Karen Shearer began her career as a publicist for Capitol Records before moving to the Westwood One Radio Network circa 1980 where she worked for the next decade as a producer on several popular music programs including Special Edition, a weekly program featuring the music of popular black recording artists. Featured here are photographs from the Special Edition series of Shearer’s collection, which consist primarily of artist publicity portraits of African American musicians from across a range of popular genres (rap, R&B, jazz, soul, rock, funk, etc.). Shearer’s collection also includes additional artist publicity materials as well as radio transcripts for Special Edition, That’s Country Music, Rock Chronicles, My Top Ten, History of Rock ‘n Roll, and various specials, including programs on Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, and the Rolling Stones.
