Saturday night on WVEW 107.7 FM features two of my favorite local radio programs.
Recycled Radio, hosted by Steven Twiss, is a musical time machine. Tune in at 6 pm each week to be transported back in time to the era of big bands and ballads.
What makes this a spectacular show is Twiss, who picks a date in history, does the research, and is able to weave popular songs, radio show excerpts, national news, and even local headlines into his steady, two-hour mix.
Often times, what goes around comes around, and the pressing issues of today correspond to what was going on in the 1940’s. A radio bulletin about a war effort sounds both distant and current.
One of my favorite aspects to the show is when Twiss reads from old newspapers while waiting for the Philco to warm up. We’re treated to stories of town projects, but also get to hear about what sales are going on downtown along Main Street in Brattleboro, what movies and shows are playing in town, and what’s coming up on the national radio broadcast schedule.
There’s really no good reason to have your radio tuned anywhere else on Saturdays from 6-8 pm.
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There’s also no reason to tune away (if you are like me and like hip hop) at 8 pm., since Forcefed takes over with his show Busted Muffin Radio.
Forcefed, our host, leads us from old school to modern hip-hop, and recently has been taking us from there to punk music.
This show has developed into quite a tour de forcefed (sorry, had to), and we get treated to a really slick show. From the opening theme music, through the shout-outs from rappers and musicians throughout, and right up until 10 pm, we get someone who loves exploring the world of mixing and scratching.
The devotion to the genre, as with Twiss and Recycled Radio and so many of the shows on WVEW, shines through and makes for great entertainment.
Tune in and let the experts take you for a musical journey. It’s 107.7 on your FM dial.
The Future Collective Presents
Chris, I’m really glad you posted this.
WVEW IS THE CURE for stale, same ole, radio. It’s fresh, ever changing and local (much like LIFE ITSELF).
Although I like the auto DJ a lot, my favorite DJed show is The Future Collective Presents (Did you guess that one? My, aren’t you clever!). It’s on from 12-2 Saturday afternoons.
TFCP is the place to find out what’s new, musically in Brattleboro. This is out past indie rock somewhere. This is not easy music to listen to. These are musicians & artists who are looking for new musical pathways and the sledding is often rough to listen in the way that Ornette Coleman or Schonberg are in the jazz and classical forms, respectively.
I.e., no easy listening here.
What TFCP embodies that I love is that spirit of early punk, “screw the rules, to heck with the music business, we’re heading off the beaten tracks into the weeds to see what we can find”. Finding is tough, but it keeps you awake and aware in a way that art needs to be.
As a listener, it is hard sometimes to connect with this type of music, but the trying is memorable. Sure beats the heck out of listening to “Take It Easy” for 10,0000th time.
Here’s their address on tumblr:
http://thefuturecollective.tumblr.com/
WVEW is also home to my new favorite news show in the whole wide world. It is called free Speech radio and is on for 1/2 hour at 10 am each weekday.
One of the things they regularly do is cover the lack of coverage in the MSM of all kinds of things like the continuing illegal internment of detainees at our Guantanamo, Cuba base and the Bradley Manning trial.
They cover human rights abuses (remember those – the MSM has forgotten completely, or wish not to know) exhaustively around the globe. They also cover the fight against these abuses, so the news is not all that dark – it’s invigorating.
Thank You
Thank You for your very kind comments about “Recycled Radio”. I’ve been doing the show for a long time now (it started in March of 2000), and I think this is the first actual “review” I’ve ever gotten. I’ve been mentioned, there was even an interview here on iBratt way back when, but this was different, an honor, and most appreciated.
Naturally, last night I messed up the segment in which I read the news of the day. Luckily, I didn’t see this then or I would have probably messed up the entire show.
Thanks!
stevil
a.k.a. Steven Twiss
I know...
I know. This show needed a proper review.
All WVEW DJ’s are invited to promote their shows, of course, and I like to write occasional reviews of shows that people may not know about.
One thing I forgot to mention was themes, and novelty songs. Like many WVEW shows, Recycled Radio is aware of what’s going on and can adapt the show to the season, holiday, anniversary, etc. We were treated to a bit of a Billy Holiday mini-special this week.
Novelty songs also come up in the playlist on a fairly regular basis. This week, again for example, we got a combination theme/novelty song with April Fool’s Day and “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”.
If you are out of radio range, all of this streams wonderfully to any of your magical devices, so feel free to tune in even if you are far away from Brattleboro.