After you listen to the first installment above, the story continues below with WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts — Part 2
On this episode, The Kitchen Sisters introduce us to WHER, the first all-female radio station in the United States.
When Sam Phillips sold Elvis’ contract in 1955 he used the money to start an all-girl radio station in Memphis, TN. Set in a pink, plush studio in the nation’s third Holiday Inn, it was a novelty—but not for long. He hired models, beauty queens, actresses, telephone operators. Some were young mothers who just needed a job. WHER was the first radio station to feature women as more than novelties and sidekicks. The WHER girls were broadcasting pioneers. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, Vietnam, and the death of Martin Luther King—the story of WHER follows the women who pioneered in broadcasting as they head into one of the most dramatic and volatile times in the nation’s history. “WHER was the embryo of the egg,” said Sam Phillips. “We broke a barrier. There was nothing like it in the world.”
The Kitchen Sisters Audio Festival is a month of Bay Made episodes featuring the work of the Bay Area's own Kitchen Sisters.
Over the course of the month, we will dig deep into their 40-plus year archive of audio gems: profiles of everyday people just outside the frame of history. And we'll talk with them about their mission, their connection to the Bay Area, lessons they've learned and stories they can't get out of their minds.
Want more stories from The Kitchen Sisters? You can dig into their entire archive at kitchensisters.org and subscribe to The Kitchen Sisters Present podcast wherever you get your podcasts.