows of 1966–1967, over four hours of conversations between John Cage and Morton Feldman broadcast on WBAI in New York. It covers the history of these shows, including the story of how I rediscovered them twenty years after their initial broadcast.

1. The Happenings keep happening: Introducing a series of posts telling the missing story of the Cage/Feldman Radio Happenings of 1966-67, a series of broadcasts that has been getting more and more attention on the web.

2. How the Happenings happened: The history of how the Cage/Feldman Radio Happenings came to be recorded at WBAI, under the direction of Ann McMillan.

3. What happened at the Happenings: In this installment of my series on the Cage-Feldman Radio happenings, I describe where Cage and Feldman were in their lives at the time of the recordings, and present highlights of their conversations.

4. How I happened upon the Happenings: For me, there is a more personal history of the Radio Happenings: the story of how they came to light and were preserved. It all happened because of procrastination and the pre-Internet digital social world of Bulletin Board Services in New York City. It was a rare musicological adventure.