The 3rd Annual Retro Christmas is on the Air!

Re-live your Christmas memories...all on glorious vinyl.  Now until December 28, 2014.

It's Time for a Vinyl Christmas!

Yes, it's that time of the year.  On Sunday, December 21 the Vinyl Voyage will go all Christmas music all the time.  Until Saturday, December 28.

Relive your Christmas memories with great songs from Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Vikki Carr, and many, many more.  Remember those old Christmas compilation albums?  Yes, we have them. Compilations you could buy from Ace Hardware and True Value.  Christmas Memory compilations. These compilations featured great singers, plus orchestras such as Boston Pops, Robert Shaw Chorale, Henry Mancini and the Vienna Boys Choir.

This isn't the music you hear today too much on the radio.  No Mariah Carey here.  Or Wham!

Just pure Christmas memories.

Only on Vinyl Voyage Radio.

Merry Christmas!

Click here for the live feed.

This Month on AiV--K-Tel's "Radio Active"

This month ion Adventures in Vinyl, we are going into the archives for a great episode from 2012. Here is the original article.

In 1982, K-Tel did it again with Radio Active. This album demonstrates one of the more endearing things about K-Tel albums: variety. On this album we have powerhouses like the Who and the Police with the Commodores and Rick James. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the whole concept of "shuffle" advocated by Apple with the introduction of the iPod in 2001 was a concept pioneered by K-Tel decades earlier.

When Apple announced the iPod, one of the selling points was to have access to a variety of different music at your fingertips. On October 23, 2001, Steve Jobs demonstrated the new iPod, featuring his own playlist and his ability to move between very different types of music. The songs on Steve Jobs' playlist? "Building a Mystery" by Sarah McLachlan, "Porcelain" by Moby, "Sweet Sixteen" by Chuck Berry, "One Week" by Bare Naked Ladies and "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan. Although you can't randomly shuffle an album, one of the iPod's primary functions is to deliver music, sometimes in a very eclectic way. K-Tel was doing that throughout the 70s and 80s.

And one needs to look no farther than Radio Active to see this in practice. Radio Active contains 14 songs from 1980-1981. The artists include REO Speedwagon, the Police, Blondie, Devo, the Moody Blues, Genesis, Rick James, the Commodores, Pat Benatar, Hall and Oates, Rick Springfield, Carl Carlton and the Who. Most of the album falls in the pop/rock genre. On side two of Radio Active, however, the very popular "No Reply at All" by Genesis is preceded by Rick James and his funky "Super Freak." Funk meets pop rock. Steve Jobs demonstrated this ability of the iPod in 2001. He showed how you can move from the Beatles to Yo-Yo Ma. The crowd oohed and aahed at this demonstration, apparently forgetting that you could get the same kind of eclecticism 20 years earlier by throwing a K-Tel album on the turntable.

Radio Active is a solid K-Tel album. It had only 14 songs and marks a time when the company was less inclined to edited the songs in order to fit more music on an LP. By the 80s, K-Tel was going more for quality rather than quantity, ditching its "20 Original Hits. 20 Original Songs." tagline. This month on Adventures in Vinyl, take an eclectic trip back to 1982 through the magic of K-Tel. Radio Active is the album of the month and we will play it in its entirety.

You can listen to Adventures in Vinyl  (all times Central):

12:30 pm Saturday
4 pm Sunday
1 pm Tuesday
2 am Wednesday
10 am Thursday

Adventures in Vinyl is an exclusive production of Vinyl Voyage Radio and the only radio show dedicated to the glory of the K-Tel record compilation.

K-Tel's Disco/Non-Disco Album--Disco Mania, 1976

This month on AiV, we are going back to 1976 for K-Tel's Disco Mania.

As a kid, I loved this album.  And the main reason I loved this album were for two songs:

"Rock and Roll All Nite" by Kiss and "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas

There are some bonafide disco hits on this album.  But there are many other decidely non-disco songs, too.  Along with Kiss, Styx also appears on this album.  As does Bachman Turner Overdrive.

Listen to this entire album on Adventures in Vinyl, the only radio show dedicated to the lost art of the K-Tel record compilation.

Saturday, 12:30 pm
Sunday, 4 pm
Tuesday, 1 pm
Wednesday, 2 am
Thursday, 10 am

Last Chance to Hear "After Hours" on AiV

This weekend will be your last chance to hear the After Hours, the 1982 classic from K-Tel.  This album features Rick Springfield reminding us not to talk to stangers.  The Little River band wants you to take it easy on me, as well.

