In 1993, I created a weekend specialty show called Music Without Boundaries, a freeform radio show that incorporated healthy portions of world music. It had a 14-year run on five different San Diego stations. My longest stint was at KPRI-FM (1998–2005), which aired the show on Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings. This playlist included music from Spain, Senegal, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Ivory Coast.

I worked at KBCO-FM (Boulder, CO) from June 5, 1977, to February 19, 1978, doing a Sunday evening specialty freeform show called Hot off the Press. The show featured my selections of music interspersed with artist interviews and an interactive matchmaking feature called “The KBCO Communal Bathtub.” This is the playlist from my final show (#36) before I left KBCO to cofound Boulder’s public radio station KGNU-FM.

When I look at this playlist from 1972, there’s more than a twinge of sadness that so many of my favorite musicians are gone. Steve Goodman, Phil Everly, Arthur Lee, Gene Clark, Doc Watson, and Sandy Denny are all so important to me. Then I look at all the people on this list who are still alive and making music four decades later and I’m reinvigorated.

After only two substitute air shifts at KRNW-FM (Boulder) in the fall of 1971, I was hired full-time as the morning-drive DJ (M-F, 6-10 a.m.). Here’s the playlist from my first show on Monday, October 4, 1971. It was the freeform era when the disc jockeys picked their own music. My radio career was off to the races!