Leonardson writes:"Sounds From Chicago (SFC) was a 30-program radio series featuring the work by over 100 Chicago artists, curated by artists instead of journalists, presenting the recent work of their aesthetic and ethnic communities. The series ran from 1989 through 1992 under my direction and was produced and distributed by Experimental Sound Studio (ESS), the Midwest’s only non-profit organization for the production and promotion of innovative sonic arts.

SFC was made available to radio stations free of charge and was heard on as many as 30 radio stations across North America and Europe. The programs were distributed on cassette and made to fit within a 30-minute time slot. A printed SFC catalog was sent to station program directors to market SFC, and to assist directors and DJs with speaking to their listeners about each program in the series.

The initial impulse to start SFC came in 1988 when Neil Strauss, a journalism student at Columbia University invited ESS to submit work by Chicago artists for airplay on WKCR in New York City. [Neil DJ’ed on WKCR, and later published the Radiotext(e) anthology, co-edited with Dave Mandl. Semiotext(e) #16, Vol. VI, Issue 1 (New York: Semiotext(e), 1993).] Rather than simply passing on tapes, we at ESS decided to make a formal series of radio programs promoting Chicago’s diverse sonic arts and music communities.

The series evolved as I directed it. I learned of Hörspiel and the efforts in the U.S. [Jacki Apple, New American Radio] to use radio as a unique medium for the transmission of sound as art. In our final year open calls for curators challenged artists to explore broadcast radio transmission as a medium with its own unique expressive possibilities. I hoped anyone who answered the call would consider established norms of broadcast radio and make programs for SFC as art for radio within this context. "