Category Archives: Shortwave radio

Radio Bingo!

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Keep this frequency clear

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It was very sad to hear about Benjamin Zephaniah who passed away this morning. Thanks to Gerry Hectic for letting us know about this great tune. RIP Benjamin Zephaniah.

It’s just under a foot ain’t it?

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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.

Bass and drum plus some gurgling and groaning

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Last night we found a wonderful track on Bill Laswell’s Trojan Dub Massive Volume One compilation on Bandcamp. It’s a version of Delroy Wilson’s Have Some Mercy (first heard on the John Peel show many years ago) and George Faith’s To be a Lover called Lovers Skank (Spanglers Clap) by The Upsetters. Crazy minimal dub with all sounds of strange things over the top.

This track also appears on the vintage King Tubby’s Hometown Hi-Fi recording from Jamaica in 1975 (Thanks to Who Cork The Dance for cleaning the tape up) at 11 minutes in. As the great U-Roy says while the track is playing “It’s kind of scratchy, very very scratchy but the brother asked to play…” Tune!

Here’s an excellent interview with the great U-Roy where he talks about King Tubby’s electronics wizardry at 11 minutes in.

We can’t control the weather but we can control the music

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The above picture was the weather we had at the start of the week and by all accounts will return tomorrow. That’s all we need but the heating’s on at the moment and the stereo has been turned up high. The first tune of the night is Straight to Mad Professor’s head from the set Mad Professor meets Channel One: Round 2 by Mad Professor and Channel One. It is one subtle dub!

 

We heard a Hugh Mundell dubplate on this week’s excellent Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room on IDA Radio (Tallinn). While we were looking for it we found a great Augustus Pablo Dub of Feeling Alright.

 

And the best “out there” tune of the night is from a LP called Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vol.1 on the excellent Sublime Frequencies label from out of Seattle. No idea who it’s from or what it’s called, all it says on the notes is that it’s in the Sumatran Dangdut style. It has a hook that sounds like an interval signal from a numbers station which we can’t place, that is sometimes played on a rasping bagpipe sounding keyboard. The LP has a wonderful cover too, what more do you want? Wonderful stuff which will worm its way into your brain as it’s so catchy.

Let’s temporarily forget the crap weather and dark times and listen to some decent tunes to soothe, inspire us and give us a break so to speak.