SquelchThe traveling festival · 1991 · 1994 · 1997Tour shirts

Fasnacht Booking presents

Squelch

Only the strong signals come through.

Three editions. Twenty-six bands. One county fairground, twenty-two cities on two buses, and a world tour. Booked out of the back room of a two-way radio shop on South Broadway in Wichita.

’91The first Squelch’94The package tour’97The world tour

Flat file 3 · Drawer 1 · Posters

Squelch ’91Squelch ’94Squelch ’97

Recovered this week

The archive recovers one more Squelch item each week.

SQUELCH ’97 — WORLD TOUR — DAY SHEET

PARIS, TEXAS · THURSDAY, JUNE 5

  • 9:00 a.m.Breakfast, the café on the square. Day sheets handed out.
  • 12:00 noonTrailer parks north side of the rink, downwind. Lit at noon.
  • 3:30 p.m.Flatbed in place, courthouse square, east side. Generator from the feed dealer.
  • 4:00 p.m.In BRRRRRRT We Trust on the flatbed. Briefing first (5 min.). Five songs.
  • 5:30 p.m.Load-in, the roller rink. Floor is wood over slab. Mechanical: slab confirmed at the service door.
  • 6:30 p.m.Chairs: 160, west end of the rink, for the session. Rows.
  • 6:55 p.m.IBWT briefing (band only).
  • 7:00 p.m.Doors. $10. Skates not required.
  • After darkCouncil of Sleep. No time posted.

Do not roll anything on the rink floor that is not on skates. — D.F.

SQ-97-002 · Day sheet · Squelch ’97

Day sheet, Paris, Texas

June 5, 1997 · Recovered October 9, 2026

The schedule for the sixth city: a flatbed on the square at four, the roller rink at seven, and a note about the floor.

Mrs. Fasnacht typed a day sheet for each city and handed copies to every band at breakfast. Dennis Kowalski kept his in a binder and checked off each line as it was completed. Every line on this sheet is checked.

Read the accession record

Next recovery

Monday, October 12, 2026

Photograph · Squelch ’91

Office of Record

A Radio Shop on South Broadway

Squelch began in the back room of a two-way radio shop on South Broadway in Wichita. Leonard Fasnacht repaired citizens band base stations and farm radios there from 1971 until his death in 1988. His widow, Doreen, kept the shop open. She also kept the books, and she kept the second telephone line, which she had used since 1979 to book bands.

She booked grange halls, union halls and a skating rink in Derby on Tuesdays. She booked from the shop counter, between radio repairs. In June 1991 she booked Mechanical into the Airframe Local 921 Hall. Afterward Del Krantz asked her for a room larger than a union hall. She said she would look.

She called the county fair board. The fair ran in July. The grounds west of town sat empty after it, and the hay bales from the livestock barns were still stacked along the fence. The board agreed to one weekend in late August, one stage and the hay bales. Mrs. Fasnacht booked sixteen bands. She had met most of them. She had heard all of them, on cassettes that arrived at the shop by mail.

The name came from the base station on the counter. The squelch control on a receiver mutes the speaker until a signal comes through that is strong enough to hear. Below that threshold there is nothing. Above it there is a voice. Mrs. Fasnacht has said the knob was the nearest thing on the desk.

There were three editions. The first was one weekend on a county fairground. The second was a package tour of twenty-two cities on two buses. The third was billed as a world tour. There was no fourth. In 1998 Mrs. Fasnacht sold the shop, and the base station went with it. Asked in 2004 why Squelch had stopped, she said nothing had gone wrong with it. She said it had been received.

“I turned it up until the static went away. What was left was the lineup.”

— Doreen Fasnacht, on the name

The Editions

Three Times, Then Never Again

’91The first Squelch

One weekend. One stage. A hay-bale fence.

August 24–25, 1991

Sixteen bands on the slab of the old livestock wash rack, a fence of hay bales left over from the July fair, and three hundred folding chairs carried out of the 4-H building after dark. It was the only day all four Kittens bands played the same bill.

days
2
stage
1
bands
16
hay bales
311
Open Squelch ’91 →
’94The package tour

Twenty-two cities. Two buses. One tent. One smoker.

June 17 – July 22, 1994

Sixteen bands on two buses, a forty-by-sixty tent for the Council of Sleep, and a smoker trailer that followed Charcoal Crusted Chicken to every stop. Thirty-six days. The smoker was lit at noon in every city.

cities
22
buses
2
bands
16
smoker trailer
1
Open Squelch ’94 →
’97The world tour

Billed as a world tour. Twelve cities.

May 30 – June 13, 1997

The third and last Squelch. Fifteen bands, twelve cities, fifteen days, and a poster in the grand style. In BRRRRRRT We Trust printed its own shirt for the tour. Sass Master Flash and Machine Gun Kitty played their final tour dates on it.

cities
12
days
15
bands
15
bus
1
Open Squelch ’97 →

Letters to the Archive

Where Were You?

My dad drove me down on Saturday and waited in the truck with the radio. I saw all four Kittens bands in one day and I did not know until later that it would never happen again.
Kristin AlbersAge fourteen · Newton, Kansas · Squelch ’91
I drove Bus B for thirty-six days. Bus A was the quiet bus. Bus B was not. The lady from Atlanta ran Bus B and everybody knew it, including me, including the bus.
Merle KoontzDrove Bus B, 1994 · Hutchinson, Kansas · Squelch ’94
There were twelve of us. I know because the man from Tucson counted us out loud before they started, and then he turned around and gave his band a five-minute briefing like there were a thousand.
Gloria EsquivelIn the crowd, closing night · London, Texas · Squelch ’97

Read all 11 letters

Recently Recovered

All recovered items (12) →

SQ-97-001 · Poster

The world tour poster, Squelch ’97

Recovered October 5, 2026

FASNACHT BOOKING

Box 41 · Wichita, Kansas 67201

SQUELCH ’94 · THE PACKAGE TOUR

April 11, 1994

Mr. Gordon Fells
Council of Sleep
Taos, New Mexico

Dear Mr. Fells:

Squelch will travel this summer, twenty-two cities, June 17 through July 22. I would like the Council to come.

SQ-94-005 · Letter

Letter to the Council of Sleep, regarding the tent

Recovered October 2, 2026

Squelch — Amarillo TX — 7/13/94 — shoulder

12:00lithickory 4
1:00210
2:00225+1 oak
3:00225
4:00230set 1 (45)
5:00215wind. +2 hickory

SQ-94-004 · Fire log

Fire log, Amarillo, July 13, 1994

Recovered September 29, 2026

SQUELCH ’94

ALL ACCESS

SMOKER TRAILER

22 CITIES · JUNE 17 – JULY 22

No. 097

SQ-94-003 · Laminate

All-access laminate, issued to the trailer

Recovered September 25, 2026

SQUELCH ’94 — BUS ASSIGNMENTS

Depart Wichita 9:00 a.m., Sat. June 18. Do not be late. — D.F.

BUS A (driver: R. Ochs)

  • Mechanical — 5
  • In BRRRRRRT We Trust — 4, plus T. Reyes (equipment)
  • Red Screen of Death — 4
  • Strategic Dehydration — 4
  • God's Lunatics — 3, plus Mrs. B. Mullins (sandwiches)

SQ-94-002 · Manifest

Bus assignments, Squelch ’94

Recovered September 22, 2026

SQ-94-001 · Poster

The tour poster, Squelch ’94

Recovered September 18, 2026

The tour shirts for all three editions are at the Sideband Label shop.