It’s the first new program day of 2026 on The AIR  and we’re marking the occasion with a new episode of Radio Free Charleston that is winging your way despite your humble blogger and radio host spending much of Monday inside a giant magnetic tube. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

Radio Free Charleston brings you a partially-new show with the first hour loaded with great local and independent stuff, and the remaining two hours re-re-presenting the very first episode of RFC International, from January, 2016. The reason for this is that I had to have an MRI done, and accidentally scheduled it for a Monday, when I usually record the show. Rest assured that it was nothing dire or urgent. My doctor just wanted a baseline reading to aid in treating my Myasthenia Gravis.

Our opening track, Parry’s song is one of two tunes that benefit recovery programs in the state.  We ran the first one last week.

We also load up our first hour with great new tunes from The Carpenter Ants, Sgt. Van & The Highway Dogs, Gardenn, The Settlement, The Heavy Hitters Band and more.  We close out the first hour of our show with a classic track by the recent birthday girl, Ann Magnuson, in honor of her day of birth and her recent 30th anniversary live performances of The Luv Show, from which “Miss Pussy Pants” originates.

For our second and third hours we go back to the first RFC International, the series which I merged into this program six years ago to create the show you hear each week now. It’s loaded with some of my favorite tunes that I was dying to unleash into the world back then. This is the third or fourth time I’ve used this show for our final two hours, but this time at least it’s anniversary-inflected, so it makes sense instead of just being padding.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page in the first hour…

RFC V5 254

hour one
Parry Casto “It’s A Beautiful Day”
The Carpenter Ants “It”s Time”
Gardenn “Certified Crashout”
The Heavy Hitters Band “Use Me”
Moron Police “Make Things Easier”
Jim & The Sea Dragons “In Walked A Jellyfish”
Sgt. Van & The Highway Dogs “Surfing With The Sumerian”
John Radcliff  “Not Satisfied”
The Settlement “Midnight Train”
Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess “Rhinoplasty”
Vinto Van Go “Don’s Song”
Astrodot “The Impossible Mission”
Ann Magnuson “Miss Pussy Pants”

hour two
The Beatles and Led Zepplin “Helter Skelter”
The Beetlevanias “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
The Rutles “Shangra La”
Chemical Beats “Welcome To The Black Parade”
Todd Rundgren “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
The Beatnix “Stairway To Heaven”
Be Bop Deluxe “Surreal Estate”
Kerry Livgren “Mask of the Great Deceiver”
The Buggles “Vermillion Sands”
Nightwish “The Heart Asks Pleasure First”

hour three

Ian Dury and the Blockheads “Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll”
Madness “One Step Beyond”
Lene Lovich “Lucky Number”
DEVO “Jocko Homo”
ELP “Benny The Bouncer
FFS “Dictator’s Son”
David Bowie “Blackstar”
Transvision Vamp “Velveteen”
Jellyfish “Brighter Day”
Split Enz “Bullet Brain and Cactus Head”
Hazel O’Connor “Writing on the Wall”
Kate Bush “Suspended in Gaffa”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

 

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM  The Swing Shift is an encore of two recent episodes.

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.

Imma go lay down now.