Wednesday afternoon The AIR brings you a classic episode of Beatles Blast and a new and very special episode of Curtain Call!  You can tune in at the website, or if you’re on a laptop or desktop, you could just stay on this page, and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player lurking elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM Beatles Blast goes back five years for a show that collects some of the most entertainly awful covers of Beatles songs ever. As I said back when this show debuted (this is one of the few replays of it since it debuted)…

Beatles Blast, hosted by your PopCulteer, observes their 13th episode by presenting an hour of some of the unluckiest covers of Beatles songs ever recorded. Kicking off with David Bowie’s unfortunate take on “Across The Universe,” the show continues with celebrities who think they can sing, metal bands who don’t quite understand what they’re supposed to be doing and easy-listening vocal groups who should just say “no.” And we won’t even go into the abomination that is “Looney Tunes Sings The Beatles.”

There is entertainment value here, just not musical entertainment value.

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon.

At 3 PM on Curtain Call, Mel Larch presents a mixtape show that serves as both a tribute to the late Olivia Newton John, and to the 50th anniversary of the Broadway debut of the musical Grease.

In early August the music world lost Olivia Newton John. While she never performed on Broadway, her role as Sandy in the movie adaptation of Grease had a huge influence on how that musical was later performed on stage. Mel is a fan and wanted to give her a nod on Curtain Call, like she did on MIRRORBALL a couple of weeks ago.

Coincidentally, Grease is celebrating fifty years since its debut on Broadway. In addition to the movie, the show has been the subject of several revivals and touring companies, and this week Curtain Call brings you a mash-up of The movie soundtrack, the original Broadway cast recording, and the recording of the 1995 Broadway revival, which starred Brooke Shields.

The movie made several changes to the story, with some songs removed and new songs written for the film. With the film being so successful, the new songs were incorporated into later stage versions along with some other changes. This show will let you hear some interesting juxtapositions as it jumps from one version to another, beginning and ending, of course, with a few of the movie versions of the song, featuring Olivia Newton John.

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. A six-hour marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday evening starting at 6 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Also on The AIR, Wednesday at 11 PM, a new edition of The Comedy Vault features the best musical numbers from The Simpsons. The Comedy Vault can be heard every Wednesday at 11 PM, with the new episodes replayed a couple of weeks later, Monday at 8 PM.