TRAVERSE CITY -- What's an author and cult hero doing spinning CDs of beyond-Hitsville soul tunes on a 600-watt northern Michigan radio station for no pay?
Ben Hamper -- author of the irreverent 1991 classic "Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line," his account of life at GM Truck & Bus in Flint -- is simply following his longtime passion for non-commercial music.
"With a face for radio and a waist for sumo," Hamper introduces himself on-air as host of "Soul Possession" which runs from 9 to 11 p.m. every Friday on Northwestern Michigan College's WNMC. He also hosts a jazz program titled "Further Along" from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
Calling out from the basement of West Hall, this is a guy who's been on Letterman, the "Today" show and other national programs.
He's perfectly happy with his relatively limited but loyal audience. And with WNMC broadcasting on the Internet, it's not as limited as it once was. He sometimes receives messages from fans who listen online in Great Britain in the wee hours of the morning after returning from the pub.
Hamper, 53, grew up in Flint and worked in the auto factories from the late 1970s to the late '80s. In the early 1980s, he approached Michael Moore, founder of the alternative newspaper the Flint Voice, offering to write reviews of obscure rock records.
Moore -- now the Oscar-winning filmmaker, political icon and driving force behind the Traverse City Film Festival -- instead talked Hamper into writing a column about "shop rat" life.
Hamper wrote of "doubling up" with other workers so they could cover each other's stations and each work half a shift, GM programs to inspire workers and camaraderie between laborers.
His hilarious accounts quickly became a hit.
While some of what the workers did constituted rule-breaking, he said they always made sure the job was done right and he bristles when he hears people say autoworkers have been overpaid.
"Go heft tailgates or door panels inside a factory for awhile," he said. "Report back in a month and apprise me of how terribly overpaid you feel."
Hamper now lives in Suttons Bay off his GM pension and modest book royalties. The book continues to sell and remains in print and still makes its way onto college syllabi in labor history and managerial training courses.
Still, Hamper refuses to be a spokesman for the industry or the worker. He's declined calls from national media to comment on auto-related stories.
"After I stopped working, I just sort of figured it was fraudulent to speak on behalf of people that worked there," he said.
He doesn't write much these days.
"I'm not a good self-motivator," he explained. "It was that way with 'Rivethead.' An agent in New York called me up and said, 'I think you've got a book in you.'"
His creative outlet now is his radio work. He spends the week combing through his massive collection of CDs and vinyl for often-thematic selections from such non-commercial names as Big Maybelle, Bill Robinson & The Quails and The Whatnauts.
He approached the station more than two years ago about doing a show. He had already done a community radio show for years in Flint and co-hosted "Take No Prisoners," a public access TV talk/music/satire show. The TV show lives on as fans have posted recordings of it on YouTube and Google video, along with a 1984 "Today" feature and his former punk rock band Dr. Schwartz Kult performing "Rat Like Me."
When he asked about doing a rock show, WNMC director Eric Hines said that was already covered and asked him to do the soul show. Last summer, he also started doing the jazz program.
He enjoys digging into the vaults of the various genres. His musical tastes are versatile, but never mainstream.
"I want complete honesty in art, warts and all," he said. "Frequently, the best music has an inherent crudeness about it -- nothing affected -- just presented with a raw and relentless spirit. That's why The Sonics & The Stooges are, in my opinion, the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time."
Print this story
E-mail this story
