program provided an opportunity for many gay people to connect with others, explore ideas, and express themselves. For example, gay singer-songwriter Michael Cohen, after listening to Pitts’ show, stopped by WBAI to bring him a tape of his songs. Despite getting into “a violent ideological argument” with the young musician, Pitts nonetheless played the tape on his Saturday night show, invited him back to the station to record more tracks, and interviewed him on subsequent shows. Cohen's first self-titled album was recorded at WBAI, engineered and produced by Pitts, including one song recorded live on the air during “Out of the Slough” in September 1972. Cohen went on to release two additional albums on the Smithsonian Folkways record label. Pitts’ show attracted controversy and condemnation from some listeners and WBAI staff. One outraged listener writing to the station in 1972 castigated Pitts as “spiteful, intolerant, and tedious, and a querulous spoiled brat to boot.” Journalist John Dalmas from the Rockland County Journal-News argued that Pitts “has a reputation for being a gay bigot—he puts down gays who don’t swing his way” and claimed that “Out of the Slough” had “done little to advance the cause of gay liberation.” WBAI producer Paul McIsaac, while considering himself both a supporter of gay liberation and a personal friend of Pitts, questioned the show's style and expressed discomfort over the content, particularly its discussion of intergenerational sex. Despite the complaints of its critics, the show proved an important influence for a significant number of young gay men. George Plagianos, who grew up Brooklyn and would go on to become an activist in ACT-UP, remembers that after acknowledging his homosexuality but before actually meeting other gay people, he learned about gay life and politics by listening to Pitts’ show on WBAI. Victor Patin began listening to “Out of the Slough” in eleventh grade, and described how his life was profoundly changed by having Pitts “with me, guiding me, giving me strength” through his voice and the voices of the other gay young people who called and wrote in to the show. R. Paul Martin, host of WBAI's free-form “Back of the Book” radio show, described his importance for the gay community: “By the ‘70s and ‘80s the number of gay men who acknowledged having been educated about gay male life and issues by Charles Pitts’ broadcasts was astounding.” In May 1973, Charles Pitts was again