Today, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and KLRU–TV announced a collaboration to preserve 37 years of content from the award-winning television show Austin City Limits. The materials will be housed at the state-of-the-art Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives and will include more than 800 performances recorded by KLRU in front of a live audience – from 1975 to the present day. The collection will continue to grow as new shows are produced and made accessible to fans and scholars alike.
Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and ACL executive producer Terry Lickona made the announcement today from KLRU’s Studio 6A, original home of Austin City Limits and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Landmark.
“Austin City Limits uniquely represents more than three decades of some of modern music’s most significant artists and their performances—from iconic musicians to cutting-edge talent,” said Stewart. “It’s one of the most significant archives that documents the American culture and Austin City Limits shares our mission of celebrating and interpreting popular music’s impact on our world.”
“We are honored to have our collection preserved in perpetuity at the Museum as it will allow us to focus our resources on continuing to produce great television,” said Terry Lickona, executive producer of Austin City Limits. “We are the longest running music television show in history and intend to keep doing it well into the future.”
KLRU’s Austin City Limits Collection is a valuable educational and research resource that will be available to academics from around the world, including those conducting research in musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, the music industry, television, and American history, among many other subjects. Moreover, the Museum’s strong commitment to educating the public about the history of rock and roll, and its ability to publicize the Austin City Limits Collection and make it accessible to researchers, will benefit the study of popular music in the United States and beyond.
Collection highlights:
• 37 years of content comprised of audio and video recordings, photographs and documents
• Features over 800 artists and more than 60 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees
• Over 5,500 audio and video recordings of all broadcast programs comprising the Austin City Limits television show
• Additional performance footage and audio not included in broadcast
• 40 linear feet of archival documents (contracts, printed programs, tickets, other records and ephemera)
• Over 270,000 slides, transparencies, negatives, prints, and digital images relating to the performances
The Library and Archives is the world’s most comprehensive repository of materials relating to the history of rock and roll, housing vast collections of books, periodicals, and commercial audio and video recordings, as well as hundreds of archival collections containing personal papers, business records, photographs, posters, audio, and video. Visiting researchers have access to never-before-seen materials, including the archival collections of some of popular music’s most significant figures, such as Clive Davis, Ahmet Ertegun, Alan Freed, Milt Gabler, Mo Ostin, Joe Smith, Seymour Stein, and Jerry Wexler. Extensive video footage of the Rock Hall’s past events are also being made available, including Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies, the American Music Masters series, the Hall of Fame series, the Legends series, and the Songwriters to Soundmen series.
