As a kid, Terry Lickona says he would get excited when signals emanating from New York City wafted over the Hudson River and materialized, as if by magic, in his radio some 80 miles upstate in the Hudson Valley.
"I was always obsessed with the deejays on the radio in New York," Lickona says over a Zoom call from his home, now, in central Texas. "And I had, you know, dreams about wanting to be a radio deejay someday."
It turns out that Lickona would realize his dream of delivering music to people in spectacular fashion. He is executive producer of "Austin City Limits" — the longest-running music series in television history; it's the only TV show ever to receive the National Medal of Arts and has also become the cultural touchstone that Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder calls "a monument to music."
ACL, as it's known, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024 and, for 47 of those years, Lickona, a SUNY Albany alum, has been at its helm.
"Nobody in their wildest imagination thought it was going to last even more than 10 years back in the beginning," says Lickona.
So, how did this "straightlaced” curly-haired kid from Poughkeepsie do it? The answer is as charming as it is simple: Willie Nelson.
On the Air to On the Road
While majoring in history at UAlbany, Lickona found his way to its fledgling campus radio station, WSUA [predecessor to today's WCDB 90.9FM), where he was a successful news producer.
"I was doing news at WSUA and when I worked at the Poughkeepsie station [WEOK 1390 AM] I was also doing news, but I quickly got more involved in the music side of things," recalls Lickona. He eventually hosted a rock radio show called "The Session" where he played music from new bands and artists: The Beatles, Cream and Bob Dylan, among others. He also remembers a particular weekend he had to work while just up the road a music festival called Woodstock kicked off.
"I couldn't get away to go across the river, literally, up to where it was happening," laments Lickona. Despite the missed opportunity, it was while working at that station that he got a tip on another music festival down in Austin. It sounded like something he just couldn't — and this time — wouldn't miss. In the summer of '74, Lickona and a buddy packed up a Datsun station wagon and headed to Texas for Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic.
Last Man Standing
That Willie Nelson concert was a turning point, maybe the turning point in Lickona's life. He traded the brisk New York winters for the subtropical climes of Texas and never left. Lickona found work at an NPR station in the same building as KLRU-TV, the PBS station on the University of Texas-Austin campus, where just two weeks prior to Lickona's arrival, the station had taped the pilot episode for Austin City Limits featuring none other than Willie Nelson.
"The TV studios were literally down the hall from where the radio [studio] was and I was just fascinated by the whole thing," says Lickona, who immediately volunteered to help on the new show. He got the gig, but after the show's first year, nearly everyone — the executive producer, producer and director — had left.
Lickona was the last man standing. He convinced the station management to let him take over on a trial basis. Not long after, the novice television producer took a bold step: expanding the show's focus from its Texas-centric country music roots to include a wider, more eclectic array of artists. Lickona's first booking was Tom Waits, the gravelly-voiced singer-songwriter known for his gritty mix of blues, jazz and folk music often portraying characters on the fringes of society.
"And I think at that point, there were some people ... at the PBS station who are beginning to wonder: 'What is this kid from New York trying to do to our music show here?'" recalls Lickona. It was a risk, but one that ultimately paid off. "I think the secret to the show's success is it has evolved and then become more adventurous and open to change, mixing up different styles and genres from all over, not just from the U.S."
In May 2024, Lickona was presented the Beacon Award, the highest honor in public television which, according to a PBS press release, "pays tribute to individuals whose work inspires Americans and enriches our nation, in keeping with the mission of PBS."
All About the Music
What also makes ACL special, according to Lickona, is that — unlike talk shows and other conventional broadcasts — they've built their program around the music experience. "Most artists, frankly, don't like doing TV," he says, citing problems such as the audience being far from the stage to accommodate cameras and short setlists limiting musicians to performing just a song or two. ACL is designed to replicate the live experience of club and concert venues. For musicians on Austin City Limits, says Lickona, "the whole idea of doing TV kind of like evaporates after a couple of minutes and they just basically play to the audience."
The anthology of artists who've played to ACL's audiences is indeed vast and varied — from Asleep at the Wheel and Johnny Cash to Vampire Weekend and Kendrick Lamar. "That's my favorite part of the job," says Lickona. "Booking the talent for the show, that's my most important responsibility." More than 1000 tapings later, Lickona still delivers a sublime mix of music superstars and up-and-coming talent. Recent performances include iconic rockers Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo and boundary-pushing newcomers like the imaginative jazz duo DOMi and JD Beck.
Lickona was surprised when I pointed out that Scooter Weintraub, the long-time manager for acclaimed musicians and ACL veterans Sheryl Crow and Gary Clark Jr., is also a UAlbany alum. "No [mild expletive]! I didn't know that!" It turns out that Lickona was expecting a return call from Weintraub about having Clark Jr. help kick off ACL's 50th season, which he did on March 26.
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Coincidence and serendipity seem to factor into Lickona's amazing life and career, which is not to imply he hasn't worked hard getting to the top of his profession. In addition to ACL, he's been a co-producer on the televised Grammys broadcast for the last 15 years and has co-produced the Latin Grammys telecast for more than seven years. Lickona knows what he's doing, but he humbly acknowledges that he never planned any of it.
"Fate kinda took me down here," he says of that first road trip to see Willie Nelson. "It was almost by accident and [it] turned out to be a good move on my part."
Editor's note: Whether by coincidence or ordained by the music gods, the first draft of this article about Lickona's near 50-year musical odyssey was written on April 29, 2024 — also the 91st birthday of one Willie Hugh Nelson.
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The buddy he headed to Texas with for Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic was my cousin, Dan Del Santo. Del Santo is a Poughkeepsie and Austin music legend who coined the term "World Beat" music. He appeared on Austin City Limits in 1979.