Bob Fass hosted the influential New York City radio show Radio Unnameable for more than 50 years. It served as a megaphone for the 1960s counterculture and boosted folk and blues artists.

Transcript

NOEL KING, HOST:

Bob Fass died on Saturday in North Carolina. He was the host of an influential late-night New York City radio show for more than 50 years. "Radio Unnameable" introduced dozens of major folk artists and amplified the 1960s counterculture. Here's Jon Kalish.

JON KALISH, BYLINE: At its height, "Radio Unnameable" was five hours long and aired five nights a week. When Fass left New York and continued to do the show from his home in North Carolina, it was down to three hours one night a week, but Fass continued to begin each broadcast with his signature greeting.

(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO SHOW, "RADIO UNNAMEABLE")

BOB FASS: Well, good morning, cabal. It's midnight, and it's time for "Radio Unnamable."

KALISH: The cabal was his countercultural co-conspirators who opposed the Vietnam War and marched for civil rights. And his show on WBAI, the Pacifica station in New York, served as a megaphone for the movement, as it was known. Larry Josefsson is one of the other WBAI live personalities who followed in Fass' footsteps.

LARRY JOSEPHSON: Bob Fass more or less invented what we call live radio - no structure, no script, all improvised. And there was nothing like Bob's program on the radio at the time.

KALISH: Fass' genius was mixing records, tapes, live musicians and phone callers. He pioneered the art of putting several callers on the air at the same time. One result was a fly-in in which 3,000 people showed up for a party at Kennedy Airport.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "RADIO UNNAMEABLE")

FASS: I didn't quite grasp the fact that a community was forming at the fly-in. It was then that I - like, the lightbulb appeared over my head.

KALISH: That's Fass in the 2012 documentary "Radio Unnameable." Fass and his cabal also helped organize a Central Park be-in and a sweep-in on the Lower East Side. Today, Fass would be called an influencer. Among the great folk and blues artists that play live on his radio show - Joni Mitchell, Odetta, Taj Mahal, The Incredible String Band and Bob Dylan, who joked around and took listener calls on one show in 1966.

(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO SHOW, "RADIO UNNAMEABLE")

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Mr. Dylan, I think your writing is real great and you play the kazoo and guitar real great, but it would be real greater if you could, you know, kind of sing a little bit better.

BOB DYLAN: I appreciate that good, solid, rock-bottom, foundational criticism.

KALISH: That same year was live on "Radio Unnamable" that Arlo Guthrie sang what would become a classic song of draft resistance, "Alice's Restaurant." Strumming along were David Bromberg, Jerry Jeff Walker and Ramblin' Jack Elliott.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALICE'S RESTAURANT")

ARLO GUTHRIE: (Singing) You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant. You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant. I said, walk right in...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

GUTHRIE: By the time we got invited up to Bob Fass' radio station, it had never been recorded, certainly. It never been heard on the radio, certainly. Because what radio is going let you sing a half-hour song on the air?

KALISH: In 2016, Columbia University acquired Bob Fass' archive, which of course includes calls from students in 1968 who took over the university president's office. For NPR News, I'm Jon Kalish in New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF GRANT GORDY AND ROSS MARTIN'S "I'LL BE SEEING YOU") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.