Sweet Baby Lou & The Reverends of Funk are a collective of University of Massachusetts students dedicated to abiding life by the gospel of the funk. The Reverends of Funk are at the very least, a weekly college radio show based out of UMass’ campus radio station WMUA which airs weekly from 12-2 a.m. on Wednesday nights (technically Thursday).

Originally founded by ‘Sweet’ Baby Lou Rodham Whittaker Jr. in the late 1970s as a funk program on the station, the show was canceled in the late ’90s as it’s founder spiraled into an array of personal problems and addictions. However the show was reinstated by Reverends Pete Rizzo and Charlie Felder in 2008. Since this rebirth, the show has been chronicling the local music scene at UMass Amherst and the greater Pioneer Valley area, providing an outlet for the campus’ musical expression and creativity on both it’s radio program and it’s website which features video and downloads from it’s wide array of guests (which aside from musical acts has included such notable campus celebrities as Motown Man, as well as representatives from the SGA and campus political clubs).

Controversy soon followed. In the winter of 2009, the show was threatened with legal action by then Late Night with Conan O’Brien Associate Producer Jordan Schlansky, for “pre-cognitive plagiarism.” Though charges were never filed, a war was sparked between the two programs. While it can not be confirmed it is suggested in some circles that this feud eventually led to the cancelation of the now-defunct “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.”

Additional funk can be found at funkumass.wordpress.com.