Staffed primarily by Harvard University undergraduates and alumni, Record Hospital serves the Boston area airwaves with an all-night punk and indie rock radio show with forays into noise and experimental music.
Plastic Passions began as a new wave music show that same summer when Scott Michaelsen (who coined the name) and Louis Kaplan served as co-program directors of the rock department.
Led by Geoffrey Weiss (who also gave the program its name), Jim Barber and Patrick Amory, Record Hospital began in 1984 as a small group of DJs dedicated to music that did not have a significant presence in mainstream radio or other media.
[2] Record Hospital has continued in this same vein and plays a variety of punk, hardcore, indie pop, noise, psychedelic, no wave, and other forms of music with an underground, experimental or DIY aesthetic.
Starting in 1984, Record Hospital DJs maintained a "Rock Comment Book" (RCB) to communicate with the rest of the department and keep up to date with the changing national music scene.
Past performers have included Ampere, Off Minor, Daniel Striped Tiger, Sinaloa, Death to Tyrants, Lucky Dragons, Dreamhouse, Carlos Giffoni, Tim Hecker, The Body, Heathen Shame, Libyans, Social Circkle, Brain Killer, Tiny Hawks, and the Skaters.
Record Hospital DJs have also played in numerous bands, including Chavez, Lemonheads, Galaxie 500, Luna, Bullet LaVolta, Swirlies, Fat Day, Titus Andronicus, Hilly Eye, The Silly Pillows, Gerty Farish, Eloe Omoe, Lucky Dragons, The Luddites.