The history of music has many heroes. Many are known, and many will never be known. Sure, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, U2 and Madonna will at no time soon lose their name recognition. They are part of our lives and long after everyone reading this is long gone, they will be part of our histories. But how exactly is this legacy determined? Well, in our modern times with Internet file sharing making celebrities out of bands that would never get airplay, the longevity (and alternatively, the disposability) of these acts remains to be seen. But up until the late 1990s there was only one option available to the majority of music listeners – the radio. They were the pushers who fed rock and roll junkies what they needed day in and day out. They were the biggest heroes of them all. And Radio Revolution tells their story.

Michael McNamara’s Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8 exclusively focuses on CKLW a.k.a. “The Big 8”, a Canadian radio station out of Windsor, Ontario, and its on-air personalities. There were other stations at the time for sure, but few that had the luxury of being directly adjacent to Detroit, the birthplace of the Motown music scene. Fewer still were the stations that had a broadcasting power of 50,000 watts. They were capable of reaching most of North America and therefore of making new acts household names almost overnight. The stories shared here are of no small importance. The minds behind the station have more personality than even the most outlandish of shock jocks and DJs of today. There’s Rosalie Trombly, arguably the most important Music Director in the entire history of radio. Rosalie had carte blanche over CKLW’s entire music library and made and broke new artists every day before you finished your Corn Flakes. Bob Seger even wrote a song about her which, naturally, she never allowed to be aired. She is the force that convinced Elton John to release “Bennie and the Jets” as a single. Who can deny such influence? Then there was the 20-20 News Team, which had a diverse group of personalities themselves. They shouted headlines such as, “A heavy handed hitchhiker tipped with a trigger and paid his bill in bullets” 20 minutes before and 20 minutes after every hour. Of course, the grim realities of Detroit in the late 1960s and early 1970s offered material ripe forthe picking and fueled the cynicism, sarcasm and dark humor the disc jockeys all shared. But there is no doubt that even today there are few stations that would allow this blunt type delivery on the air. It certainly set them apart from any competition.

If the stories of the staff don’t convince you of the importance of The Big 8, the music celebrities certainly should. Included on this documentary are anecdotes and stories from major stars that owe it all to CKLW. Among them, Alice Cooper talks about the first time he heard “I’m Eighteen” broadcast on live air. Kiss owes it all to Rosalie’s daughter Diane, who begged her mother to get “Beth” played on the radio. They presented her with the gold record in appreciation. Jack Richardson, The Guess Who’s producer, explains how the band sold more records in the Detroit area than the entire country of Canada. It was the station's integration of the Motown sound to airwaves with the broadcast power to spread the music well outside of Detroit area that began getting “black music” accepted on an international level. This could have been the biggest and most important contribution the station offered North America and this is where the historical importance comes into play. Ed Sullivan, it seems, wasn’t the only acolyte who paved the way for musical acceptance.

Presentation
Radio Revolution is presented in a non-anamorphic Academy standard aspect ratio which, I imagine, is how it was initially presented. It is perfect for cable broadcast; in fact it rivals most produced-for-television documentaries. The editing is crisp and entertaining with a great soundtrack of the era’s music and the 2.0 stereo soundtrack recording is crisp throughout. Documentaries aren’t exactly demo material for the DVD format, but this soundtrack and presentation does the source material justice.

Extras
Recently I wrote a review of another short documentary, Heavy Metal Parking Lot. That was a short film with hours of extras. Radio Revolution is a better package because it doesn’t have any junk. What you do get is roughly 60 minutes of extra content that wasn’t used in the film. I can’t understand why. Unless they were forced to stick to a 90-minute program (including commercials) there was absolutely no reason to remove this material. Essentially it is like getting another complete feature – two complete documentaries for the price of one.

In addition to the awesome “alternate documentary” there are several art galleries showing memorabilia, such as the station’s print ads and sound bites that the station used to air. The sound bites were awesome to listen to.

Finally, there are trailers for some other releases: Meet the Sumdees, which appears at first glance to be inane, Shrines and Homemade Holy Places, which looks like it could be the most awesome travelogue ever, and The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati, which looks fucking mind-bogglingly awesome.)

And Now Some Parting Words…
I’ve always been a fan of music – different stars, different genres and different eras. Music, even when I don’t enjoy it on a personal level, interests me on a conceptual level. I listen to damn near everything and am usually curious for more. As someone that resides far outside CKLW’s once-immense broadcasting radius, and a generation removed, I had no problem whatsoever following along with the documentary during its all-too-short runtime. Therefore, for anyone who even has a passing interest in music history or just loves a damn good documentary, I can’t fathom a reason not to recommend them this awesome DVD. Radio Revolution is truly rewarding in every way that documentaries should aspire to. Not because it is the most objective, but because it makes damn sure that at least some of those faceless heroes of music are known.