how did you get started in radio and television?

KEN: Actually there was no television when I started out. One day I got on the phone to a girl I wanted to go out with and she said, "hey you should go into radio." After I heard that a couple of times I thought, hey what a good idea. This is way back just before World War II in 1938 and '39.

the golden age of radio...

KEN: I think the golden age of radio is just ahead of us. I think it has something television can never have: people can use their imagination - create their own pictures.

what about television?

KEN: Many years ago I did a show, when there was only black and white, called Faces in the Window - very late at night. It came on after the used car salesmen. There I'd be in one corner of the studio: myself, the engineer and one little light to read by. I would read horror stories. Edgar Alan Poe, Rats in the Wall by Lovecraft, and scare the heck out of people. It had a tremendous reaction. I found out years later that the kids were watching because they could turn off the lights and it was a great way to hug each other in the dark. I scared them into romance. That's what they tell me (heh-heh).

you've had your thumb in the tv pie ever since.

KEN: Yes I've been doing both records and commercials. The commercials was a way of keeping the wolf away from the door. The other things: Word Jazz and the lyrics, was to keep my sanity.

is experimental radio a thing of the past?

KEN: Well, I do a show that I started out doing way back. In fact I integrate parts of the old show with what I do now. So I'm talking to myself talking to myself, if you know what I mean... Well here we are. - hey, where are we? Gee I don't know, let's go down here (wind whistle). This is the lower part of the brain. This is where we store thoughts. Can we look at a couple? Why of course, come over here. Excuse me, any thoughts in there? That type of thing. Kids love it. When you talk to yourself you kind of know what you're going to say. If it moves off where you don't know where it's going to go, it's just a happy surprise when you get there.

you don't really need me to conduct this interview then.

KEN: (laughter)

do you still have a radio show?

KEN: Yeah there's a show that's beamed from a satellite called

KEN Nordine's Word Jazz. It integrates a show I used to do called Now Nordine. That splashes down from the satellite to a lot of different places: Telquitna Alaska, Austin Texas, Madison Wisconsin ... I find out when the mail starts coming in.

thoughts of retirement never enter your mind do they?

KEN: No, I've seen people who retire and they fall apart. Since the voice is the last thing to go I've been fortunate. I love what I do, and it's easy. I don't need as much sleep now. I'll lie in bed and think up "moments" that make up our lives.

sounds like you'll never run out of ideas.

KEN: No one does. My mother - a very religious woman - used to tell me, "the eye is never filled". That impressed me.

do you mind being a faceless celebrity?

KEN: It has it's advantages. I did the last Jerry Garcia album in San Raphael. I often thought how tough life must have been for him. Although he was fabulously successful and a great artist, he could never really go out. He'd have to stay in his hotel room because he'd get mobbed. Whereas I can go anywhere. People don't know me from Adam. In fact I was standing right next to Adam one day...

i didn't realize you were that old.

KEN: Not quite (heh-heh).

are you as foreboding and serious as your ominous voice might indicate?

KEN: Oh no, in fact a lot of the things I do are so light hearted and goofy I have to watch out. Some of my work can be dark and moody but others can be quite silly.

have you ever ta

KEN a vow of silence, a sound vacation?

KEN: Every night when I go to sleep.

i've heard about various crooners pampering their throats. have you ever had to take any special care of your vocal cords?

KEN: No, I used to smoke so much that I would cough in my sleep though. My wife would spray the pillow with a congestive balm so I wouldn't keep her awake. But I kicked the habit. I don't drink any more, but I swear I used to gargle scotch. I didn't take proper care of myself until the first ten years. Sometimes I'd go out with the boys and be shouting at a football or a hockey game. Fortunately I didn't blow my throat away. Gargling with salt water is good for laryngitis. Once I got instant laryngitis: they wanted me to do a funny spot, to say, "watch your savings groooow with apolloooo" - an S & L that went under shortly. I advise people who don't want to read certain things to come down with instant laryngitis.

did the cigarettes and booze have any effect on your voice or has it always been like that?

KEN: I think that was a gift. When puberty came along my voice dropped and the only thing I had to do was learn to read intelligently.

let's go back to 1957 and the release of Word Jazz - what were you trying to achieve with that?

KEN: There was a little basement in Highland Park I used to hang out in with a guy by the name of Jim Cunningham, a recording engineer, and some musicians. They'd play jazz and I would just take off on what they were doing - create a rambling impromptu. Tom Mark who was the head of Dot records wanted to follow up something I had done for them called, "Shifting Whispering Sand". He asked if I had anything else that I'd like to do. I said I had this Word Jazz stuff, so they put it out and it immediately went up the charts. In fact Fred Astaire, who was doing his first television show, called me to go to Hollywood to take a bow because he was going to dance to "My Baby". Astaire was shy, mannerly and a genius. It was one of the high points of my life.

is that footage still available?

KEN: It's in the New York Museum of Broadcasting. I think it belongs to his granddaughter. It plays now and then.

i was introduced to your work through Hal Willner's Stay Awake project. how did you get involved in that?

KEN: Hal Willner had called me to do a television show in New York called Sunday Night with Sonny Rollins, Leonard Cohen and Was Not Was. Hal liked what I did and asked me to contribute to this concept album on Walt Disney. I think Tom Waits stole the record with his rendition of "Hi Ho Hi Ho".

he sounds a bit like you on that.

KEN: I know Tom pretty well. I think he's an extraordinary talent. Anyway Hal asked me to write something for Pinnochio because they had music but no lyrics. The concept was great: adults looking at Disney through their minds. Yma Sumac, the Inca princess from Brooklyn who sings in four octaves does a little piece ["I Wonder"].

recently you've received a resurgence in popularity with the re-release of your "Colors" album and your appearance on Incredibly Strange Music (book and CD).

KEN: Yeah, that came out of San Francisco. I met a fella by the name of Vale. He puts out these magazine books (RE/Search). He does in-depth interviews and I was included in Incredibly Strange Music. They also took some of the Colors album for their compilation.

how do you feel being in a book and CD with that title?

KEN: It is strange. It's a very unusual publication. They did one on pranks, on exploitative films - they look into areas most people wouldn't, and they do an excellent job.

most of those strange recordings are vinyl only. do you think the death of vinyl means the end of way out experimental music?

KEN: Colors is also out on vinyl by the way. A lot of people prefer the sound of vinyl - it's a warmer sound.

but wasn't it easier and cheaper in the fifties and sixties to make experimental music and get it out there?

KEN: It's true that CDs are a little prohibitive.

i don't know whether it's the recording business or what, but you don't get any more Les Baxters or Esquivels any more.

KEN: I think they still do, but on cassette. CDs are quite an investment, particularly for independents who want to play around. Let's face it that's where the fun and games are. People have become so serious about what they're doing, it becomes frightening.

are you working on anything new?

KEN: I've been working on these "moments" I was talking about. I did one every night for about a year, so I have hundreds of the damn things. Now I have to edit. I'll give you an example: the moment begins with a speech, a stumble of words, that fall out of reach of anyone near, the jibber and ish that slides down the slides like a slippery fish. (heh-heh)

i was hoping to coax you into doing some of your stuff but you're fulfilling more than your requirement.

KEN: Well I enjoy it. This is not work. You know when my son was in the fourth grade, they asked what does your father do? "My father never bothered to get a real job, and he's a friend to doormen", is what he wrote.

do you have any goals left you'd like to conquer?

KEN: There's always more. You're always running out of time. Like my mother said, the eye is never filled. Neither is the ear for that matter.

PS: hot off the wire, Ken graces us with a poem. please slap on some cool jazz to augment, you won't be sorry.