In addition, this album features Lindsey Buckingham, Air Supply, Paul Davis and Journey.

Check out the commercial below:





Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times (central)

Saturday, 12:30 pm
Sunday, 4 pm
Tuesday, 1 pm
Wednesday, 2 am
Thursday, 10 am

K-Tel's Music Express, this month on AiV

Going back to 1975 for this one.  K-Tel's Music Express was one of the first albums that I ever got. It features Captain and Tennille, Elton John, 10cc, Jigsaw and Barry Manilow.  Plus many, many more.

Here is a detailed look at K-Tel's Music Express, including chart data for all of the songs.  This album features 20 songs....most of which were heavily edited. For example, Phoebe Snow's "Poetry man" is a mere 1 minute, 58 seconds.

But that's K-Tel for you.


Music Express will be streamed in its entirety on Adventures in Vinyl this month.  Only on Vinyl Voyage Radio.

Adventures in Vinyl can be heard

Saturday 12:30 pm
Sunday 4:00 pm
Tuesday 1:00 pm
Wednesday 2:00 am
Thursday 10:00 am

All times Central.

New Additions to the Vinyl Voyage Library

This summer, I have been busy adding new vinyl to the Vinyl Voyage library.  Here are just a few of the new albums you will be able to hear streaming on Vinyl Voyage Radio.  More to come!

Tom Flannery has done it again, this time with a little help from his friends

Tom Flannery’s new album, Under the Covers, is one of the most unique albums released by the singer-songwriter. Flannery himself only appears on one track; the rest are his songs interpreted by other artists. The result is magical and truly captures Flannery’s brilliance as a songwriter.

There is not a bad song on this album. Artists include many of Flannery’s friends, including Lorne Clarke, whose rendition of “The Show” beautifully harbors the feelings of a big league baseball player unwittingly reaching his end in the game. Kris and Julie Kehr kick off the album with "Fool For You Again," a melancholy ode to relationships:

Outside it's cold...the wind united

it's blowing us to and fro

we're growing old like a landscape blighted

whispering "even though...

Likewise, “In Lieu of You,” is another agonizingly realistic slice of life and love Flannery does so well and captured with an emotional intensity by John Canjar. There’s “Leaving Home” sung by George Wesley and “Don’t Kill My Heart,” by Tim McGurl, sounding a bit like Neil Young on that track. Josh Pratt lends his voice to a song he co-wrote with Flannery entitled “The Auctioneer.” Other artists include Neil Luckett, Joe “Wiggy” Wegleski, Van Wagner, Bret Alexander, Michael Jerling, Shannon Marsyada and Lisa Moscatiello.

Hearing some of Flannery’s words sung in the female voice is the most wonderful thing about this album, and several artists take their turn with the material. The standout is 17-year-old Asialena, from Scranton, Pennsylvania. She knocks it out of the park with “12 O’Clock Whistle,” singing in a voice that betrays her actual age:

Not sure how it happened

years come creeping

like the color fading

from a radio flyer

promises made

promises broken

like rollin' and tumblin'

from an old circus wire

Flannery himself closes the album with “Mud Run,” a song about an 1888 train wreck that took the lives of more than 60 people. Leave it to Flannery to take a disaster and turn it into poetry.

Flannery has always been able to draw me in with his lyrics, striking personal cords that ring with a truth in my own life. Under the Covers highlights the best of Flannery and hearing the different interpretations of a voice I have come to know and love over the years gives this album and Flannery’s music a fresh perspective.

Under the Covers will be available for download from Fool’s Hill Music.

Happy 4th of July! And it's Funky Feel Good Friday!

Happy 4th of July!  We are in the midst of another great Funky, Feel-Good Friday---all 70s music, all day long!

For those of you who grew up in the 70s, relive you childhood today with music, news clips and commercials from the 70s.  We are even extending the day, continuing the music theme until 9pm Central.

Get out your grill, your sparklers and tune in for some great 70s tunes from Barry Manilow to the Bee Gees, Gloria Gaynor to Shaun Cassidy, Fleetwood Mac to Paul Simon....we've got a great mix perfect for a 4th of July Celebration.

Happy 4th of July!

K-Tel's Dynamic Hits, This Month on Vinyl Voyage

This month on Adventures in Vinyl, we will highlight 20 Dynamic Hits, Volume 2 from 1972.  I bought this album brand-new.  When you listen to this episode, you will hear the first time it was ever played.

