ARTIST OF THE MONTH FOR NOVEMBER PUSHED BACK TO DECEMBER, THANKS TO A GAL NAMED SANDY!

Hurricane Sandy wreaked a little havoc with my radio station during the last couple of days. I am up and running again, but the storm put me way behind with my new adds. It wasn't due so much to the wind and the rain, but a freak lightning storm that lasted only 5 minutes.

Therefore, The Everly Brothers will be pushed back to being the featured Artist Of The Month for December. This will give me more time to beef up content on them as well as being able to devote more time to new adds for the general rotation.

Thank you for your understanding...and now back to our regular programming...

CHANGING MY MIND MORE OFTEN THAN MENUDO CHANGED THEIR LINEUP!

I listened to my master playlist a few times this past weekend in its "no repeat" format, and I have decided that it's not the most ideal way to present my programming. I found that occasionally I would have wanted to move a few tracks either up or down in the rotation, which would mean saving the changes afterwards. Saving the changes results in the master playlist starting all over again. This would have created more work for me as the flow would have needed constant reorganizing.

I would rather spend more of my time presenting new content with song facts and artist promotional commentary. Once I submit my new content, the programming does its thing automatically; having to do additional steps with it is not why I got into music broadcasting in the first place.

And speaking of new content/new adds, that was another major issue. I don't want my listeners to have to wait at least a week to hear any new tracks I add. I have found that my new adds get thrown into the mix fairly promptly with my master playlist being on random shuffling.

I honestly think that any issues I have with a few tracks repeating either twice a day or on consecutive days are very minor. You need to stop and think about what I'm playing, which is seldom-heard oldies! These are tracks that never got a ton of airplay to begin with; they're far from being in the overplayed league of "Stairway To Heaven" and "More Than A Feeling!" Let's face it...with the playlist being on random shuffling, at least the daily mix is virtually guaranteed to be different! The "no repeat" format would have grown old a lot quicker; you would have noticed the same tracks being played every Monday. Does this make any sense?

My listener count is not really where I want it to be right now, so I'm not going to be moving full steam ahead on any new show ideas until after 2013 begins. Speaking of new show ideas, I do have a few going through my head right now. Please visit my webpage at http://retroatticrareoldiesradio.blogspot.com and look for my current poll; please participate in it and let me know which show ideas sound the best to you(you can make multiple choices).

I have plenty of cool new adds coming this week(in addition to the ones I have already added in the past week, which can be viewed in my "New Attic Adds" section of my webpage), so please keep tuning in and thanks for being a loyal listener!

PANHANDLE - HEY GIRL - 1969 SINGLE ON HAPPY TIGER RECORDS - INTERNET MYSTERY SOLVED!

I recently added this record to my rotation; I liked it a lot, so I decided to track down some information on it. It turned out that ever since 2004, no one on the net seemed to know anything about this group. I think I have the puzzle pieces all in place, so here goes my theory:

"Hey Girl" by Florida group Panhandle(Happy Tiger Records 523) bubbled under at #122 for 1 week on November 22, 1969. The group name apparently came about due to the songwriter's Texas and Florida connections. The song was written by Galen Ray, who was with a Texas garage band called The Checkmates. In 1965, The Checkmates released "Hey Girl" b/w "All The Time Now" on the Ruff Records label. "All The Time Now" is also the flip of the Happy Tiger record. Both versions of "Hey Girl" sound very similar, but there is a difference. The Ruff Records version is straight-ahead jangly guitar pop in the style of The Byrds and The Beau Brummels. The Happy Tiger version adds in some horns, which in 1969 was the "in" thing(think of Thee Prophets' "Playgirl" as an example). The time lengths are almost identical(maybe a 2 second difference).

Ruff Records was run by Ray Ruff, who would later join the staff of Happy Tiger Records as an engineer and a producer. So as you can see, we had one happy family here who apparently stayed in touch for a few years. From what I can gather, Galen knew a fellow musician who lived on the Georgia/Florida border, so that is probably how he ended up in Florida.

Panhandle would release 1 more 45 on Happy Tiger 532 in 1970("Everyday" b/w "Tears Come With Forgetting You"). I have yet to hear it, but I look forward to it.

Thanks goes out to http://www.garagehangover.com for leading me in the right direction. Keep an ear out for this great pop gem here on The Retro Attic - 50s To 80s Rare Oldies!

NEW PROGRAMMING CHANGES FOR 2013!

The Retro Attic - 50s To 80s Rare Oldies is going to have a few noticeable changes in its programming to kick off 2013. I'll mention the major ones:

1. We will start off the new year being as close to a true "No Repeat Workdays...And Weekends" station as you can get. In other words, there will be a different playlist for each day of the week. Right now, I certainly have plenty in the inventory so that I can pull this off. A couple of my listeners have noted that certain songs are getting heard on consecutive days, which is a bit strange because none of the songs on my master list carry any special weight over the others(it's just one of those crazy "luck of the draw" situations). While it hasn't been such a problem that it would make people want to change the dial, I don't want to end up being like my local classic rock station who is lucky if they manage to repeat a song every other day(trust me, they play plenty of the same titles each and every day!). I'm always adding new titles, so you won't be hearing the same exact playlist every Monday(as an example). If you don't want to wait a week to hear a certain song, then put my request form to good use, which is located on my webpage at http://retroatticrareoldiesradio.blogspot.com.

2. "The American Bottom 45 - The Other Grooves" will return in January and will be a monthly feature. We will focus on a specific week from that month in a specific year, counting down all the records from #100 through #41 along with a "Bubbling Under" entry. The show will air twice a week(one weekday and one weekend night, yet to be determined). I can tell you that the first two shows of 2013 will be taking you back to January 1981 and February 1969. I did a test run of the show in October, but I will be unable to present any new shows for the rest of 2012 as I will be pretty busy(holidays, day job, etc.).

3. Retro commercials will be thrown into the regular programming. Whether it's an ad for a vintage cereal, an ad for some band's "new album," an ad for "state-of-the-art" stereo equipment, or an ad for a classic TV show...you'll never know when you will be hearing them!

4. It was suggested that I throw in some material from the early 90's, so I will include some "here and there." It won't be so much that I will be forced to change my station IDs or sweepers; I want the main emphasis of my station to remain "50s To 80s Rare Oldies." In my opinion, the quality of the charts started going way downhill after 1993. Therefore, you will more than likely hear me play material from Roxette, Sophie B. Hawkins, Danger Danger, Go West, The Gin Blossoms, Steelheart, etc. Don't expect to hear gangsta rap or "Rump Shaker." I would rather play The Digable Planets or something from Milli Vanilli's little-known post-Grammy fiasco than that stuff! I may also dabble with mid to late 40's tunes, but I'm going to educate myself further on those first.

5. News updates on artists in my rotation will either be worked into certain songs or will be featured as posts on my webpage. I'm probably going to start that right away.

You have the rest of this year to voice your opinion on the above changes, so feel free to let me know what you think!

WEEKLY NEWS UPDATES ON 3 "FORGOTTEN ARTISTS"

Starting tomorrow(October 9th), I will be airing a short segment every 2 hours that will give my listeners an update on 3 "forgotten artists" that I always have in my regular rotation. The main purposes will be to give those who were/are fans of these artists their official website addresses and/or information on their latest album releases and whether they're out there touring or not.

I want to make sure that ample opportunity is given to hear each update, so a new update on 3 other artists will come out every Tuesday morning.

The first update will focus on the 70's and 80's era, featuring Quarterflash, Shoes, and Atlanta Rhythm Section. I hope this will strike a chord with you!