Santa Fe Film Festival 2008

If you want to see how America works, look at what happened to rock radio.For 50 years, it was our revolutionary medium. Radio had the power to move people then. And deejays seized it. In the 1950s, a handful of AM pioneers introduced white America to black rhythm and blues. Then New York deejay Alan Freed changed the course of American history by branding it 'rock and roll.' In the glory years of rock radio, personalities like Cousin Brucie, Murray the K, Dan Ingram, Jerry Blavat, Dick Biondi, Casey Kasem and Wolfman Jack ruled the airwaves.But from its earliest roots, rock radio had powerful enemies. In 1960, prodded by big-business interests, Congress held 'payola' hearings to target the deejays guilty of breaking down economic and racial barriers. Deejays like Alan Freed were booted off the air. Program director and radio consultants took control. Deejays could no longer play their own music. Rock radio became bland and predictable.Then came a new wave of deejays who set up shop on the FM dial. 'Top 40 is dead,' Declared Tom Donahue in San Francisco. 'And its rotting corpse is stinking up the airwaves.' They discovered bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, igniting a cultural revolution that helped end the Vietnam War. Until FM, too, was silenced by FCC intimidation and corporate greed. And 60s rock became 70s disco.When rock radio lost its soul, a flame went out. 'Airplay' pays tribute to those unsung heroes--and the promise of a rebirth on satellite radio. It's a story of love and war, told by the deejays and the artists they made rock stars. It celebrates a time when we all listened together and it changed our lives.