Wednesday afternoon The AIR brings you brand-new episodes of Beatles Blast and Curtain Call!  You can tune in at the website, or if you’re on a laptop or desktop, you could just stay on this page, and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player right here…

At 2 PM,  we Keep Calm and Salute The Beatles on Beatles Blast. Specifically we bring you songs from an album of that name, produced by Billy Sherwood, and released by Pyramid Records in 2015. This cool tribute album flew under my radar at the time, but with The Beatles Get Back looming, Pyramid re-released it last August, and I picked up a copy.  In this show you will hear some gems and some curiosities.

The show opens with Ann Wilson, of Heart, performing “Across The Universe.” We get other highlights from John Wetton, Todd Rundgren, Martha Davis (from The Motels), Sherwood himself and Howard Jones.  This show will also include the final recording of Jack Bruce, as well as some surprisingly good Beatles covers by Andrew Gold, Helen Reddy, Judy Collins, KC (yes, from The Sunshine Band), Stephen Bishop and Dale Bozzio. There are a few other cool artists involved, and I wrap up the whole package with The Beatles themselves, performing “One After 909” from the 1962 Decca Records audition tapes, with Pete Best on drums.

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon.

At 3 PM on Curtain Call, Mel Larch marks the tenth anniversary year of Kinky Boots by bringing you the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the show, starrting Billie Porter, in his Tony-winning role.

Kinky Boots premiered in Chicago, and the show quickly moved to Broadway where it racked up 13 Tony Nominations and 6 wins, including Best Musical, Best Actor for Billie Porter, and Best Score, for first-time Broadway songwriter, Cyndi Lauper.

Based on the 2005 film, which was in turn based on a true story, Kinky Boots tells the story of a struggling British shoe factory’s young, strait-laced owner, Charlie, who forms an unlikely partnership with Lola, a drag queen, to save the business. Charlie develops a plan to produce custom footwear for drag queens, rather than the men’s dress shoes that his firm is known for.

With a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics by Lauper, Kinky Boots pushed all the right buttons and became a massive hit, eventually opening in London’s West End and winning the Olivier for best musical there.

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. A six-hour marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday evening starting at 6 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

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