OK, so what's this Radio What Wave thing all about?
Well, it actually started in about 1979 or so, by a fellow by the name of Al Cole. He started a zine called What Wave (remember, those were the days where music was new wave, old wave, country wave so the so called music reviewers could call this stuff something besides punk...hence what wave). And he started a radio show on CHRW called Young Fast And Scientific to play the music he loved...obviously Dictators, Flamin' Groovies, 101'ers, Count Bishops, pure rock'n'roll stuff for the few that could really dig it! And few listeners there were, as that was when CHRW was only carried on cable TV and very few could actually tune in. Well, i was tuned in every week (or was it every other week?) absorbing the noise and taking notes.
Al burnt out after a couple of years and moved away, we (my wife Rena and i) took over What Wave zine from issue 5 (Oct 84) onwards to the end around 1996 when we burnt out. But somewhere in there (approx 1989 to 1993) we did a short (45m) bi-weekly radio show on CHRW called What Wave Radio that we made on a cassette at home. We always started these shows with The Gruesomes doing What Wave and played tunes from bands that were featured in What Wave zine. Not many heard this show as it aired bi-weekly sometime around 1AM on monday mornings.
And now up to Radio What Wave (a tribute to Radio Birdman, Radio Ethiopia etc) which started in Feb 2005 and originally was hosted by Speedy Mike and myself alternating weeks. Speedy Mike actually did a show on CHRW for many years called Speed City, playing punk, hardcore and lots of other crazy stuff during the 90's.
Speedy Mike had to bow out after a coupla years, but he still has the finest vinyl shop in London Ontario...
http://www.speedcityrecords.com/
So this show has been going on a coupla years now, we seem to have at least a few regular listeners who phone in and request stuff that they know they won't hear anywhere else, so they (and hopefully lots of others) actually get what we spin.
We put on shows around London Ontario, some of which have included: Paul Collins Beat, The Young Barracudas, Simply Saucer, Gerard van Herk (Deja Voodoo), Gerry Alvarez (Gruesomes), The Famines, The Hook Up, Mother's Children, 905's, The Pack AD, Bloodshot Bill, John Schooley, Speaking Tongues, Evil Farm Children, Stolen Minks, The Stance and many many others.
We've had a TON of really cool guests on the show, everyone from The Diodes, Edgar Breau (SImply Saucer), Gerard van Herk (Deja Voodoo), Dex Romweber Duo, Liz Worth, Andy Ramesh Meyers (Scenics), NFG (late 70's punk combo from London Ontario), Invasions, Sonic Avenues and loads more. You have to be invited to be on this show, and if you are invited that means you're cool! At least by our standards!
Every once in awhile we do an actual live to air, where we get a band into the studio and hope everything works out, as we're live! We've had The Hook Up, Nasty Rashes, Standstills, Tuerto Loco, Oily Birds, Frank Ridsdale, Pink Cadillac Scat Cats and others and so far, they've all worked out great!
We also do a lot of specials...everything from all 2 person band shows, to all Canpunk shows, to all local shows, to all women led band shows to cassette only shows. Anything to challenge the listener and me, the host digging up all of those records!
And if you haven't figgered it from all of the yammering above, Radio What Wave plays: garagepunk (everything from 60's to 80's to modern), powerpop (70's and modern), protopunk, surf, Canpunk (Canadian punk from the late 70's to mid 80's), rockabilly (50's and 60's and some modern demented stuff), rock'n'roll and just about anything else we deem cool! We have a HUGE record, CD and live tape library that i'm constantly digging through, finding stuff that was forgotten or misfiled for years.
And because we air on Canadian airwaves, we have to play a percentage of Canadian tunes which makes us a little different from most garagepunk shows.
So you want to give the show a listen? Well you can tune in every thursday from 7 to 8:30PM EST at 94.9FM if you're in the London Ontario area, or you can listen on the net at:
Or, you can listen to the archived show at this link:
http://chrwradio.com/podcasts/ 94-9CHRWThu1900.mp3
The shows are archived for 1 week only, then they are overwritten by the next week's show.
There's also a facebook page for Radio What Wave that has playlists, links to cool happening stuff and tons of pictures from shows.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/21164844915/
