Radio Bingo!

If you’ve got a shortwave radio (or fancy a go on a Software Defined Radio aka SDR radio lilke this one here) there’s an Imaginary Stations show called The Numbers Station going out to Europe via Shortwave Gold this Sunday 7th January 2024 at 1000/1400 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then on 3975 kHz at 2100 UTC. 

As you expect there’s an hour of great tunes that feature numbers and also at 18 minutes in is a mix from One Deck Pete aptly called “The Numbers Game” that has tunes from Kieran Mahon, Sonmi 451, Paper Sailboat, AK and Madtone. Tune in!

Also numbers related is an interesting youtube we’ve posted up before but worth posting again called Which Mysterious Numbers Stations Were Used In Music? from the great Ringway Manchester. Excellent stuff and cheers for mentioning Madtone!

Oi mate, that’s my Egg Nog okay?

A Happy Boxing day to all! Here’s the audio of The imaginary Stations Winter Holiday Special which was broadcast via Shortwave Gold on Christmas Eve on those shortwaves. There’s a load of festive tunes throughout the hour plus “A holday Mix” from One Deck Pete at 40.38 minutes in. Here’s the tracklistings:

Forgotten employee – The Backroom Tapes
Snow Palms – Evening Rain Gardens (Excerpt)
Kohei Yoshi – Cold Ice Dub
Frost – Munch RIP (instrumental)
Bodyswitch – Gee Whiz it’s Christmas
Jacob Miller/Ray I – Deck The Halls
Kibble – Warm Fireplace (Excerpt)

 

 

On a shortwave Solstice Christmas tip

On Christmas Eve Sunday 24th December 2023 there’s an Imaginary Stations Winter Special going out to Europe via Shortwave Gold at 1000/1400 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2100 UTC on 3975 kHz. There are festive tunes a go-go and at 40 mins in there’ll be One Deck Pete with “A holiday mix”. Tune in with a Irish Coffee and get festive!

One tune that will be played is a cracking dubbed out version of Carla Thomas’ “Gee Whizz it’s Christmas” (above) by the one and only Bodyswitch out of Oakland, California, Great stuff indeed.

 

Then on early Christmas Day there’s a show from the Radio Thrift Shop archives called a Winter Holiday Special with DJ Frederick. Tune in at 0300 UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI for the more eclectic side of yuletide/winter solstice programming featuring some eclectic holiday tunes and a very interesting mini-documentary called “In Search of The Shaggs” about the rock band formed in Fremont, New Hampshire in 1965. Tune in for something that little bit different for Christmas.

A tune for bin-night’s eve

 

Now here’s a tune that is getting under our skin. It’s from an artist called Paper Sailboat from Ottawa, Ontario and it’s called Numbers Stations. We can’t hear any recognisable number stations samples (but remember we are getting a bit mutton jeff in our old age) and this one really get under your skin, it’s nearly 6 minutes long but you wouldn’t think so. One for turning up loud knowing that the binmen will be here at the crack of dawn.

Gone are the days when the binmen in Coventry would knock your front door on Christmas Eve holding a bin bag saying “Merry Christmas from the Coventry Binmen”. It was like an adult version of trick or treating where if you didn’t comply, your bins wouldn’t be emptied for a couple of weeks, allegedlly. It’s a whole different world now…

Cheers to the good Doctor

If you want to hear a great Monday morning radio show which plays all sorts from Jazz, Funk, Dub and Downbeat you should tune into The Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room on a Monday morning from 9-11am (UK Time) on IDA Radio, Tallinn.

Cheers to The Rhythm Doc for airing a mix this morning from Weed’s own One Deck Pete called Dub in the waiting room. At 46.28 Minutes in on the show below is the mix and here’s the tracklistings:
Patrick Andy – Please Don’t Go/Version
U Brown – Black Star Liner
Augustus Pablo – Dub in Moonlight City
Wayne Wade – Man of the Living (Version)
King Tubby – Play Fool get wise (Version)
Dillinger – Bongoman
Jackie Mittoo – Congo Man
Prince Buster –Taxation

Tune in and dub out!

Festive tune of the week

This excellent tune was found when compiling a shortwave mix, a great spoof of The Normal on a festive tip. We hope even Daniel Miller would have a chuckle at it while he’s listening to it around the open fire.

It’s just under a foot ain’t it?

Here’s the audio of yesterday’s imaginary stations show via Shortwave Gold called WS10S, a tribute to the 10 inch single. We’re not just talking 78’s we’re talking all speeds spread over a good few genres. It’s a great show and well worth listening to in its non-ionosphere reflected glory in stereo.

Also at 26.33 minutes in there is a mix from One Deck Pete called unsurprisingly “A ten inch mix”. Here’s the tracklisting:
Jasmine & Madtone – What is man? Dubplate
Zap Pow – Broken Contract
Ellis Island Sound – Republica Evescarra (played at 45rpm)
Marc Collin – Les Kidnappeurs (Main Theme) (Revisited By Jackson)
Nicola Conte – Jazz Pour Dadine (The Dining Rooms Remix)

So chill out and tune into last nights’s show without actually tuning in, if that makes sense.

Baby, it’s cold outside

It’s cold as cold here and it’s time for a good tune to warm up those slippered feet. It’s the original version of Ijahman Levi‘s classic Jah Heavy Load from the grand old year of 1976.

We can’t find the dub of this but the tune in its full glory is played at 2 minutes in on this “recorded straight off the Medium Wave in glorious mono” of John Lydon on BRMB (261 Metres) in interview with Robin Valk from 1979 complete with a european station breaking through in the background with really adds to the recording. A great listen by the way.

Here’s a later released version of the tune with a excellent dub which we really want here. Keep warm out there!

Morning all from Estonia

Big shout to our good mate The Rhythm Doctor for sending us a weather report out of the studio window of IDA Radio, Tallinn this morning. They’ve just had some snow out there and the top temperature in Tallinn for this forthcoming week is predicted to be -5 C. We’re certainly will not be complaining about the weather here!

If you want to listen to something great on a Monday morning tune in here for a two hour selection of Jazz, Reggae, Electronica and downbeat from 9am. It’s a show well worth tuning into!

Council gardeners dream in dub

We had a dream last night that we were cutting the grass on a very large council estate. We were using a normal sized flymo with a very long extension lead which was plugged into one of the resident’s wall sockets with the lead trailing through their letterbox. A prophetic dream or just plain daft? Perhaps with the weather being nice today (but cold) we should get out there and tidy that back garden up before winter.