Susan Lachmann, singer and local DJ, has enjoyed watching the genre of women’s music evolve over the years. Lachmann proudly hosts Women on Air, a weekly program on WETS-FM. This program features music by women for women.
Commenting on the 20-year stint this program has enjoyed, Lachmann said, “There is always a fringe audience, and when you can tap into that, you have a good shot at success.”
Susan’s use of the word “fringe” may be appropriate for several reasons.
Women’s music, at its birth, was largely rooted in folk music. Although those roots still influence contemporary women artists, the genre has become much more diverse over the years.
While it has been described by some as “adult alternative acoustic,” this art form is about empowerment, not creating boundaries.
The “fringe” artists who inspired this movement did so in response to marginalization. Some early feminist separatist musicians wanted to speak directly to lesbians while others chose to focus on the peace movement, while others still were just happy to have a receptive audience.
In the late 1960s, few women’s bands received mainstream exposure in the media. In the spirit of second-wave feminism, artists began separating themselves from the mainstream to better harness the energy of the music they wanted to make.
The early 1970s saw the birth of the Women’s Music Movement and with it came independent record labels dedicated to producing women’s recordings.
WETS-FM brought this energy to Johnson City back in 1987. When DJ Louise Vahle began to play female artists as filler in between interviews and talk radio segments, fans began calling the station, curious about this new genre.
This expression of interest from enthusiastic listeners called for the creation of a radio show dedicated to women artists and Women on Air was born.
For six years, Vahle did weekly shows featuring women’s music before leaving the project in the hands of friend Susan Lachmann in 1993.
Under Lachmann’s creative vision, Women on Air now features tracks from Joan Baez, Judy Collins and other artists from the beginning of the movement, interviews with the current artists of the movement, as well as the most recent releases from artists like Emmylou Harris, the Indigo Girls, Gillian Welch, Ani Difranco, Grammy-nominated Patty Griffin and Grammy-nominated Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Today women’s music has become a global trend which includes festival tours, record labels and production companies dedicated solely to the distribution and promotion of women’s music.
The organization of this movement requires technicians, producers, sound engineers, cover artists as well as studio musicians, who are all women.
Unfortunately, when groups, organizations or programs are formed with the purpose of giving a voice to minorities, there is often resistance from the status quo.
Susan Lachmann and Women on Air have received some negative feedback over the years. Occasionally a listener will call or write in, wondering why there is no Men on Air.
Lachmann, however, takes this criticism with a light heart and a grain of salt, declaring that in her favorite review, a listener referred to the show as “the hairy leg hour.”
Despite the occasional backlash, the impact of the Women’s Music Movement is undeniable. Today, female musicians are respected and paid (or underpaid) just as much as male musicians. Lachmann suggests that maybe female artists are not quite as mobile today as male artists are in the mainstream record industry, but they are certainly well on their way with the aid of sold-out festival tours, chart-topping albums and of course, programs like Women on Air.
Women on Air broadcasts every Friday afternoon from 12:30-2 p.m. Beginning on Feb. 17, Women on Air will broadcast Sunday nights from 9-11 p.m. on WETS-FM.

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