Bill Virgin's On Radio February 5, 2009

Includes archive of Bill Virgin's columns fromJ une 2006 - March 2009

Bill Virgin's On Radio February 5, 2009

Postby radiofan » Thu Feb 05, 2009 9:58 am

On Radio: Gems go for another spin on 'Record Bin Roulette'
New program showcases audio rarities


By BILL VIRGIN
P-I REPORTER


Lee Marvin croons a Western ballad and advises Pall Mall smokers they can "light either end and get satisfying flavor, so friendly to your taste." Dan Blocker, Michael Landon and Clint Eastwood warble as well. And Roy Rogers and Dale Evans advise kids to pour Post Sugar Crisp into the cereal bowls.

Where can you find these audio rarities and gems?

You might find them by spending years plundering boxes of records at garage sales, as well as the tape collections of audio enthusiasts.

Or you could just let John Maynard and John Kessler do the job for you -- because they already have.

The results of their searching and researching can be heard in a new series of seven-minute programs, "Record Bin Roulette," that debuts Friday at 7:30 p.m., repeated at 1 p.m. Saturdays, on KPLU-FM/88.5 (and archived on a Web site accessible through kplu.org).

Maynard is a longtime radio veteran of such Seattle stations as KJR-AM, KXRX-FM, KZOK-FM and KQBZ-FM (the later stops paired with Robin Erickson), and who also hosts monthly conversations on KPLU-FM with real estate expert Richard Hagar.

Kessler is a musician (he plays bass) who hosts KPLU's "All Blues" at 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

The inspiration for "Record Bin Roulette" came, as many ideas do, from a bar bet. As the two tell it, they were having beers one evening when they spied a garage sale across the street. Their bet was that the sale had a box of old records that contained some true gems. Whoever scored the best find bought the next round.

You'd have to score it a draw. Maynard found a 1950s recording of "Say Hey, Willie Mays" with this producing credit: Quincy Jones. Kessler found a recording of the Stoller & Leiber song "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots" by an unlikely performer: Edith Piaf.

From that the two figured they could put together a show mining rarities, lost classics and oddities from music, movies, radio and television, with the accompanying stories.

Maynard had a bit of a head start on collecting, having gathered songs to use on the Robin and Maynard show, as well as classic commercials from radio stations he worked at. "When you keep digging, you just find more," he says.

But it's not just finding the stuff that makes the show, Kessler says. In the era of the Internet, "Anyone can find anything. The trick is putting things together, finding threads."

He cites a Cheech & Chong recording of "Basketball Jones" whose credits include such music luminaries as George Harrison, Carole King and Billy Preston. "If you look at the credits and liner notes, that's where the fun is."

Maynard is a fan of the huge production values brought to old radio ads, such as a 90-second spot for Coke featuring Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin that will be making an appearance in a future edition of "Record Bin Roulette." Such ads were "so well crafted. They threw so much money at it."

The first week's show's theme is "Singing Cowboys," hence the performance by Marvin, Eastwood, et al. For the second show, just in time for Valentine's Day, the theme is "Lascivious Lyrics."

In other radio notes:


The Metropolitan Opera performs Donizetti's "Lucia de Lammermoor" at 10 a.m. Saturday on KING-FM/98.1.


Weekend and Jason Dodson perform on "Audioasis" beginning at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on KEXP-FM/90.3.


Singer and pianist Mose Allison performs in the KPLU-FM studios at 12:20 p.m. Tuesday.

P-I reporter Bill Virgin can be reached at 206-448-8319 or billvirgin@seattlepi.com.

Bill Virgin's "On Radio" appears Thursdays in the Seattle P-I
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Re: Bill Virgin's On Radio February 5, 2009

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:32 pm

Oh this truly is "must listen radio", particularly if I know the nature of many of the old fart's club members of the board (..and I think I do).
John Maynard alone is always worth it; his run with Robin Erickson on KXRX mornings was amazingly creative, smart and entertaining radio. The fact that this guy isn't doing any other high-profile radio gig in the Seattle market speaks huge
volumes on just how awful the economy is here and how tough jobs are to come by (and hold onto if you're blessed enough to have one).
"You don't know man! I was in radio man! I've seen things you wouldn't believe!"
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