Access: Open
The Bill Weinberg sound recordings feature 57 episodes of the show Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade (MORC), which was broadcast on WBAI radio from 1988 to 2011. The collection's recordings date from Bill Weinberg's period as part of the show's collective from 1992 to 2011. Throughout its run, MORC covered a wide range of political, cultural, and spiritual topics. Some major themes addressed in the collection's episodes include ecology, indigenous movements, anarchism, the War on Drugs, United States imperialism, Latin America, North Africa, religion, and gardening. Some specific international topics covered by the collection include Cuba, Chiapas in Mexico, Mauritania, and the Uighurs in China. Several episodes address the Critical Mass protests and other bicycling and sustainable transportation issues. Activism and community in New York City are also major topics. Other episodes document internal affairs and conflict at radio station WBAI. Music is consistent feature across episodes, and shows feature eclectic rock, folk, and pop from around the world. The collection also contains an oral history interview with Weinberg that was taken by the curator when the collection was donated to the Oral History Archives at Columbia.
Collection is arranged chronologically.
Access: Open
Copyright by Bill Weinberg or other creators. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities.
Columbia University Libraries has preserved several websites related to Bill Weinberg and the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade show (MORC). These are:
Bill Weinberg's personal website https://wayback.archive-it.org/2766/20211206212709/https://www.billweinberg.info/
Bill Weinberg's descriptions of MORC shows. These sites could be particularly useful for researchers exploring the Bill Weinberg sound recordings https://wayback.archive-it.org/2766/20211206212711/https://www.morc.info/MORC_Archives_Page-1.2.html https://wayback.archive-it.org/2766/20211206212703/https://www.morc.info/MORC_Archives_Page-2.2.html
Bill Weinberg's website on MORC https://wayback.archive-it.org/2766/20211206212711/https://www.morc.info/
A website on MORC and the Moorish Orthodox Church of America (MOCA) by J. Christian Greer https://wayback.archive-it.org/2766/20211207200906/https://morcarchive.squarespace.com/
Bill Weinberg, Gift, 2021
Columbia University Libraries, Oral History Archives at Columbia
Collection processed by David A. Olson and Mollie Echeverria. Collection was processed concurrent with digitization as part of Columbia University Libraries' Mellon Foundation-funded Audio and Moving Image Project, 2021.
2021-12-21 Links to digitized audio added. kws
Bill Weinberg is a journalist, political writer, activist, and radio personality. His work and activism has focused on human rights, indigenous movements, drug policy, the environment, the Middle East, and opposition to war and authoritarianism. He is the author of the books Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico(Verso, 2000), War on the Land: Ecology and Politics in Central America (Zed Books, 1991), Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in the City and the World (Autonomedia, 1999), and other books on politics, the United States' international interventions, and cannabis. Weinberg has been an editor or regular contributor to Native Americas, High Times, The Guardian (New York-based left-wing publication), Project CBD, Cannabis Now, and The Village Sun. His work has appeared in numerous other publications and won awards from the Native American Journalists Association. His online news site CounterVortex covers issues related to human rights, ecology, democracy, peace, and the rights of indigenous peoples. Weinberg started CounterVortex as World War 4 Report following 9/11 and the United States' initiation of a new form of warfare in the Global War on Terror.
Weinberg was a co-producer and on-air personality for the radio show Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade (MORC) from 1992 to 2011. MORC was started in 1988 by Peter Lamborn Wilson, and was broadcast late night on WBAI, inheriting a timeslot held by Bob Fass' Radio Unnameable and James Irsay's Primary Sources. MORC's name was derived from a 1960s radio show from members of the Moorish Orthodox Church of America (MOCA), a small mystical sect based on the Upper West Side. In 1992, Weinberg joined Wilson on MORC. The two had met through the Libertarian Book Club, a longstanding anarchist group. Weinberg's participation brought an increased focus on political issues. International affairs, left anarchist thought, and local politics became prominently featured. Ann-Marie Hendrickson joined as a co-host in 1995. Between 1995 and 2001, the MORC collective expanded further to include Sharon Gregory as co-host, Bob McGill as engineer, Dave Smith as technical engineer, and Max Schmid as producer. In March of 2011, WBAI took MORC off the airwaves following conflicts about premiums and the views of figures at WBAI. The show continued online for a brief period before ending.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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