The difficult-to-assemble, low budget film about living radio legend Bob Fass finally had its big opening night.

Radio Unnameable (the movie) started a two-week theatrical run at Film Forum in the Village Wednesday. The sold-out 8 PM screening was attended by Bob and a slew of die-hard WBAI listeners who have been waiting a long time to see the finished product.

It was totally worth the wait. It’s fantastic. Four stars out of four.

I’ve talked a lot about Bob here and everywhere over the years. His radio career spans six decades and his weekly middle-of-the-night program on ‘BAI remains vibrant and important. The fact I can’t sleep on Thursday nights before my 0415 Friday work report time make’s Bob’s show Radio Unnameable a regular listen.

My combined love of radio and struggle to find consistent sleep between work shifts often leads me to spin the dial on a 35-year-old clock radio that sits near my bed. That’s how I found Bob’s show soon after my arrival in New York City in 1998.

Bob invented free-form radio as a format and he’s persevered since 1963 with a program that’s a magnet for the shrinking number of what’s left of the authentically left and left-out. His unparalleled coverage of the anti-war movement and connection with night owls and insomniacs in the big city is well-documented in the movie. Lots of his old friends, frequent program contributors, musicians and former radio station colleagues are interviewed.

The young New York City filmmakers Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson spent more than five years on the project. On a Wednesday night in April 2011, the pair boarded a subway train and lugged their camera and lighting gear to my apartment in Queens. They had been tipped off by Bob that I was a faithful listener. They interviewed me for more than two hours and shot film simulating my pre-work routine.

None of the footage made the movie. My name was listed when the closing credits rolled – and that was kinda exciting to see as I sat in the rear of the theatre Wednesday night.

Most gratifying though was the film’s thoroughness in telling Bob’s story. I learned much about the WBAI staffer revolt in 1977 that ended with the signal being cut and Bob’s termination and subsequent reinstatement. The story of Bob‘s coordination of a “Fly-In” at JFK Airport and “Sweep-In” in the East Village in 1967 was beautifully told with audio tape, still photos and supplementary footage.

Wolfson and Lovelace have talked about the difficulty of wading through Bob’s treasure trove of tape spanning his long career. They (with help from several volunteers) mined gold nuggets of audio and video and meshed it with current-day footage of this great city and dozens of interviews to make a film that defies the budget and time constraints they worked under.

I most enjoyed the interviews (backed by scene-setting) with Bill Propp and Fred Pecora. Propp and Pecora are two important contributors to Bob’s show now. Pecora (identified with a different last name in the movie) is largely responsible for helping Bob shine light on the natural gas industry’s efforts to mine gas in upstate New York using the environmentally-dangerous technique known as hydraulic fracturing. Nobody in the mainstream media (The New York Times included) was talking about fracking upstate when Bob and Fred first started sounding the alarm bell a few years ago.

Propp is an interesting character thanks to his long bond with Bob. It wasn’t fully explored in the film, but Propp has acted as the main fill-in on Unnameable when Bob’s health prevents him from getting into the station.

After the 87-minute movie was over, Bob joined Wolfson and Lovelace for a Q and A session. All three sat through the screening and they will do it again a few more times during the run at the Forum.

Bob walks with a cane. He’s 79 and his large frame moves slowly. But when he fielded questions from the audience Wednesday night, he displayed quick wit and powerful intellect while answering queries about politics and efforts to preserve sixty years of tape recordings that include his radio shows and events he covered on the streets. One question came from the late Abbie Hoffman’s son Andrew who prompted Bob to describe how Bob and Abbie communicated surreptitiously when the latter was underground.

After one audience question, Bob started answering without realizing he couldn’t be heard by the audience. Lovelace reminded Bob to speak into the mike. Said Bob: “I need to learn how to talk into a microphone!” Everybody laughed.

Bob said on his radio show last week that he “won’t make a dime” from the movie. It’s no secret Bob and his wife Lynnie scrape to get by. One audience member at the screening said WBAI supporters should abstain from donating to the listener-funded station until Bob is given some kind of pension. It was a sentiment Bob expressed appreciation for and one Lynnie spoke with a hint of bitterness about in the film.

Wolfson and Lovelace also likely won’t make money off the movie. The prominent independent film distributor Richard Lorber was in the audience Wednesday. Three weeks ago, Lorber announced his firm Kino Lorber had acquired North American rights to the film. That’s good, I guess, but Wolfson said ticket sales during Unnameable’s two-week run at Film Forum will play a large role in determining whether the movie finds it’s way into movie houses elsewhere.

Eventually, it’ll available somehow, some way to those who live in places without outlets like the Film Forum. Maybe on IFC – or Sundance?

It’ll be hard to replicate the feeling one has on opening night, with every seat full and the movie’s subject and creators in the audience. But no matter how you see it, you should check it out.