Go Back 30 Years On Radio Free Charleston

We offer up a special not-quite brand new episode of Radio Free Charleston Tueday on The AIR. There’s also a new episode of The Swing Shift. You can leap over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and listen to this swell little embedded radio player…

At 10 AM and 10 PM you can hear a rebroadcast of most of an original episode of Radio Free Charleston, as broadcast on WVNS Radio on April 13, 1990. We bring you the first three hours of the program, bailing out before the final hour, which this week was actually a bootleg Beatle album that I was sneaking onto the station. You might notice that, even back then, we were flying our freeform radio flag high, with a playlist that’s all over the damn map.

Before we get into the rebroadcast, I play a song by The Stranglers and give a quick tribute to David Greenfield, the keyboard player for the punk/prog band, who passed away Sunday night of complications from Covid-19. Greenfield appears in the original broadcast as well, as a member of The Stranglers and The Purple Helmets.

RFC debuted on Labor Day Weekend, 1989, and by the following spring had become so successful that station management had to kill it. We didn’t last a month beyond this episode, but this was pretty epic. Remember that the show began at 2 AM Saturday night/Sunday morning, yet we had live, in-studio performances from Strawfyssh, (who were then a trio consisting of Todd Jackson, Keith Walters and I think Jon Raider), and they were joined by Brian Young of Three Bodies, and after they left the studio, Johnny Rock, Tom Hilliard and Sam Spade turned up after 4 AM.

It was pretty epic, and we spend a lot of the show talking about the then-upcoming Earth Day 20 celebration that Radio Free Charleston put on at West Virginia State College. This episode has a ton of surreal audio comedy bits that had been improvised by yours truly, in cahoots with Brian Young and America’s Test Kitchen‘s own Bridget Lancaster. You’ll even get to hear some interesting commercials presented for historical and hysterical value. That’s all heard between me spinning an insanely eclectic playlist that runs from YES to John Prine to Frank Zappa to Shawn Colvin, with a bunch of local tunes mixed in as well.

Check out this playlist…

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The Stranglers “Nice ‘N’ Sleazy”
Disclaimer
RFC Theme
Clownhole “Heads On Fire”
Crack The Sky “Love Me Like A Terrorist”
Strawfyssh “If Only If”
Strawfyssh “Sacred Pommegranite”
They Might Be Giants “She Was A Hotel Detective”
Earth Day promo
Stark Raven “Irrational People”
The Purple Helmets “I Can’t Explain”
Fishbone “Slow Bus Movin'”
Strawfyssh “Choppin’ Broccoli”
Marc Jordan “Can We Still Be Friends”
Figures On A Beach “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”
Brian Young with Keith Walters “Swinging Man”
Skinny Puppy “The Omen 1”
Government Cheese “Camping On Acid”
Psychedelic Furs “Pulse”

hour two
Brian & Rudy “Elvis ID”
Frank Zappa “Ride My Face To Chicago”
The Nude Kids On The Block “The Right Muff (live)”
Peter Frampton “Show Me The Way”
Gentlemen Without Weapons “Unconditional Love”
Suicide Hotline
The Dead Milkmen “My Many Smells”
The Clash “Rudie Can’t Fail”
Nude Kids On The Block “Happy Birthday Mo-chelle”
Shocking Interview
Smoking commercial
Pere Ubu “Waiting For Mary”
Joaquin Liévano “The Art of Bowing”
Bauhaus “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”
The Strangeloves “I Want Candy”
Messages from Strawfyssh
Don McClean “American Pie”
Full Body Slam
The Dickies “Monster Island”
Hyper Station ID
The Stranglers “Mean To Me”
John Wesley Harding “Here Comes The Groom”

hour three
The Beloved “Don’t You Worry”
Three Bodies “Treehouse”
Meandering rant
YES “Tempus Fugit”
Sexy Coughing
Syd Barrett “Dollyrocker”
David Friesen “Festival Dance”
Some Forgotten Color “Restrain”
Johnny Rock, and Tom Hilliard and Sam Spade in the studio
West Virginia Tourism Jingle
Cranky Old Men
John Prine “Illegal Smiles”
Daivd Bowie “Fashion”
Shawn Colvin “Cry Like An Angel”
Studio chatter
Dirty waiter talk
John Prine “Sam Stone”
Stephen Beckner “Blind Tomorrow”
The Sugarcubes “Regina”
Studio chatter to the end of the show

Radio Free Charleston can be heard Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM, with replays Thursday at 3 PM, Friday at 9 AM and 7 PM, Saturday at 11 AM and Midnight, Sunday at 1 PM and the next Monday at 8 PM, exclusively on The AIR.

At 1 PM today, we’ll replay last week’s Air Music Special, MIRRORBALL, hosted by Mel Larch. 2 PM sees an encore of a recent episode of Psychedelic Shack, as the entire Haversham Recording Institute crew has taken this week off.

Don’t despair, though, because we do have a new episode of The Swing Shift at 3 PM Tuesday. This week we spend the whole our jiving to the 90s Swing Revival, with bands like Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Royal Crown Revue. Look at this setlist…

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Cherry Poppin’ Daddies “Mr. White Keys”
Brian Setzer Orchestra “That Mellow Saxaphone”
Indigo Swing “Swing Lover”
Lily Wilde “Work Baby”
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy “Jump With Me Baby”
The Jive Aces “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive”
Lavy Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers
-“Everybody’s Talking About Miss Thing”
Royal Crown Revue “Watts Local”
Big Time Operator “The Game”
Atomic Fireballs “Spanish Fly”
Louis Prima Jr. “A Sunday Kind Of Love”
Johnny Favourite “Black Dog”
Dem Brooklyn Bums “Wifebeata Boogie”
Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive “San Francisco Fran”

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 7 AM and 6 PM, Thursday at 7 PM and Saturday at 5 PM, only on The AIR. You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursday and Sunday evenings.