An Evening with Broadcaster Ken Freedman

Ken Freedman is the General Manager of WFMU-FM, currently the longest running freeform radio station in the United States. Freedman has played an active and central role at the station from its earliest days as a part of Upsala College. Authoritative media sources have named WFMU at different times "the best radio station in the country.” All of the station's programming is controlled by individual DJs and not restricted to station-wide playlists or rotation schedules. Experimentation, spontaneity, and humor are among the station's most frequently-noted distinguishing traits. WFMU does not belong to any existing public radio network, and close to 100% of its programming originates at the station. When the college was forced to sell the station in 1995, Mr. Freedman helped it acquire a community-owned license. Under his leadership, WFMU became a leader among radio stations embracing new Internet technologies—launching its website in 1993, streaming broadcasts full-time in 1997, and archiving most of its broadcasts since 2000. In 2007, Freedman took on the oversight of WFMU's Free Music Archive, an open source library of copyright-cleared music and audio which launched in April 2009. Freedman currently serves on the board of directors of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.