Birth of A Radio Show

This week a new radio show is being launched on Hippie Radio. 

It's called "From Me To You."

It will air every Sunday mornings at 9 am, and the first show is this Sunday, March 2.

The topic is Beatles music, and its co-hosts are Richard Courtney and me.

It's an exciting new chapter in the WannaBeatles story, another one of those things that could have never been predicted or planned.

It came out of discussions we had with Barb Deniston, the general manager of Hippie Radio, as we planned the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

That part of the story is covered in previous blogs. But what we didn't tell you is that we talked with Barb about the idea of a new show on Hippie Radio that would be based around Beatles music. 

The initial suggestion was that The WannaBeatles could host the show and have a variety of guests, with whom we could play various Beatles songs. 

I got excited about the idea, and wrote a theme song for it - a very Beatlesque little rock groove with 12 string, harmonica and slide guitar. 

Our friend Richard Courtney, whom we met when he invited us to play at the Fab Four Fest in 2008, heard about the idea and wanted to be involved. 

Richard and I had not worked together before, but we were excited by the prospect. We began sharing ideas about guests and themes, and meeting at the radio station to learn the production technology from Chris Luckey, who is not only the morning DJ but the master of software and production at the station.

Richard brought in an impressive array of guests, starting with Tony Bramwell. Tony grew up in Liverpool, as a boyhood friend of George and Paul, and worked for Brian Epstein's management company throughout the sixties.

Richard also invited Nancy Lee Andrews, the model and photographer who was Ringo's girlfriend and fiance through most of the 70's. 

Here we are at the Hippie Radio conference table, me, Nancy Lee Andrews and Richard Courtney, with Nancy's book of photographs "A Dose of Rock'N'Roll."

I invited Ken Scott, the engineer and producer whose career started with The Beatles at EMI (the original name of Abbey Road studios) and went on through David Bowie, Supertramp, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Missing Persons, among many others. He had plenty of great stories.

Barb put her sales force to work to find a sponsor for the show. Last week, she reported that the Omni Hotel had agreed to sponsor it. That was good news, and a good fit, since that was the hotel who hosted the Beatles celebration party we played on Feb. 9. 

In the Hippie Radio production studio, we watched Chris Luckey perform his magic, editing interviews, assembling music tracks with voiceover, and showing us how to put a show together. 

Today was crunch time, as we assembled final interviews, and inserted various songs into the software session that will become the template for each week's show. 

Richard and I have enjoyed putting ourselves into this process, discovering our own chemistry, laughing together, enjoying the stories of our guests, discovering obscure versions of favorite songs, and learning the technology. We hope our enjoyment comes across on the air.

Tune in Sunday, May 2 at 9:00 am on Hippie Radio, 94.5 FM, and we can all enjoy the music and the stories together. 

You might hear us mention the WannaBeatles, and Richard's book "Come Together: The Business Wisdom of The Beatles" as we explore the music and the stories. 

Bloggin' Bryan  26February2014