Vinyl Voyage Radio

In 1978, the  Star Wars Holiday Special premiered on CBS. The show was a very weird variety-type program, the style of which was wildly popular in the 70s. This show featured a storyline involving Chewbacca returning to his home planet to celebrate "Life Day." The special includes the entire cast of Star Wars , including the first ever introduction of Boba Fett. It also features a music video by Jefferson Starship and ends with Carrie Fisher singing the theme to  Star Wars .  The special was broadcast once. Only once. And was never released on any form of home media due to the negative reaction the special received. Two years later, RSO Records, in conjunction with LucasFilm, released Christmas in the Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album . That's right: in spite of all the negativity surrounding the Star Wars Holiday Special , they did it again. The album was conceived by Meco Menardo, who famously made a Star Wars disco album in 1977 entitled Star Wars and Other Gal...

Yes, it is that time of the year--time for the 4th annual Vinyl Christmas here at Vinyl Voyage Radio. We have some great Christmas memories ready to share with you. Tired of the same old songs being played on terrestrial radio?  Look no further: we have songs that have not been played on terrestrial radio. Ever. The 4th annual Vinyl Christmas begins tomorrow, Tuesday December 21 at midnight and will go through December 26. This is my favorite time of the year. These songs bring back many Christmas memories. My parents had a reel-to-reel tape deck, playing hours of this music recorded from their vinyl albums. Many of the albums being played on Vinyl Voyage are from their collection. Here you will hear Burl Ives, Barbara Striesand, Living Voices, 101 Strings, Bing Crosby, Ferrante and Teicher and many, many more.  Browse the albums in our playlist below--you may find something you haven't heard in years! Merry Christmas! 2015 Vinyl Voyage Christmas Playlist

As usual, we are constantly adding new music---all from vinyl---here on Vinyl Voyage Radio. I like to peruse thrift shops to uncover  vinyl gems from any genre. Over the last several weeks, we have been adding some great music here to Vinyl Voyage Radio. Nothing like a little Carly Simon. The Best of Carly Simon , released in 1975, has all of her early hits, including "That's the Way I Always Heard It Should Be." We also added some vintage albums from artists from the 1960s: A couple of Elvis albums, too. Plus, I spent a few days going through some vintage 45s as well. Got some great ones added. Zoom into the image below to see the 45s. Some of the 45s I inherited from my grandparents. You can still see the labels my grandfather placed on the records: 2015 Vinyl Voyage 45s

On the last episode of Adventures in Vinyl , we went back to 1975 for the K-Tel classic, Out of Sight . As usual, we listened to the American release. However, being a global corporation with many subsidiaries, K-Tel International often released different versions of the same album simultaneously in different territories. Out of Sight is no different. This month, we will be featuring the Canadian version of Out of Sight . Although they look very similar, these two albums are very different. In fact, only 5 of the 20 songs on the Canadian version can be found on the U.S. release. In some cases, the artists are the same, but the song selection is different. Overall, another solid release.  This album is heavy on some Canadian bands that don't often appear on U.S. releases. Such as the Stampeders : and Tinker's Moon . There's no pictures of this band. They were session musicians and only released two singles.  On this album is also a Canadian band named C...

This has been a long time coming. So much for my New Year's resolution to get a new episode of AiV up every month. But this is a special treat: back to back episodes featuring the same album. Well, not exactly the same. K-Tel often released different versions of the same titled album in different territories. The album may have looked the same, but the contents were often very different. Case in Point: Out of Sight from 1975. On this episode of Adventures in Vinyl, we will are spinning the American version of the album. Next month, we'll listen to the Canadian version. Back to back K-tel. As usual, this episode features news, music and movies from 1975.   New episodes of Adventures in Vinyl stream at 12:30 pm, Saturday and 4:30 pm on Sunday and 2:00 am on Wednesday. Also, past episodes are heard on Vinyl Voyage on Tuesday at 1:00 pm, and Thursday at 10:00am. You can also listen to these episodes anytime you want. All 33 episodes are archived at Mixclo...

I usually don't post about rival radio stations.  But, hey, I love music and you gotta give credit where credit is due.  To be honest, I don't much listen to terrestrial radio anymore. On my rather long commute, I usually listen to SiriusXM or my iPod.  However, there is a new radio station in town and it is awesome. That radio station is MeTV-FM in Chicago (87.7). This radio station is much like Vinyl Voyage Radio, actually.  Deep tracks.  Obscure and rarely heard hits from the 60s, 70s and early 80s.  Most terrestrial radio stations have limited playlists and often repeat the same songs ad nauseam.  I used to like Mumford and Sons---until I heard the same song every hour.  MeTV-FM is taking a different approach. Their playlist is huge and very deep. Songs that haven't played on the radio in decades are now getting airtime. And it is refreshing. I decided to record my morning drive on April 6, 2015 to sample what MeTV-FM was offering that ...

This is the oldest K-tel album in our collection, 20 Power Hits, Volume 1 .  This album has some great songs by Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, the Byrds, Santana and Blood, Sweat and Tears. (And many, many more, of course!) This album dates to 1971.  Although there is no date on this album, there are some clues as to when it was released.  First of all, K-Tel International had been known by two names: K-Tel and Imperial Products.  Both company names appear on this album. Later in 1971, the company switched to the exclusive use of "K-Tel." Next, there is a very old K-Tel logo on the album along with a K-Tel exclusive numbering system.  All K-Tel albums begin with a "TU." Plus, there is a ad for the K-Tel record selector.  This product began being advertised on tv in 1972, but was being sold earlier.  The first album in the picture is Tom Jones' album, Tom , which was released in 1970: This album also features some of the most hea...

One of my first records ever was a K-Tel album entitled, "Music Power" from 1974.  It had songs by Brownsville Station, Dawn, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Barry White and the Grass Roots. Plus, many artists you probably have not heard, such as Stories, Lighthouse, Natural Four and the Raspberries.  Nonetheless, that album kicked off a decade of buying K-Tel albums.  Currently, I have over 50 albums in my collection and I constantly forage through resale shops and record stores looking for these gems. One the reasons I started this station was to highlight these K-Tel albums---not only as relics of a by-gone era but also a celebration of a pop-cultural phenomenon that all of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s were a part.  Adventures in Vinyl was born. The first episode of Adventures in Vinyl aired on this station in February of 2011. The concept was simple: I'll play an entire K-Tel album while placing the album in the year it was released with news, pop...

We recently cut the cable cord.  That's right: goodbye Comcast! Instead of cable, I installed a large antenna in our attic and we bought a Roku 3 streaming player. We've gone back to watching network TV (I get about 50 digital channels over-air) and stream our shows via Netflix and Hulu Plus. All for more than half of what cable costs. The cool thing about Roku is that I can stream Vinyl Voyage.  This was great at Christmas as I was able to saturate the house with a vinyl Christmas.  And it was easy. On the Roku player, you add "channels."  And Live365 has a channel for Roku. In fact, it is now easier than ever to stream Vinyl Voyage Radio .  In addition to Roku,  Live365 is supported by the following devices: SONOS PLAYER TiVo LOGITECH SQUEEZEBOX There are many more option available.  Visit the Live365 site for a complete list of supported devices. Not only that, but there are Live365 apps available for your ...