Peter Dutton

Date of Award

8-2010

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Campus-Only Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Advisor

Alexander Irvine

Second Committee Member

Elaine Ford

Third Committee Member

Naomi Jacobs

Abstract

6AMUGH is a novel about the crew of a classic rock radio station morning show in Boston during October and November of 2001. The novel begins on the day Barry Babcock, the show's host, Mike, the producer, Chuck the Sports Nut, the sports reporter, and Jennifer Friendly, aka the Traffic Bunny, the traffic reporter, move from the afternoon spot they've been in for 3 years to the higher-profile morning spot. A few things are different about the morning timeslot: they now have to get to work by 5 a.m., the writer, Lenny, quit, retired rather than wake up so early, and he's being replaced by his nephew, Louis. And everyone keeps calling up and asking for Jimbo Russell, who retired after decades on the air, leaving behind a big pair of shoes they're going to try to fill. On Day One the show is interrupted by the station manager's wife who announces that she's discovered her husband's been having an affair with the Traffic Bunny, and that she's getting her revenge by appointing herself the new station manager and adding a co-host to the show, a professor of Women's Studies from UMass Amherst, Gloria Ramone. The two hosts clash, and just as the show hits its stride, the station manager's wife cancels the show, sending the staff into a variety of quandaries, pondering their own existences, and possibly ending the golden age of radio.

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