Larry Yurdin

Radio visionary and computer network consultant Larry Yurdin passed away in his sleep April 2, 2025, at his home in Burien, WA. He had entered into hospice the previous Friday with advanced heart failure.

Not only will we miss Larry’s encyclopedic knowledge of music, keen mind, knowledge of history, and writing and speaking talent, but his lively conversation, enthusiasm, kind heart, and gentlemanly nature.

Larry was one of several people credited with creating free form radio in the 70s and 80s. Remember, there was no internet then and the mass media was print newspapers and magazines. TV was major network and AM radio was Top 40. However, one could obtain some FM airwaves and start a radio station to broadcast alternative viewpoints. Listener-sponsored stations could operate free of corporate influence and advertising.

Larry started as a young man at WBAI, NYC, a Pacifica station, with noted free-form broadcaster Bob Fass’s all night totally free speech broadcasts, using Larry’s own record collection for music, and went on from there to an array of stations around the country.

Free form radio involved a tasteful cross-genre mix of music interspersed with news and information. The DJs picked their own music, a mix of country, western, rock, R&B, blues, and folk. The term Americana was termed to describe the mix at one of the most famous free form stations, KFAT, Gilroy, CA, where Larry was manager.

The station had enthusiastic fans, among them Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. “Music is a very important part of my life, and I credit most of that to what I discovered when I discovered KFAT, back when I was designing the early Apple Computers,” he wrote. “To this day I constantly tell people how my music ‘center’ came from those days. I constantly search out the sort of music KFAT played. It was so different, yet so good, musically and lyrically and comically.”

“…I LOVED KFAT. Not only was the music the greatest, but the intelligent humor was so Fat,” wrote listener Christy Cruze

“KFAT was the best radio I've ever heard. When I lived in San Jose we'd throw parties by putting sawdust in the backyard and cranking up 94.5”, wrote listener Bruce Jewett.

Another major station for Larry was Pacifica-owned KPFT, Houston. Larry came on as manager and saved the station from closing with a 12-hour long fundraiser called the Cosmic Cowboy where major musicians played for free. He assembled a talented team, reformatted the station, and moved it to a better location. Diverging from Pacifica's traditional block programming, KPFT under Larry featured a platform of roots music interwoven with creative news and information programming. There were several more “Cosmic Cowboy” concerts featuring Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Murphy, Leon Russell, and Kinky Friedman, which played a major role in coalescing and giving visibility to the new "progressive country".

“Your time as manager at KPFT Houston in the early ‘70s, and all the incredible people you brought together to make the vision go, was a pivotal experience of my young life. It was amazing to watch you as impresario, and what you were able to do there. So many of you have been friends for life,” wrote Danny Samuels, now partner in Taft Architects, Houston.

Larry became involved with WFMU, the station of Upsala College, East Orange, NJ, where he arrived with 600 albums from KPMX San Francisco where he had been part of transformation of that commercial rock station into something more intelligent and listenable. Larry also helped start KSML in Lake Tahoe.

A signature accomplishment was his organization of the historic Alternative Media Conference at Goddard College, Vermont, in 1970. “Most of the key players in the early days of non-commercial radio were there as well as most of the pioneers of commercial FR rock radio,“ Larry recalled. This gathering of about 1700 people took place less than a year after Woodstock. While teaching a course at Goddard, Larry proposed to his students that they run the conference as a class project. Alternative newspapers, radio stations, underground comics and video producers were invited. Helping with the planning were people from non-alternative media including Augie Bloom, National Program Director for RCA records, Billboard magazine columnist Danny Goldberg and an FM promotion director for Atlantic records. Atlantic donated $3000 and three bands for the event. The keynote speech was given outdoors by spiritual leader Ram Dass. “The conference brought together many of the top counter-cultural figures in music, radio, broadcast news, and television, most of whom had never met prior to the event. The conference was crucial in establishing business, creative, and personal connections which continue to grow to this day,” Larry said. “The meeting brought together a range of alternative radio efforts, turning scattered individual efforts into a free form radio movement…. the spark that free form ignited helped redefine non-commercial radio of much of today’s web-based audio streaming.” Goddard held a commemoration of this event in May 2013.

In addition to the above, Larry created and ran “The Daily Planet”, a syndicated feature heard 12 times a week on over 200 radio stations, featuring interviews with authors and others of note. As the Kapusta Kid, he delivered satirical news on LA station KMET. He was music director at Northern California’s largest night club, The Saddle Rack, producing shows with talent like Niel Young, BB King, and Tina Turner and also had had own music production company, Groundswell Productions, for four years. He was a production manager for ABC-FM for a year.

Larry is prominently featured in the book Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America, by Jesse Walker and in Fat Chance, by Gilbert Klein, which is all about KFAT.

By the late 80s, radio was becoming corporatized and Larry wanted a more stable life. He turned his technical bent to computer networking, earning a range of certifications and working as a computer network consultant and technical writer for high tech companies in FL and the Seattle area, including a long stint at Microsoft. His later years were plagued by ill health.

Larry kept in touch with old friends from the radio and music days on Facebook and his last few months were greatly cheered by messages and calls from them.

Larry was born on July 21, 1944 in Newark, NJ, to Alfred, holder of several patents for industrial products, and Sylvia Yurdin who worked with Al in their business, then later as a counselor in the state unemployment department. He grew up in Newark and Maplewood, NJ, graduating from Columbia High School. A precocious child, he loved TV and radio early on and fell in love with folk music as a teen, often taking the bus to Manhattan to visit Izzy Young’s Folklife Center in Greenwich Village. He was president of the Junior Congregation at Temple B’nai temple Jeshurun in Millburn, crediting the Junior Congregation with helping him navigate the teen years.

He attended Bard College, Red Hook, NY, for two years where he got involved in the college radio station, sparking his radio career. He transferred to Goddard College, Plainfield, VT where he graduated with a BA in Social Sciences, later earning an MA Education at Antioch College, Yellow Springs. OH.

Larry is survived by his wife, Claire Adams Yurdin, Burien, WA; step-daughter Natasha Bostic, Sammamish, WA; and sister Louisa Kessel and brother-in-law Stephen Kessel, Tucson, AZ.

A memorial service will take place April 17, 2025, at 11:00 AM at Bet Chavarim Synagogue, which meets at the Saltwater Unitarian Church, 25701 14th Pl S, Des Moines, WA 98198. The service will also be broadcast on Zoom.