It’s a new year and in this weekly feature that began almost a decade ago, we have finally managed to run all the way through our video episodes of Radio Free Charleston and The RFC MINI SHOW.
So, what better time than now to start it all over?
This time I’m going to try to run through them all in chronological order, save for the four remaining “lost” episodes, which someday may turn up on an unlabelled backup disc in my office. We are bringing you the first five episodes this week, that’s the pilot you see up above, and then we’ll drop one a week, in order, every Saturday here in PopCult.
RFC began life as a broadcast radio show in 1989 and 1990. Office politics killed the show, and a conservative radio industry kept me from bringing it back for years. Finally in 2006, with massive help from Brian Young and Douglas Imbrogno, the show was revived as a video program for The Gazz (at The Charleston Gazette) and then later on YouTube. Now we’re back on radio with The AIR, but it’s cool that RFC has been back from limbo now for longer than it was gone in the first place. Whether it’s video, The MINI SHOW or as the flagship program of The AIR, Radio Free Charleston has been a constant presence in Charleston since 2006.
In our July 2006 pilot, check out music from Whistlepunk, animation from my brother Frank, and comedy from The No Pants Players, as you watch the show that elicited the reaction, “What in the holy hell was that?” from the senior editorial staff at The Charleston Gazette.
Below you’ll find our second episode, “RVD Shirt” began the Radio Free Charleston tradition of naming the show after the shirt I was wearing. Our second episode, from July 2006, presented music from Stephen Beckner and The Sleeping Dons. The Sleeping Dons were Sean Richardson, Jay Lukens and Deron Sodaro. We also had animation from Frank Panucci and a special sneak preview of the then-upcoming Batman movie, which eventually got this episode banned from YouTube. So check out this embed from Vimeo…
RFC 002 "RVD Shirt" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.
From August, 2006, we find our third episode, “Mother Nang Shirt,” which was named after a shirt featuring the then-disbanded, since-reunited legendary band. RFC 3 was restored and remastered back in 2012. This early edition of RFC features a solo performance by Eduardo Canelon, of Duo Divertido and Comparsa fame, plus a vintage video from Charleston legends, Three Bodies.
Also in this show, is the first installment of “Pentagram Flowerbox” by Third Mind Incarnation and the short film, “The Alien Threat” by Frank Panucci.
Radio Free Charleston’s fourth episode “The Blue Guy Shirt,” featuring Raymond Wallace and Under The Radar was also originally posted in August, 2006, this was the very first time that RFC Big Shot (and now Mrs. RFC) Melanie Larch ran camera on the host segments. Since then, she’s shot the vast majority of the host segments for our shows. Both musical acts were recorded in the legendary LiveMix Studio, the home base for Radio Free Charleston back in our early video days. Our animation is “Zachery Bop,” by Frank Panucci. Host segments were shot in Davis Park, downtown.
Our last video today, from September 8, 2006, is “The Beatles Shirt,” featuring Kevin Duffer, The Appalachian Celtic Consort, Pentagram Flowerbox, and cut-ins by IWA East Coast. This was the first show to bring you footage shot at The Empty Glass, albiet vintage footage shot back in 1990.
Next week we’ll go back to our normal one-show-per-week, chronological presentation. Just so you know I’m planning ahead, this format will take us a bit more than four years, and when we get done, we’ll post all the episodes of The RFC MINI SHOW in order.
By the time we get done with that, I’ll be well past retirement age.
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