The album came out in 1972 and was advertised like any other K-Tel album on television.  It contains hits from James Taylor, Elton John, the Osmonds, Rod Stewart and many, many more--another great sampling of music from the time.

And, as a special treat, it also has a very rare recording of Aretha Franklin covering Frank Sinatra's "My Way."  This was never released until 2008.  How K-Tel got a hold of that recording, I do not know.


The album begins with a song that actually began as a television commercial jingle. Remember "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke"?  That song proved so popular it was worked into a hit song and was covered by two bands in 1972:  the New Seekers and the Hillside Singers.  The version performed by the Hillside Singers starts off the album.  If there is a better song to bring you back to that time, I have yet to hear it.
Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times (central):
Tuesday 1 pm  Wednesday 2 am Thursday 10 am Saturday 12 pm Sunday 4 pm
Adventures in Vinyl:  the only radio show dedicated to the lost art of the K-Tel record compilation.  

K-Tel's "Rock 80" this month on AiV

This is by far my favorite K-Tel album.  It introduced me to the Romones. The Pretenders.  Blondie. Pat Benatar.

This is K-Tel's Rock 80.  I got this album on cassette for Christmas in 1980 and wore that tape out.  I must say, it was this album that shaped my musical tastes in the early 80s.  I was drawn more to the new wave music and early alternative music thanks, in part, to Rock 80.

This album will be streamed in its entirety on Adventures in Vinyl for the month of May.

Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times:

Saturday, 12:30 pm (Central)  
Sunday, 4 pm (Central)
Tuesday, 1:30 pm (Central)
Wednesday, 2 am (Central)
Thursday, 10 am (Central)

WCFL, Dick Biondi and "30 Double Gold"

This album cost me 50¢ from Half Price Books.  It was in great shape and had a huge selection of hits from the mid-to-late 60s (plus three 50s tunes thrown in as well).  The album was a promotional album from Chicago's WCFL, 1000 AM.  The station was known as the "Voice of Labor" and was originally owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor.  Broadcasting from Marina Towers, WCFL turned toward rock and roll music in 1966 and in just a matter of years it was the number one radio station in Chicago.  It was branded as "The Big 10."

The DJs of WCFL were known as the "Men From 10" and included some of Chicago's legendary on-air personalities:

After spending years at rival WLS and then hosting a syndicated show from Los Angeles, Dick Biondi returned to Chicago and joined WCFL in 1967.  He remained at the station until 1971 and then moved to Boston.

He returned in 1983 and has been on Chicago radio ever since.

Biondi is a radio legend, the first American DJ to play the Beatles in 1963.  At 81 years young, Biondi is still on the airwaves, now broadcasting again on WLS at the 11pm to 2 am time slot.

Earlier, I had highlighted another WCFL album that I had found in a thrift store.  This one is better.  Not only is it a double album, it is in better shape than the earlier album.  It has some great tunes as well, including the Turtles, the Righteous Brothers, Chuck Berry, the Association and James Brown.

I believe this album was distributed in either 1970 or 71.

WCFL continued broadcasting rock and roll until 1976 when it switched over to "Muzak" format, making WLS the only AM station to play rock and roll.  Today, AM1000 is a sports/talk station.

Thanks to the internet, WCFL is still alive and kicking.  You can listen to actual streams of the radio station from its glory days.  Click the player below to listen to a composite of WCFL from 1966-1971, featuring jingles, news and air checks:



Here is an hour of WCFL from 1970:


Here is another hour of WCFL from 1971:


Selections from WCFL's 30 Double Gold can be heard on Vinyl Voyage Radio.

1977, the Year of the Robot and the year of "Music Machine"

In 1977, robots invaded pop culture with the release of Star Wars.  And K-Tel jumped on that bandwagon big-time.  Music Machine features one of the most famous robots in history on its cover: Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet.  How K-Tel was able to feature that robot on the cover AND in the commercial is beyond me:


The album features an eclectic mix (as usual) of music from the time:  the disco hits of Andy Gibb, ABBA and K.C. and the Sunshine Band, a Kiss ballad, Kenny Rogers, Alice Cooper and the theme from Rocky.  K-tel spared no expense with this album.  It even has bonus Andy Gibb and K.C. and the Sunshine Band posters!

