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This Is Halloween

10/28/2016

Like most families, Halloween and Christmas are big at our house. Lisa and the kids are on the Halloween side, while I'm with Santa.

I learned long ago not to try and convert any of them. I think what happened at Disneyland once illustrates it best. In one of the studios at California Adventure, you can use this machine to determine which hero or villain you are.

I was Tarzan. All three of them were villains.

Oh, well. They love me, anyway.

So as October winds down, I'm in a mad rush to get my Christmas station ready to go. I turned it on a little early again this year, and I'm featuring Halloween songs up until November 1. Mostly, it's just for my family, while I kick the tires and otherwise make sure everything is set to go for the coming season. But I've found there are a lot of people that love Halloween, too, so I've expanded the playlist and hope you have a good time with the Sounds of Halloween.

This year, I'm also doing something extra for Halloween fans - War Of The Worlds!

This Sunday night, at approximately 7:00pm (Eastern), I'll be playing the original broadcast from 1938 of "War Of The Worlds" as performed by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre On The Air.

That will be followed by Jeff Wayne's updated version of his musical adaptation of "War Of The Worlds" (which features Gary Barlow from Take That, Joss Stone and Liam Neeson).

And on Halloween night at approximately 7:00pm (Eastern), I'll be playing Jeff Wayne's original musical adaptation of "War Of The Worlds" from 1978, which featured Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, David Essex and Richard Burton.

Every year when I do play Halloween music in the run up to the new season of the Sounds of Christmas, I get messages from people asking what exactly is Halloween music. The answer is anything having to do with Halloween, including scary things like ghosts and monsters, creepy stories and songs about trick-or-treating or candy.

Here's an example, the last dozen songs that played while I wrote this...

Chris Isaak "Baby Did A Bad Thing"
Weird Al Yankovic "Attack Of The Radioactive Hampsters"
The Duponts "Screamin' Ball (At Dracula Hall)"
The Doors "Riders On The Storm"
Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs "Haunted House"
Lou Rawls "Season Of The Witch"
Justin Hayward "Forever Autumns"
Lewis Lee "Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes"
Bill Buchanan "Beware"
The Hooters "Graveyard Waltz"
Howlin' Wolf "Evil"
Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Kicker Five "Monster Mash"

Are you getting in the spirit? For either of these holidays? I'm going to continue to try and prepare for both, as I munch on this candy cane while trying to figure out where Lisa hid the Halloween candy...

Ken

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Sneak Previews

10/17/2016

2 Comments

Hi All!

It's getting pretty busy here, as you can imagine. We're back officially on November 1, playing the best variety of Christmas music!

And if you read our last post, you know we have big plans for the future. We're hoping to keep the Christmas music going year round, for any who need that little bit of holiday joy no matter what time of year it is.

We also have several other stations we hope to debut. All of which will feature a wide variety of music, instead of just the top hits and most popular songs.

You can also be a part of it all, and help us make it happen, by becoming a patron (over at our Patreon page). You can check that our RIGHT HERE and see if you'd like to join us.

In the meantime, I wanted to give you a little sneak preview of what we're working on. For the next week or so, we'll be offering up a little taste of the stations we hope to launch in 2017.

Today, tomorrow and Wednesday, we'll be giving you a sample of the Sounds of the 1980's. I've loaded up about a thousand songs from that decade, some you may still hear on your favorite station, and some you may not have heard since they fell of the charts!

On Thursday (10/20), we're going to preview this season's Sounds of Christmas with a day full of brand new music! You can get an idea of what we'll be playing if you click NEW FOR 2016 above.

On Friday (10/21), it's the Sounds of the Beatles. I'll be loading up all the Fab Four's music, along with many of the great songs John, Paul, George and Ringo did on their own (or with others).

On Saturday and Sunday (10-22-10/23), it's the Sounds of the 1970's. A whole weekend highlighting some of the best songs from that decade, along with some forgotten treasures (and some that will just make you smile)!

Next Monday (10/24), it's the Sounds of the Rat Pack. A day full of the wonderful music of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

And on next Tuesday (10/25), we'll cap off the sneak previews with the Sounds of Elvis! An entire day featuring the music of the King of Rock and Roll!

Next Wednesday (10/26), we'll get back to the Sounds of Halloween, which will continue through the night of 10/31!

Hope you can tune in for some of the fun! And if you like what you hear, please consider heading OVER HERE and helping us make it all happen!

Thanks so much!

And may you always believe in Santa Claus!

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The Future

10/3/2016

1 Comment

The Sounds of Christmas is going on its 10th season.

In 2007, I launched it as a way to share the music that I love, after years of being disappointed by the limited playlists of most traditional radio stations. So many of them promote that they’re all-Christmas at some point in November, but it’s the same, short list of songs and artists day after day, year after year.

Last year (or maybe the year before), Christmas music singer/songwriter Elizabeth Chan posted how excited she was because a station in New York was adding one of her songs, and they were only adding five new songs that year.

Five songs. In 2015, I added five hundred and twenty-nine. And my overall, online library is just over ten thousand.

The point isn’t that I have a lot of music. It’s that I love a lot of music. And I play a lot of music.

And I'm gearing up to play a whole lot more!

First, for those who love Christmas music, I want to continue the Sounds of Christmas all year long.

I get that year-round Christmas music isn’t for everyone, but I hear from so many every January who want the Sounds of Christmas to keep going, that I hope to make it a reality.

But that's not all.

I've launched a new website as what I hope will be a hub for many more online radio stations. If you'd like, you can check that out RIGHT HERE.

After all, traditional radio doesn’t just cop out on music at Christmas. They play the same small playlist every day, and then suddenly stop playing some in favor of others that a test group picked.

I won’t stop playing your favorite songs (though you won’t hear the same one(s) every day). And I won’t surprise you by suddenly changing the format.

I have eight different stations on the drawing board, and I’m hoping to have them all up and running during 2017.

You can read about all the plans, and help me get them off the ground (and keep them going) by checking our our Patreon page RIGHT HERE!

And all of these new stations will be handled as meticulously as the Sounds of Christmas, with assurance that you won’t hear the same songs and the same artists every hour (or even several times every day).

Originally, radio cared about the community it served, but that isn’t the norm any more. I’m hopeful that I can bring this back, and give you the music you love, with stations you can listen to all day long.

Sound good? Then stay tuned. With luck, I’ll be announcing which station (or stations) will be launching next!

In the meantime, the Sounds of Christmas’ 10th season starts November 1!

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This Is Halloween

Sneak Previews

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