Curtis Hall, Tufts University
Home of WMFO


Research Building 1981-87



This building was the site for many musical and social educations. The studios of WMFO are still housed on the 3rd floor of Curtis Hall, at the corner of College and Boston Aves. Radio was an undeclared "major" for many of us, allowing a center for the development of political and social consciousness in between radio shows. The production studios allowed experimentation with open reel tape loop effects, opening up new vocabularies of sound. We ran a series of open shows between 1981 and 87, including "Dangerous Thursday" and "What Balcony", where many creative people tried their hands on the radio dials. We brought students from the Boston Museum School over to Medford to apply the artist mind to radio. I recall Lewis Gesner's project Town, which asked a group of participants to develop a shared language from the ground up over a 6-hour on-air broadcast.

In 2002 I corresponded with a younger Tufts student who said he'd heard that I wrapped Curtis Hall in magnetic tape, a wonderful image and something I would like to take credit for. So let it be said that we wrapped Curtis Hall with recording tape from the inside out. This blog is dedicated to that period and to those who shared in it with me. It remains the foundation of my love for sound.