Abstract: John Gilliland (1935-1998) was a radio personality and pop music documentarian whose internationally-acclaimed "Pop Chronicles" radio series may constitute the most complete audio history of 1940s-60s popular music. Born in Quanah, TX Gilliland began in radio there at KOLJ before he moved to Fort Worth, where he graduated from Texas Christian University in 1958. While there, he was a disc jockey at KCUL and hosted a show called "The House of Wax," which featured Top 40 records and rarely heard R&B artists. Working at KLIF (Dallas), KILT (Houston), and KOGO (San Diego), Gilliland produced several radio and television documentaries before joining KRLA (Pasadena) where, in addition to appearing on the nationally-acclaimed shoe "The Credibility Gap," he began to conceptualize "The Pop Chronicles" (50's and 60's), which first aired in 1969. After moving to KSFO (San Francisco) two years later, he created the twenty-four hour blockbuster "The Pop Chronicles 40's." Gilliland returned to Texas in 1978 and spent his retirement writing and occasionally working at KREB (Houston) and KXIC (Quanah). In 2003, Gilliland's sister Martha Mullen donated more than 250 reel-to-reel, DAT, and cassette tapes (including raw source interviews) from his personal collection to the University of North Texas Music Library, where they were transferred to digital format by Jonathan Thorn. This presentation will trace the path of Gilliland's career, highlight notable moments from the donated collection, discuss preservation techniques, and suggest an approach to providing access to some 230 hours of pop music history.