Music Machine from 1977 is the featured K-Tel album this month on Adventures in Vinyl, the only radio show dedicated to the glory of the K-Tel record compilation.  We will listen to the album in its entirety and even flip the record for you. Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times (central):

Sunday 4 pm
Tuesday 1:30 pm
Wednesday 2 am
Thursday 10 am
Saturday 12:30 pm

Block Buster from 1976, this month on AiV

This month, we are traveling back to 1976 for K-Tel's Block Buster. This was one of my favorite albums when I was a kid.  Not only did it have K.C. and the Sunshine band, the Silver Convention and Jigsaw, the cover was adorned with flaming meteor-like blocks.  As if the designers at K-Tel decided, "We need flaming blocks for this one."

Like many of the K-Tel albums from this time, it was advertised on TV. And here is the delightful commercial:

Adventures in Vinyl is the only radio show dedicated to the glory of the K-Tel record compilation.

Catch Block Buster at the following times throughout the month of March (all times Central)

Saturday: 12:30 pm
Sunday: 4 pm
Tuesday: 1 pm
Wednesday: 2 am
Thursday: 10 am

This month on AiV: K-Tel's "Star Power" from '78

This month on Adventures in Vinyl we are taking a trip back to early 1978 for K-Tel's Star Power.

This is a good one. And it's mostly because the "Theme from Star Wars" by Meco starts off the album.  I was turning 10 in 1978 when this album came out and Star Wars was my life.  Of course, I had all of the figures, bought trading cards on a weekly basis, wrote George Lucas telling him I'd work for free in his next movie.  That didn't happen.

Meco was actually Domenico Monardo, a record producer and musician. Star Wars made him big, at least for a while, in the late 70s.  He put together a band and they played in disco clubs across the country. He recorded several albums, mostly of movie themes. Star Wars figured prominently in his repertoire.  He even produced a Star Wars-themed Christmas album in 1980.  I have never heard this album, but it features a song entitled, "What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?)"

And here's the really weird thing.  That Christmas album features the first ever song recorded by Jon Bon Jovi, who went by his given name John Bongiovi on the album.  The song he sings is entitled, "R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

Anyway, the "Theme from Star Wars" is the first song on this K-Tel album, featured this month on Adventures in Vinyl.  In addition to Meco, the album has hits by Foreigner, Kiss, the Little River Band, the Sylvers....and many, many more!


Catch Adventures in Vinyl at the following times (all times Central)

Tuesday:  1 pm
Wednesday: 2 am
Thursday: 10 am
Saturday: 12:30 pm
Sunday: 4 pm

Miss Rose Marie Palmes' K-Tel Album Next on AiV

On the January 2014 edition of Adventures in Vinyl, we have a special K-Tel album from 1973. It is the Bright Side of Music.  I picked up this album recently at a Goodwill store and when I brought it home, the first thing I noticed was its condition.  It was remarkably free of dust, scuffs and scratches.  And that's unusual for an album over 40 years old.

Then I noticed the address label on the face of side one.  This album was owned by "Miss Rose Marie Palmes," who lived at 4920 W. Augusta in Chicago back in 1973.

I have several used albums on which people either wrote their names or placed address labels. And these albums generally are in better condition that the other albums.  I guess someone who marks their albums takes their music very seriously.

A couple of years ago, I found an album with a name and was able to make contact with the previous owner.  Unfortunately, I have been unable to to find Miss Rose Marie Palmes.  But I thank her anyway for taking such good care of this album.

The Bright Side of Music is the featured album this month on Adventures in Vinyl.



This is a good album, not only in condition but also in song quality.  Although on first glance you may not recognize many of the artists, this album contains some pretty solid pop music from the period.  James Brown, Austin Roberts, the Raspberries and Eric Clapton contribute some great tunes.  Join us this month as we play the entire album on Adventures in Vinyl.

Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times, exclusively on Vinyl Voyage radio:

Saturday 12:30 pm (Central)
Sunday 4:00 pm
Tuesday 1:00 pm
Wednesday 2:00 am
Thursday 10:00 am

The Vinyl Brunch is Back!

New for 2014---the Vinyl Brunch is back!  Every weekend morning from 8 am to 12 pm Central time, we will play the best eclectic music, perfect for easing into your weekend routine.  The Vinyl Brunch will feature music not normally in rotation on Vinyl Voyage.  On the Vinyl Brunch you will hear some classical, some jazz, and some showtunes.  In addition, we will feature some of the best classic vocals by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis and many, many more.

Join us every weekend for the Vinyl Brunch. Only on Vinyl Voyage Radio.