Archive of Studs Terkel radio shows to be released to public

FILE - In this July 8, 1997 file photo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and broadcast legend, Studs Terkel, appears outside his home in Chicago. More than 5,600 of Terkel’s radio interview programs on the Chicago station WFMT will be released to the public. The Studs Terkel Radio Archive will launch May 16, the late author, activist and oral historian’s 106th birthday. Terkel died in 2008 at age 96. (AP Photo/Michael S. Green, File)

CHICAGO — More than 5,600 of Studs Terkel’s radio interview programs on the Chicago station WFMT will be released to the public.

The Studs Terkel Radio Archive will launch May 16, the 106th birthday of the late author, activist and oral historian. Terkel died in 2008 at age 96. The archive will be available on studsterkel.org.

For 45 years — 1952 to 1997 — the legendary Terkel elevated oral history to a popular genre by interviewing both the celebrated and everyday people for books and on WFMT. Among the radio interviews to be released are those with Martin Luther King Jr., Simone de Beauvoir, Bob Dylan, Cesar Chavez and Toni Morrison.

Terkel won the 1985 nonfiction Pulitzer Prize for his book, “‘The Good War’: An Oral History of World War II.”

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